In all fairness to Outlaw Audio, the no-audio issue has plagged other manufacturers like Lexicon and yes, even Sunfire. However, that was generations of their products ago. Lexicon has a 3-year manufacturer's warranty, and Sunfire has an impressive support program. For instance, the Sunfire Theatre Grand II suffered from "audio drop outs", as they called them, years ago which I believe were fixed by a hardware upgrade (eeprom chip). The TG3s were fixed via firmware upgrade and Sunfire went as far as offering "hardware upgrades" to turn TG3s into essentially TG4s in a TG3 box. Sunfire is now in generation 5 of that platform and yet, if you are a TG1, 2, 3 or 4 owner, you can still trade yours in for a TG5... Sometimes paying more is cheaper...

I don't mean to tell Outlaw Audio how to run their business but, despite my rantings, I think the 970 and 990 are priced way too low for what they offer. They could each stand a $200 price hike (sorry everyone). Now let's say Outlaw offered a trade-up to a 990 from a 970 for a $400 credit, most of us would seriously think about it. If you consider that you just hiked the price by a combined $400, you are still making the same profit as before AND keeping your customers loyal. As a customer, even if you know that you are really paying for a deposit on your trade-up value, don't you think that's a fair price for a trade-up guarantee?