I've had the 970 for about a week now. It's the second one. The first had a nick in the faceplate down to the silver and the headphone volume knob was off center and scraping against the faceplate knockout when turned. Outlaw was excellent in replacing the unit.
The second one arrived and sounds great. I haven't had it long enough to really fool around with many of the options but I am very happy otherwise.
I am one that wants my equipment to look as good as it sounds although if there was a trade off, I would pick performance over cosmetics.
I do however very much like the rounded corners and the plain face without a mess of buttons and lights. I'm sure cost is an issue and I'm not sure if any manufacturer does this but I would like to see glass or a harder anti scratch polycarbonate material in place of acrylic/plastic for the display face. I have a small scratch out of the box on the face and I'm sure it will only get worse since the acrylic is prone to scratching easily. I would have also preferred if the acrylic had not continued behind the buttons but I'll be using the remote 100% of the time so I suppose it's not really an issue.
Unfortunately it looks as though the headphone volume knob shaft is off center on all the 970's. It was on my replacement also, and when I look at the image on the site it is also tight on the left side. Could just be a defect in the post or the faceplate on this model. I'd rather they left it off like on the 990.
For $699 though, I don't see anything that compares to it. Very nice product and excellent service.

As you mention, the remote is where most of your functionality will be with the 970. This should reduce some of the opportunity for smudges, nicks and other assaults on the faceplate.

At $699, some trade offs are inevitable, but I think you'll enjoy the performance-to-price ratio of the unit.

Yes I agree.

I've had more time to use it and love it.
Thanks for the Plasma info. I'm going to wait and see if the Mitsubishi Laser is something to get excited about and maybe this time next year I'll have my surround system complete.

Is it ever really complete though?

By the way Jim,
I checked out the photo's of your system and was very impressed. Very clean and and I'm sure excellent sounding.
But what I found even more impressive were the 2 posters on the wall. Roy is my favorite actor. Sorcerer is one of my top 5 movies of all time and the 7-up's is one DVD that I wish would get released.
Looks like I may have to get my camera out and get some images of my system to post. I enjoy seeing what components everyone has and what they look like.
Thanks, Dave

Thanks, Dave. I tracked those posters down on Ebay and had them framed locally. I really like Sorcerer -- it's a top movie favorite of mine as well.

It's unfortunate the Seven-ups has not been transferred to DVD. Why it hasn't is a total mystery to me. It's a great 70s cop flick and the car chase scene is on par with Bullitt. I have it on VHS, but the sound and video quality leave a lot to be desired.

Please post some pics of your system some time!