As a happy 990 owner, it seems that as Outlaw comes up with a new preamp to deal with HDMI and all the new Blu-ray and HD-DVD sound modes, they could take the switching and digital parts of it and make something like the old AC-3 decoder boxes. This one would switch HDMI sources, decode the new hi-res sound formats, and output 7.1 analog. In addition to happy 990 owners, I am sure some owners of very expensive 2 to 7 year old A/V preamps and flagship receivers, might be in the market for such a device at maybe half the price of a preamp.
Outlaw already has similar experience taking the amps out of a 1070 receiver and making the 970 preamp into a successful product.