Originally posted by sb-avnut:
SN R-972 went from Jan 07 announcement of a Aug 07 release, to Jan 08 release to now a June 08 release.
SN is notorious for being very late on their releases. I would not expect the R-972 before Dec 08. Their pre-pro would take even longer as it add a few more "features".
Lets keep this based on fact vs pessimism:
1. SN and many others developed "Next Gen," receivers and pre-pros. They designed these around a "3 chip," solution bypassing the fact that the power currently wasn't there for NextGen codecs.
2. Onkyo and Denon amongst others released "3 chip," solutions built for them by SN. During this process SN realized the cheating was actually detrimental to the codec.
3. SN and many others delayed their NextGen receivers and pre-pros waiting for a chip to be released. This chip was promised to them as early as October 2007.
That chip is the 49700 from Cirrus. The delays on this chip have cause every company that cares about sound quality to WAIT. October moved to January, then monthly got delayed. Chips are supposed to ship this week according to Cirrus.
So once the manufacturers get the real chips and testing is complete production will start. I'm sure in June the SN 872 will be shipping with a May Production stamp on it. The 972 has Reon and other things that I think will delay this unit until July (but they promise May/June).
The reason isn't SN in this case (as it has been much in the past). The problem has been Cirrus. NAD was forced to release their Receivers and Pre-Pros WITHOUT the chip and they didn't use the "3 chip," solution. Instead they made the units modular so the boards could be swapped out this summer.
Arcam, Anthem, NAD, Sherwood Newcastle, B&K, & Krell are just a few companies I know for a fact that have NextGen solutions in R&D waiting to be moved to production just from the lack of this chip.
If the chip really ships this week then this summer we will have MULTIPLE high end solutions to choose from. Receivers will likely go straight into production. Pre-Pros will likely not be out until after CEDIA. They may well ship the weeks following CEDIA after official product announcements at CEDIA.
SN has their Pre-Pro planned to be unveiled officially now at CEDIA with shipment immediately after announcement.
So I think the Outlaw unit may well be BEFORE that. Since that it how SN' parent company makes their money: as an OEM.