BW - I doubt that you will hear an improvement going to the LMC-1. Plus, it definitely has 2-3 outstanding issues. I would not recommend it to anyone at this point unless those issues are resolved with a firmware update. The DMC-1 may be a different matter.

I think the real comparison needs to be done in approx. 12-15 months when the next gen processors of all 4 models (with HDMI 1.3) are out.

Also, re: LMC-1 and 970 - apart from the DAC, the analog stage plays a HUGE part in the final SQ. So, even though the LMC-1 and the 970 have very similar DACs (the LMC-1 has a DSP that is one gen older), the final sound coming from them will probably be different.