I'm pretty sure SN brought a 972 to CEDIA in 2007. Here we are in 2010. Wow. Clearly monkeys are heading the engineering departments or today's processors are so complex proper implementation requires a big budget engineering department. My guess, and this should be obvious, is that neither SN nor Outlaw have such a staff. So they are dependent on some Asian labs. China? Korea? I don't know. What seems apparent, is that it has been too much for whomever has been handling for them so far. I can't help but picture one or two underpaid Chinese guys working out of a back room of their flat in Shanghai.
I don't know if there is an answer. Does this spell the end of independent high-end processing from smaller companies? Maybe.
Like someone noted above, Integra is looking pretty good right about now. If rather than waiting for a Trinnov solution I had simply started building room treatments, by now I would be set and wouldn't worry too much about room correction! At this rate Emotiva may have a competing, and possibly compelling, new product released before the 997.
I like rooting for the underdog, however, so believe me when I say I'm still rooting for Outlaw (or I wouldn't even be here), but next time they should consider spending the money on a team of qualified engineers and actually get a product to market before their customers, competition, and technology move on...