I wonder if the 998 will include a phono input. It seems that the Outlaws have taken the pulse of the saloon and tried to include all of the other areas where it was thought that the 997 was lacking. The decision to get away from the Sherwood platform is a real good one and it gets them back to their roots of designing their own equipment and being more hands on.
Here are some things I hope the 998 includes:
1) Phono pre-amp
2) 3 zones with subwoofer support. It would be nice to be able to dedicate the balanced outputs to zone 2 completely separate from the main outputs to allow the 998 to be in two HTs at once with two separate setups for Trinnov.
3) 7.2 channels
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Music system
Model 990/7500/Magnepan 1.6 QRs/Technics SL1200 MK2/Aperion S-12 Subwoofer/OWA3/Sony NS75H DVD
APC H15 Power Conditioner

TV System
Large Advent Loudspeakers/ Polk center/Monoprice surrounds/Panasonic Viera 42 inch/Onkyo HT-RC260/Sony BDP S590/Directv


Home Theater System
Onkyo PR-SC886/Outlaw 7125 Klipsch RF-82 L/R,RC-62 center, RB-35 SR/SL, BENQ HT1075, Outlaw LFM1-EX/OPPO BDP-83/Directv
Harmony ONE
Blue Jeans and Monoprice interconnects
APC H15 Power Conditioner