We don't know yet...

Rubbersoul:

I can tell you one critical area in which the Outlaw 997 will FAR outperform anything from Onkyo or Integra:

Customer support.

Onkyo and Integra have appalling customer support; so, while their feature sets are intriguing, I wouldn't touch them with a fork because I watched a friend try to deal with their CS to get a receiver repaired. It was nightmarish.

From their inception, the Outlaws have had the best CS in the business. Oh yeah, they also have an established reputation for quality components, too.

Those two factors should be enough motivation to maintain your Outlaw Loyalty, even if we have to cool our boot heels for awhile until they get the 997 into the corral.

I'd agree with that even if Onkyo had fair to good customer support. I alas, cannot avail myself of Onkyo's support because I bought my 885 from someone who managed to take delivery of two new units when there were few to be had, and there is absolutely no extension of warranty or support to non-original purchasers.

Unlike Outlaw, who I have noted goes the extra mile to support even owners of second hand units where reasonably possible.

He was down in your neck of the woods, Bob, if I recall your location correctly from a conversation a long time ago on HTT.

Brandon B.....Bobliinds

I signrd up for the pre-order.

I still enjoy my 950, but this 997 looks like da bomb. As an early customer of Outlaw's, I feel ignored, since they are offering $200 discount to 970 and 990 owners. What about us early supporters?

I think the simple answer is that the 950 is two generations old and has been discontinued since early 2005. They have to draw a line somewhere, and since they rolled that offer out last fall (when they wanted to give people who were shopping then an incentive to invest in either platform in spite of news that a successor was already on the drawing board) it made sense to tie the offer to those two products. The 950 had already been discontinued for nearly two and a half years when they announced the deal.

I'll offer a loose parallel, but be warned that it is very loose. if I have a copy of AutoCAD 2005, I am going to pay a lot more to upgrade to AutoCAD 2009 than someone who is upgrading a copy of AutoCAD 2007. Actually, in that example, I'm going to pay full list price for a new license, since they quit offering upgrades for versions that are more than a few years old ("retired" in the Autodesk lingo) - if I'm lucky, I might get a discount, but it's not going to compare to the upgrade price.

Here's a somewhat less tangential question: if you extend the offer to 950 buyers, what about the 1050 buyers who were around back as far as 2000?

Except people buy AutoCAD because they have to, not 'cause they want to.

- Like I said, it was a pretty loose parallel...

hey! some of us "have to" have great sounding movies.

THE AGONY & THE 997:
(with apologies to Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni & Pope Julius II)

mgdurand: Outlaws! When will you make an end?

Outlaws: When it is finished!