I'm in the same boat as you, I really didn't see the need to upgrade my 950. Honestly it ticks me off and makes me feel pretty f'in unappreciated for my previous business. Emotiva is offering a FAR better deal to their pre/pro owners on their upcoming processors; kind of makes me wish I'd bought one of them in the mean time.

I was also in the same situation concerning upgrading my 950 to the 990. Prior to the release of the 990 owners of the 950 scoffed at the notion of other more expensive processors sounding better than the 950. Then the release of the 990 and many people raved about the better, upgraded, clearer sound compared to other units including the 950, I didn't buy it. I literally figured that if Soundhound continued to use the 950 in his post production sound business then that was good enough for me.
Well when the 950 died I considered both the 990 and Emotiva's MMC-1, given the MMC-1 was at the time a couple hundred $ less and they have the 40% future discount I got the Emotiva unit.
I don't think the MMC-1 sounds any better or worse than the 950, both sound good to me. To date the MMC-1 has had NO glitches or quirks, I wish that would have been the case with my 950.

I have a 15 year old samsung TV and I am still P.O.'d that they wouldn't let me trade it in on my new 60 inch DLP. C'mon guys you got good use out of those machines and its not like they don't work any more. When the 999 comes out a lot of people are going to pony up the full $1500 because it'll be worth it. The 990 owners who bought their machines even though we knew a new BETTER model was coming out deserve the kickback from Outlaw, just for loyalty. I for one may buy the new machine in the future and keep my 990 too. How many generations of pre-pro do we think we should reap the reward on. Did the 950 owners have the possibility to get a discount when the 970 came out?

My 950 doesn't work anymore which is what prompted the other purchase. As for loyalty I don't think there is any from any manufacturer....rebates, free shipping, kickbacks and discounts of any type are just sales and marketing to get you or keep you as a customer.....as it should be. My dog is loyal, companies aren't, neither are customers unless the price is right.
I also notice your Samsung lasted 15 years, much better than my $900 processor which only went 5 years. The 770 is going strong and I feel like it should be around for many, many years. The 950 was always slightly sketchy in it's operation but if it worked I would still be using it instead of moving to the 990.

From what I have read on the other machines from Outlaw, it seems that all of them have their quirks and have been in need of some "fixes" after the purchaser gets it home. Some of the issues seem to arise from customer expectations being so high and some are downright faults of the designers. It also seems that Outlaw goes the distance in trying to fix the issues. What gets me is that the customers seem to be used as beta testers. I for one tend to stick with my equipment because I don't want to learn a whole new control scheme every few years. I still have vintage Yamaha equipment from when it first came into Audio equipment almost 40 years ago. The equipment still works flawlessly but is all manually controlled. I have rebuilt a set of 4 Advent loudspeakers 3 different times because I really like them. I don't think anything as advanced as new audio equipment is can last more than several generations before it is beyond its useful life. These days the generation time is usually less than a year so whatever equipment we get today will be outdated in 3 years at most. My "new" 990 has DVI output but I haven't seen a TV with DVI input in more than a year. I bought "obsolete" equipment from Outlaw knowing in advance it would be dated in less than a year. The 5 year warranty keeps me from having to buy new in 2 years when all of the controls are different on all new machines and none fully integrate with the rest of my system.

I've also lamented the speed to obsolesence in the current audio market but it's easy to see why this is so from the impatience that folks have expressed with Outlaw for taking "so long" to release a replacement for the 990.
It's amazing that in a market where many cling to tubes and LPs, many are hell bent for the latest and greatest connections and digital processing, and in many cases it's the same people!
Mabey Outlaw should introduce a Super HD Turntable with a 7 channel tube preamp connected by a single wire, and of course a USB input and I-pod dock.

The thing is, audio technology was a mature technology in the 1950s. Except for delivery media, the sound quality obtainable hasn't changed one bit, and is arguably worse in some instances.

The only reason someone needs to change out a piece of gear is if it provides decoding of some newer movie delivery format or provides switching for a newer video format.

Or, as in my case, the gear stops working.

Yeah, well, it should still be working. Products which do not last up to or well past their warranty period show some very serious lack of proper design.

Keta,
How old is your 950? It can't be too far out of warranty can it? Maybe 3 years. I can't fathom what failed that Outlaw would not try to help you with.