I've been holding out, just like the rest of you. Gave consideration a while back when the Onkyo and the Marantz were offered as an alternative. But, the other two won't ship to Canada. Talk about frustrated. Not only have the 998 and 978 been a figment of our wishfull imagination, but I have a couple of G'$ I just can't give away.

I have been waiting for some info since it is December. No word at this point probably means no go by Xmas. Another year goes by and the Outlaws are holed up in their hideout. Some smoke signals would be welcome at this point. I thought the Outlaws were working on a way to be able to ship to our frustrated friends in the great white north country.

From Peter T's announcement back in October:

Yeah, another delay foretold by Peter T. The big question is ... Why Wait?

Even though I am very antsy to upgrade from my 990 I will wait.
Outlaw has always offered the best bang for the buck with their processors and I think the 978 will prove that again.
It is hard to sit back and wait but I always have felt that good things come to he who waits.

Yeah... Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, 401K, 978, 998 in that order. Seriously, 2 1/2 years is a long time to wait in the electronics world, no matter how good the processor. The way I see it, the 978 vapor gear is not nearly as compelling as the Onkyo/Marantz items already available. Without Trinnov it isn't any different than what out there already.

given the last few announcements they have been flogging marantz gear like a bad smell makes me wonder if both the 998 and 978 is nothing but vaporware....


since nobody has said boo since respective press releases on both products

Wait or buy now? I still think that if you need something now, you should get something now. No matter what cool new toy is "just over the horizon," you are better off getting something that serves your needs now if you need to upgrade. (Whether or not "need" applies to your case is a personal judgment call, of course...) The Marantz AV7005 looks like a great option if you need something right now. On the other hand, if you are content with what you have, waiting until mid-2011 to see how the Model 978 compares to the competition (sound quality, feature set, picture quality, etc.) could be a no-brainer for some folks.

Trinnov clearly is not proving easy to shoe-horn into a consumer platform. The only folks who have done it yet is Sherwood, and the R-972 has largely fallen off the radar - which suggests that Outlaw likely made a good choice when they scrapped the Model 997. A bad product could be a lot more detrimental than no product, especially for a small company. Still, the concept behind Trinnov is appealing, so I don't blame them for wanting to explore it further with the Model 998.

My complaints about HDMI's version stew have been stated often in the past, so they're pretty well known around here (and in a few other places). The rapid progression from v1.1 to v1.2 to v1.3 to v1.4 has hurt a lot of companies, confused a lot of consumers, and generally (I think) been detrimental to the industry as a whole. Outlaw's problems with these processors is merely one example of many. Even if the Model 978 uses Audyssey instead of Trinnov, if they do a good job with the core feature set I can see where it could be a successful product.


I doubt either will prove to be vaporware. It would be the height of foolishness to announce these and then not follow through, and I don't believe Outlaw is foolish. We'll have to wait and see whether the Model 978 hits its launch goal of Q1 2011 or not, but I expect we'll see it one way or another.

Well. I may wait, and I probably will wait. But it is not a sure thing that I will wait. Based on that thinking, which I'm certain is not limited to me, I am surprised that there haven't been a leak or two to hold the waiters in line.

Jeff

...hasn't...

I agree... throw us a bone or two. For me, the absence of Audyssey MultEq XT32/Sub EQ HT would be very close to a deal-breaker. Is it not possible at this stage to confirm that the 978 will have it, or at least that it hasn't yet been ruled out?