I've got an older AVR which I planned on upgrading when the 990 replacement came out...well the decoder is giving me problems so I'm ready to upgrade NOW. Any one have a feel for when the 990 replacement will come out, I could hold out a little while but not sure how long.

Ron

We don't know, I'm afraid. The closest we have is some hints. Outlaw indicated in Octobe 2007 that the biggest hold-up was Cirrus's delivery of the final form of the 49700 DSP chip to manufacturers, something which they were then hoping would happen within a few months. More recently, Emotiva indicated that they were having to postpone delivery of a new processor from March/April until the summer because they weren't expecting to get samples of the 49700 until early April. If all of that is accurate (the 49700 DSP chip not reaching manufacturers' hands until early next month), I'd be hard pressed to anticipate 49700-based products in the marketplace and working reliably before late summer.

Thanks Gonk...I figured it might be a while longer, just hoping maybe some beta tester might spill some beans.

Ron

I'd love to see some beans get spilled! Alas, it may be a while longer before that happens.

For what it's worth, the 990's on sale for $800 at the moment and you get a $200 discount off a next-gen processor if you have one: you could replace the ailing decoder now with that, and if you sell the 990 used later this year you could probably recoup much of the $600 difference you'd have invested in it. Even if the price drop to $900 and the $200 discount drop the used market price to $500 for a relatively new 990 with most of its warranty left (which is $125 to $200 lower than the current ads on Audiogon), you'd basically have spent $100 plus shipping to "rent" a processor during the interim.

Sounds like I might have a 990 replacement under my Christmas tree if all the stars align.

I know most manufacturers which I believe likely includes Outlaw have R&D units using 3 chips to simulate the 49700. So basically once the chip hits it could be a matter of weeks before production is ready. Companies have been waiting for this chip for a YEAR!

They're prepared for them to say the least. I doubt much testing will be needed. I fully expect Receivers with 49700s in them out sometime in late May or early June if Cirrus really ships the processor this week (like they claim to be).

Outlaw will likely have a 1070 replacement before the 990. At least I would think so...

Still the 990 replacement should be out July/August if the chip really ships and Outlaw is as prepared as I think they are.

I know Etronics has a unit just waiting for the 49700 chip. Outlaw has used Etronics before and thus I'm willing to bet that Outlaw will have a tweaked version of what will eventually become a Sherwood Newcastle Pre-Pro out probably before SN even announces theirs.

This is interesting news to me - are you saying that Cirrus has had a 3-chip method of simulating the 49700, such that folks could work on platform development with that as an intermediate step? I can't imagine being able to yank a trio of TI or Analog Devices chips and replace them with a single Cirrus chip without incurring significant revisions to the code, but if it was a Cirrus product that was designed to behave like a 49700 that would be a different story entirely.

Cirrus-based designs are one chip; that's the benefit of using that approach. TI, depending on the system architecture and what you want to do, is two or three chips.

Gonk is quite correct in that you can't just replace a TI (or ADI) reference design with a Cirrus-based solution. The code is totally different.

If Cirrus hasn't been able to give manufacturers any hardware with which to use in development, I still have a hard time seeing manufacturers being able to deliver any well-tested products to consumers before late summer. I'd think (hope) that Cirrus has had some sort of SDK or other reference material available to manufacturers for some time now, but even without the lengthy delays in getting the chip out Cirrus's door I wouldn't expect anyone to have been able to develop solid production-ready firmware from such material alone, meaning there's likely to be a fair bit of work to be done once those chips arrive and real world testing can commence. If companies start trying to wrap up development of multiple products in their next gen all at once and get those products into production at once, resources are likely going to create a staggered release sequence: get one done first, use experience from that to speed completion of the next, and so on. It'd be similar to what Onkyo did last summer with the x05 series of receivers.

That late summer date may prove to be pessimistic of me, but personal experience in engineering says to respect Murphy's law - as such, it actually feels a little optimistic...

When I visited a R&D department of one company last fall they had something that was simulating what the Cirrus chip would provide. Companies have really be ready for this chip for awhile some for months. They're just waiting on testing the real chip and making tweaks.

So they should have a rather close to release firmware when the chips show up. Cirrus says they did ship them last week. So some developers probably have them right now.

I'm positive we will see these released on Receivers rather quickly. I don't expect nice Pre-Pros to be out until August with them.