I have to hand to Outlaw....atleast they havn't promised and missed release dates over and over and over and over like the "other" internet "E"lectronics company. Keep staying true, and get it right the first time out. Now hurry up and get the dang 997 done! :-)

Both of these companies have missed their anticipated dates.....over and over. Outlaws announcement back in Sept '08 said they anticipated delivery by year end. From then on delivery is said to be shortly after SN delivers the 972. SN has missed numerous release dates which in turn makes Outlaw miss release dates. No one has a processor from either company, they are both very late.

IMHO....the Outlaws have "managed the delays" a heck of a lot better. The "E" company, on the other hand, just keeps throwing dates out over and over and over...... My vote is for the 997 when available. :-)

IMHO both companies failed to meet delivery expectations.

Missing delivery dates is a common thing in this industry. Everybody under estimates the complexity of software development, and when you are dealing with delays from multiple suppliers (with interlocked dependencies), things snowball. Yet Outlaw Audio made it clear that they were waiting for the parent design to ship before the 997 would, so anyone could clearly track what was going on. I suppose that the 1070 would not have been discontinued as soon as it was had the 997 been ready on time, but they have made good on this with a real sweet deal on the 970 (and the supply of 970's will disappear real soon as a result).

For those that can't wait, there is always a good product from "0/I".

I suspect that Outlaw has had nearly as many missed deadlines as Emotiva - the difference is that theirs have been almost exclusively internal deadlines, rather than public ones. The difference means nothing to the companies' sales numbers and probably not much more to the blood pressure for Peter Tribeman and Dan Laufman (both of whom I suspect would much prefer to be shipping products with a year or more worth of existing owners).

There is a difference, though. Keeping schedules quiet when significant uncertainty exists - and particularly when you already know the schedule is flawed, as I suspect was true for some of the earlier Emotiva dates - may cost you a few sales but it also better manages expectations, which is more fair to your customer base. Notice that Outlaw hasn't said any more than a minimum of 60 days after the R-972 for the 997? They surely want to allow for the possibility of a bug or some other issue(s) arising in the field that they won't want to ship before fixing.

As one who called for Outlaw to provide more info regarding their plans for their next pre/pro, I have absolutely to problems / qualms with how they have managed things to date.

The told us their plans and we've been able to follow them. Delays are to be expected - especially given that we know the basis for their plans.

But for the 997 being made in China, I'd still be happily waiting for its release. I am looking forward to hearing how users take to its many (planned) features - and how those compare to market alternatives.

For now I am REALLY enjoying my new (made in Malaysia) Onkyo PR-SC886.

I'm not trying to criticize either company just pointing out that both companies are way past the original delivery time frames. Outlaw learned it's lesson with the 950 and I assume next time around Emo will also be a bit more tight lipped.

Very true, Keta. I also agree that as much as I wish the 997 had arrived already, I think Outlaw has exhibited excellent restraint in keeping the 997 as under wraps as possible and in managing expectations once the wraps came off last fall. Emotiva was under the AV123 umbrella when the LMC-1 had its development delays, but they still over-promised on the schedule from the very start. Several of their self-imposed deadlines seemed dubious to me - the original one (late 2007, I think, which was maybe six months after the original announcement), and then last year when they talked about a release 6 or 8 weeks after Cirrus first delivered 49700 chips (even though that chip is the heart and brain of the unit). I think I'm skeptical enough of such announcements that I didn't think much about the delays, but I would hate to think about someone who delayed buying something in winter 2008 based on those projections. We can look to the current tumultuous situation at AV123 for examples of such customers, with several products (or product fixes) still struggling with multi-year development delays. Promising a product "coming soon" can be a good way to prevet potential sales from going to some other company, but they are dangerous - too many that get delayed too long can cost you business in the long run.

I think they've both missed the boat on their new pre-processors (the 997 for Outlaw and the UMC-1 for Emotiva) and both companies are left in the lurch by the actual manufacturer of their products (in China).

To be honest, I don't understand why some folks feel the need to create some artificial sense of "rivalry" between Outlaw and Emotiva. The companies are much more alike than they are different. They sell mid to higher end audio gear under their own brand that is manufactured by someone else (though it could be said that Outlaw's ATI amps are made "in house" since Peter Tribeman is involved with both companies).

I've never owned any Emotiva gear, but they appear to offer a very similar set of products at prices that appear to undercut Outlaw's for the most part. If I was willing to Wink at the "made in China" thing, I'd have no qualms about buying gear from either company. In the meantime, I'm enjoying my Outlaw equipment which I purchased prior to spending a few years in China and seeing first hand what a poop hole it is.

Best,