If the following article is true, I'm wondering if the same people (and philosophy, and practices) will continue albeit under the name of a parent or sister company?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-20002218-47.html

And what might that mean for Outlaw?

This post might be of interest. It sounds like plans for manufacturing of Outlaw's speakers are still in a state of flux.

Interesting that Outlaw sells Snell speakers AND Marantz home theater receivers. Other brands owned by D&M Holdings (in addition to Snell) include McIntosh, Denon, and Boston Acoustics.

Anyone else notice the similarities between the 998's preliminary front panel and some of Denon's higher models? Just an observation from the original announcement.

Well, it didn't take a whole lot of digging to find out that Inkel (the folks behind the 997 debacle) also manufactures product for (drumroll):

Sherwood, Marantz, Pioneer, Yamaha, NAD, Denon, Harman/Kardon and Onkyo and a few others...seems like there's no escape.

They manufacture for all of those companies, but that doesn't mean they are the exclusive manufacturer for them or that they are involved in the design process for all of them.

Yep, I'm sure some of those companies have multiple suppliers. One heck of a coincidence though.

I looked at Denon's website briefly, and the display on the Model 998 front panel concept does look very similar to the Denon front panels. That does suggest some shared resources somewhere on the design side, even if only in who they are sourcing displays from. It's a nice concept for front panel display, with two lines of text and some helpful graphical indicators on input and output channels that can actually be understood from a distance. From that perspective, I'd say it's a good place to start if you are looking for a front panel display that is more than just a couple lines of text. The volume indicator even looks like it's a decent size - unlike the indicator on my Onkyo 885, which I suspect Onkyo could only have made smaller if built it from individual DLP mirrors. The rest of the front panel layout is certainly different from Denon's stuff, of course, being an homage of sorts to the RR2150.


But the 998's not being done in partnership with Inkel. They have somebody different involved now that the 997's been dropped.

I'm a big fan of Denon's display, especially if the "running" information such as codec, volume etc, does not overlay on the screen. I had a 970, that of course overlayed, but when I used the 2808 as temporary solution, it did not overlay but the display certainly helped with - as mentioned input and output indicators and a half decent volume display. I agree with you in that it is a good place to start. Personally I like the preliminary photo with the "homage of sorts to the RR2150"

While the manufacturer of the 998 has yet to be confirmed, I would think having a partnership with D and M holdings would be great idea. There seems to be lots of R and D available and some well established (and working) products from them. Just an opinion though. I do recall seeing some information of a pre/pro based on the 4310 but this has not materialized. I assume this was to provide a pre/pro at a much more modest price point. Now if we could just get a little more of an update....

Did they announce that it was a different company? I don't recall seeing that. Just curious...

Too bad about Snell though. Back on topic, if Snell goes away I wonder which company they'll go to for a replacement product?

Best,