To be clear, I wasn't saying they weren't concerned about the release date or the progress necessary to get there. I was inferring that they don't seem to care about a time line when it comes to keeping their customers informed. It doesn't seem to matter to them how long it has been since they sent out an update or how close they're getting to the release date. If you look at their history, the gap between updates was close to 7 months a couple of times. So the fact that it has been a quarter since their last update probably doesn't impact their decision to update people on the progress. You would think that if they're still going to get this thing out by year end that they would've said something by now. Actual progress of the product toward production seems to dictate their updates more than how long it has been since their last update.

I personally don't believe that you can ever overcommunicate to the customer. Hopefully we'll get an update by early Dec, but sooner would be better.

Just curious, does anyone know if they are in beta testing yet? That would be a positive sign at least.

As soon as available put me down for one.

Right, still waiting patiently here as well. I hope Santa is kind to us all.

Same here. I hope all this waiting is worthwhile.

same here

same

Same here

I expect to be going in to hear a Sherwood-Newcastle R-972 with Trinnov Optimizer demo at a local home theater dealer in 8 days. I would bypass the amplifier section and use it as a pre-pro. The dealer claims that the bugs appear to be worked out now and the sound-field blows away every Audyssey system in existence. Too bad Newcastle doesn't have a similar processor without amps.

Hi akiddoc,

I have been using an R-972 for a couple months and have not experienced any major bugs or issues. I bought the R-972 on an impulse (got a tremendous deal) as waiting for the 978 had become too painful. I did not do a lot of research on what the issues people said were beforehand. It is possible they are still there but I just have not come across them yet. And I also have a 5.1 setup. It's a relatively simple configuration. The only thing I have noticed is that it does take a couple seconds for the R-972 to lock on the audio again if I pause a movie or change the surround mode.

By the way the first thing I did was upgrading the R-972 to the current firmware version of 1.47 (available from Sherwood USA site). The Trinnov setup took about 15 minutes and it was very straight forward. It has improved the sound field and image of my 5.1 configuration. The sweet spot is exactly where I had put the Trinnov microphone during the setup. Now I hear a lot more nuances especially from the surround channels. Even my wife and my 8 year old notice a vast improvement over our previous setup. To be fair, I had never owned another receiver/processor with Audyssey or other room EQ capabilities. I cannot compare Trinnov against others (Audyssey, Yamaha..etc.). Therefore I am still interested in getting my hands on the 978 if it's available soon.

Hope this helps. Good luck with your R-972 audition.