EQUIPMEN
VI W
---
Outlaw
Audio
975
7.1-Channel
Surround
Processor
find
thallhe
975 sounds abit better than sub-$l,CXXl
AVRs
and
is
com-
petitive with $1,200
to
$2,CXXl
AVRs.
Counterbalancing the lack of analog pass-through, however.
is
the
benefit
01
full-bass management, toudspeaker layout. and surround
processing thai can
be
used
to
enhance
stereo
analog
sources
of
any
kind. including SA-CDs.
The
Model
975
has
no
5.1
Of
7.1
analog inputs.
For
those
who \IIanl
to
use the
5.1
or
7.1
analog outputs of ahigh-end disc player like
OPPO's
BOP-
105
or
Cambridge's Azul 75280
for
DVO-AudiO
or
SA-
CD.
the
Model 975
is
probably
not
your surround processor
While
many video processors.
TVs,
AVRs,
surround processors.
disc players, and other products are dropping composite. component,
and S-video connections, the
MOdel
975 has two of
each
as inputs
and one of each
as
outputs. The 975 will also convert those analog
sources
(0
HDMI. Likewise. AM and
FM
tuners are disappearing from
many
products that would have
had
them in the past,
bulthe
975 has
both.
cannot
be
done very well
by
ear alone. The meter guarantees you'll
get
the right level setting for each channel, something critical lor a
good
surround sound experience, You'll also need atape measure to
determine the distance from
each
loudspeaker to your ears, and you
will manually enter that distance in the setup menu Interestingly, there
are sound-pressure level meter applications available for most smart
phones at prices ranging from free to afew dollars. But
be
aware that
the microphones used in smart phones are designed to
be
very
good
for human speech but not very
good
for measuring the level of asub-
woofer, so you could use asmart phone
app
to set your five or seven
loudspeakers, but it
may
mislead you in setting the subwoofer level.
That alone
may
be
enough
to
justify purchasing areal sound-pressure
level meter that will allow
you
to set the level of asubwoofer accurately.
SPL meters are available from
$20
and
up
and come in USB models
as
well as standalone models. Radio Shack
no
longer sells their for-
merly highly recommended analog SPL meter that used to sell in the
$40 to $50 range, but within 2minutes or so of searching online, Idis-
TH[
Moon
975
IS
A
GR[AT
VAlU[
IN
A
SURROUND
PROC[SSOR
PRIG[
RANG[
THAT
HAS
SORnY
NHOm
MOR[
OPTIONS
fOR
A
lONG
TIML
Afair number of
new
home theatre audio products are not support-
ing Dolby Pro Logic liz
or
DTS
NeoX
both of which include process-
ing options for additional loudspeaker channels, The
MOdel
975 is not
supporting
DTS
Neo:X at the time of this review, but
it
does have Dolby
Pro Logic liz that can support two extra Width channels outboard of the
main front loudspeakers, or
it
can support two additional height chan-
nels placed above the main loudspeakers (front left and right). The
Model 975 supports additional height channels but not the extra width
channels. But. you must choose between
5.1
channels with two height
channels or
7,1
(with rear surround channels) and no height channels
The analog outputs are
7.1
channels. You'd need
9.1
channels to sup-
port width or height channels and rear surround at the same time,
or
11.1-channel support to have
7.1
channels plus width and height
channels at the same time.
To
support
11.1
channels, the MOdel 975
would have
had
to have, at aminimum,
an
addi\lonal DSP
chip
and
two more stereo
Of
Aconverters, and additional connectors
fOf
the
exira channels. That would have pushed the Model 975's price consid-
erably higher. When you want to make a
$549
processor, everything
you include and everything you
decide
not
to
include has to
be
weighed and justified, It's likely to
be
inevitable that there will
be
fea-
tures deleted and included that some potential owners will not
be
satis-
fiedwith.
There
is
no
automated speaker level
capability.
That means you'll
really want to
inve~t
in aoound preccuro lovoi motor
00
you con manu
ally measure and
selthe
level of
each
channel accurately. This really
48
Widescreen
Review·
Issue
177
•
JunetJul~
2013
covered anearly identical-looking meter sold as the Velleman
AVM2050 selling for about $43,
The Model 975
is
not equipped
fOf
any network or USB functionali-
ty.
There's
no
USB
DAC
input, there
is
no
Ethernet port, there are
no
network applications, and there are
no
USB ports. No loss, Isay If you
want that stuff in your system, there are
so
many disc players with so
many of those features that you can easily have whatever level of net-
work and Internet
app
support
you
want without having
It
duplicated in
the surround processor Ifind that aperfectly legitimate way of dealing
with that level of functionality. Theres s,mply
no
reason to have Internet
and network functooahty in your
TV,
in your
disc
player, in your
com-
puter.
With
your satellite or cable service,
and
In
the surround proces-
sor You'd
be
paYing for
,tthree
to
live times awaste of money.
Sound
Quality
Analog sound quality compared to other products was discussed
earlier,
so
I
won~
repeat those observations here, Using
an
HDMI con-
nection
to
aBlu-ray Disc player produces movie sound very close
to
the high-end processors. The dynamics, the wide frequency range, the
well·developed sense of space, the subtle details, the near-subliminal
ambient cues, it's all there, Multichannel digital
decoding
gives
lit1le
ground to the more expensive products. There is just abit less of
cverything with the Model 075, but again, the cost differential is in no
way indicative
01
the sonic differences. The MOdel 975 is far closer
