"As good as 2006 was, the outlook for 2007 is even better. There are new products in the pipeline, and you’ll be hearing more about them throughout the year, as we get closer to their introduction dates. The first of these announcements will come next month when we introduce our first products in a category that is totally new for the Outlaws. At this point we’ll simply say that the new product will dramatically improve the performance of your home theater or music systems."

Hmmmmmm... Speakers? from Atlantic Technology?

I have two guesses:

1) A power conditioner. Applicable to the "performance" of a home theater or music system.

2) Some kind of active eq system, similar to the SMS-1, but covering the entire frequency spectrum. That's another product that would apply to the "performance" of a home theater or music system.

Of course, it could just be a clock.

I was wondering about that one myself - it does sound like it might very well be a new product category, and one on the audio side of the theater (since it is also tied to music systems).

I'd like to see the Outlaw's get into the media/music server business. The current offerings that I'm aware of (Cambridge Audio 640H and Fireball servers) are very pricey. It would be nice to have a music server that matched the look of the RR2150 for instance. I know their January announcement is a music + ht offering, however I'm hoping it will show up later in 2007.

I know this wouldn't be a new product category, but something I would love to see in the future (not too soon though, I just bought my 1070) would be a preamp or receiver with a USB2.0 or firewire input, like the RR2150, except for 5.1 (preferably 7.1, but maybe that isn't enough bandwidth?) channels, so that my computer would just see it as a sound card. As of now, there is absolutely no digital method of getting 5.1 from a PC to a receiver without re-encoding the audio into Dolby Digital or DTS. In other words, my computer would decode my WMA 5.1 or MP3 or FLAC files, which gives 5.1 channels of PCM type audio, from what I understand. Then, that PCM audio would just go directly to the receiver for multichannel playback. This would also allow for DVD-A and games to be played in surround at full quality, and would work in the future for HD-DVD and Blu-ray, since the computer would do all the decoding work. It would just be one digital connection from the PC to the receiver so that I can use the receiver's DACs instead, and so I could use one cable, etc. DTS/DD passthrough wouldn't be necessary either, since the PC would just decode the DTS or DD and use a digital stream directly from that, for no quality loss.

I guess in the future, HDMI will do what I want, but I don't really see any PC sound cards allowing for output through HDMI videocards anytime soon. A USB solution that would just be seen as a soundcard would be far superior in my opinion.

I would love to see a HDMI/AV Switch...
(3 or 4) HDMI w/ 7.1 analog audio for each, remote controlled. This switch would be fully HDMI 1.3 compliant. I would also love to see this for about $200.

JHoff80,

Is this the type of product you're talking about?

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Revolution71-main.html

That link is a PCI card for a computer. Not exactly what I was talking about. I was talking about a 3 or 4 port switch (Like http://catalog.belkin.com/PureAV_detail.process?Merchant_Id=&Product_Id=281816 ), but with the additon of 7.1 Analog Audio switching for each port also. This would allow someone to wire in a HD-DVD player, a SACD/DVD-A DVD Player and a Blu-Ray player all over HDMI for the video and also wire in the multichannel audio into say a Outlaw 970 Pre-Amp.

Not even close. That is an analog output for each of those channels. I want a receiver or preamp that has a USB or firewire input where the surround information would be transmitted digitally and uncompressed; the SP/DIF outputs on all PC soundcards can only pass along 2 channel PCM or Dolby Digital or DTS soundtracks. There are some new soundcards on the market that will convert the surround audio into a Dolby Digital or DTS stream for playback on a receiver, but that compresses the audio. I want something that will use a digital signal, with all of the surround information, but uncompressed. HDMI is a solution, but there aren't any HDMI soundcards, and of course, having a 1070, I don't have an HDmI input anyway.

While not a prognostication, I'm hoping that Outlaw offers acoustical room treatments. Room treatments--which are next on my purchase list--would make a significant improvement for my musical and theater sound.

Rob