I was in your situation exactly a year ago -- I had ordered the 7700 and new speakers, and was waiting for the 978. I heard from a good friend who runs another audio company (and is in regular touch with Peter T.) that the 978 wasn't likely to come out any time in the next 3-6 months (yes, we were all still dreaming of a mid-2011 release for the 978 back then), so I did my research and settled on the Integra DHC-80.2.

But I've still got my fingers crossed, and when the 978 is released, I'll likely take advantage of the 30-day return policy to give it an audition in my system and see if it enhances my SQ.

No sense in waiting and letting the warranty on your new equipment expire. Get the Marantz or the Integra and wait for the reviews on the 978. Might as well enjoy your stuff now. Outlaw is not going to update us anytime soon. By the way, where is Gonk? If he is in the bata test mode with the 978 and can't participate in the forum then he must really be busy.

I actually think Gonk has checked out. I believe he has moved on from Outlaw. His last post sounded like someone who was completely disinterested in the 978 or anything "Outlaw". That was my "impression". I certainly don't speak for him, but it certainly sounded like he wasn't even reading the posts on here anymore. I truly believe he is not beta testing, though until his last post, I thought that must be where he was.

I think you chose the best possible alternative in the Integra unit although with a significantly heftier price tag compared to what we're expecting from the 978. When the time comes, I hope you'll report back on SQ comparisons between the two units. Folks around here will be most grateful for your opinions.

According to this BBS, this seems to be Gonk's last post, dated from March 21st:



As we can see, he reports his impressions on where things stand and shows understanding for the situation Outlaw is in. I doesn't look to me as if he's disinterested. Although he points out that it's hard to be excited with the all the work that remains, he shows optimism that Outlaw seems to be on their way to complete the project.

I remember when Gonk was beta testing the Oppo BDP-83 and participating on the AV Science Forum's thread for the BDP-83. He was reporting back fairly regularly what he was allowed to under his NDA. Maybe he's just too busy now with his work, the family, the 978 beta testing , etc. The Oppo beta testing program was a much more open process than the 978's beta program appears to be. God, how often I've wished that Oppo would have produced a processor along the lines of the 978, they basically already have about half the design needed under their belt.

I agree, I posted pretty much the same thing in the feature suggestions thread in March of 2010 (about the BDP-83SE). Since you mentioned Gonk, it was his thought that the two were too different.

When the 978 does come out we will see how much the Great Gonk will post on the forum. If we see a few posts and then slowly crickets after that then he will have moved on. Hope he stays on and posts regularly...he knows a lot and gives great information.

I was a beta tester for the 83SE and the 95 too. And believe me, I mentioned this to them every chance I got. They just kept saying that AVR's/SSP's were markets they didn't want to be in. I keep hoping their view changes though, because I think the days of physical media are numbered. Or at least diminishing. Ever decreasing total sales from here on out, except for maybe lp.

Let's see, to turn an Oppo BDP-95 into an A-V Processor, they would have to:

1. ditch the Mediatek transport
2. add a System-on-Chip (SoC) or use the DSPs (with required software) to handle all the media format decoding you lost by removing the Mediatek transport, which is pretty much every format it decodes
3. add an HDMI input switching SoC with additional HDMI connectors
4. add a SoC to switch the legacy video inputs (composite, S-Video, component) and the associated connectors
5. add some S/PDIF inputs (coaxial, optical and maybe one AES/EBU(XLR))
6. add the various analog stereo and multichannel audio inputs with required ADC, the switching circuitry, the RCA connectors and ideally a pair of balanced XLR inputs
7. add a phono input stage (MC/MM)
8. add the remaining analog multichannel balanced (XLR) and unbalanced RCA outputs
9. add a pair of TI Aureus DSPs to handle audio decoding and some flavor of digital room correction (Audyssey MultEQ is probably the fastest solution to implement)
10. add the microphone input circuitry for the digital room correction and provide a microphone
11. they may need to add a more powerful micro-controller or an ARM processor running some OS, either proprietary, embedded Linux or QNX to integrate and control all the different systems
12. increase the system RAM and perhaps the flash memory
13. extend or redesign the system bus to accommodate the new digital systems
14. write the custom software to control the various systems
15. replace the front display with a lager more flexible one
16. add a radio tuner
17. add the radio antenna circuitry, connectors and supply an antenna
18. increase the capacity of the power supply
19. design a larger case
20. for whatever else I forgot

OK, so maybe they don't quite have half of the design done as I previously over-enthusiastically indicated but I believe that they have the potential to accomplish it.

Even if the sales of physical media are diminishing and/or they'll be replaced by streaming services sometime in the future, you're still going to need some form of preamp-processor or hub to at least control the audio decoding and multichannel features and outputs. Otherwise, the whole multichannel market will collapse. I don't believe everybody wants to go around listening to music only on headphones.

Another thought, most folks are greatly under-utilizing their 1080P displays and not even watching 1080P but 720P while using most streaming services. Most homes still don't have the adequate network bandwidth to do 1080P with the audio codec and have some leftover bandwidth for surfing the net at the same time. Now imagine having 3 or 4 members of a family watching 1080P or even 720P simultaneously on their personal displays. And when 4K becomes available, then, you'll need at least four times more bandwidth. I think that the market and some consumers are still going to want physical media for a little longer than expected, at least I hope.

No doubt that we will want the discs for most movies. But streaming is gonna take over once the bandwidth is sufficiently robust. Current suppliers can't do the job adequately for most of us and it will take a huge infrastructure leap to get there.