After Peter's tease I wonder if we can have a little March Madness type pool / bracket here...

Line on Outlaw beating Emotiva to ship???

Price match up for the "finals"?

I would put money on Outlaw shipping first. Name a figure.

I'm looking forward to the announcement, launch and reviews. I haven't purchased anything and my 990 is working great.

I'll put my money on Outlaw. I have no experience with Emotiva and their unit sounds interesting, but can't wait to hear what beta testers have to say when the NDA is lifted.

I should hope so...when was the original 997 announced again? LOL

Feature-wise, the Emotiva product is much more interesting to me. Neither company has been particularly confidence inspiring in the home theater processor business for the past few years. That said, if both units come out around the same time and both function as advertised, I'd be much more inclined to purchase the XMC-1 than the 978. Tact is THAT good, but we'll see how things play out. I'll go further and say that the 978 isn't particularly interesting, in general, unless they've been adding missing features during these last "run silent run deep" months.

Ritz2

OK, I'll bite. Why do you think that the XMC-1 is more interesting then the 978? Other than Audyssey vs. TACT I'm not seeing the major differences. Is it the quality of the DACs or the DSPs? Do we even know for sure what will be in either of them?

Granted, I'm not an expert on either of these units, so please don't flame me. I'm just curious as to why you made that statement.

Regards,
Mark

I'd say the XMC is mildly interesting until you see things like no video processing, only 1 HDMI out, and another unproven room correction component at this price point. I've seen photos of it and it's the usual overly blue impact with all of the lights. But seeing as to how their last pre-pro(UMC) was such a troubled product, many will take a wait and see attitude with the next one. Emotiva is positively giddy about the XMC, but they were about the UMC as well and it left me disenchanted with them that they could be so wrong.

I'm looking to upgrade to separates in my theater and am anticipating that the 7125 or 7200 will be added shortly. Emotiva doesn't even have a 7 channel amp, and they've introduced and cancelled so many amps and other products it gives the impression that they are still trying to find their way, fair enough, but it won't be on my dime.

To be honest, I likely wouldn't buy a processor from either company at this stage. Neither one is particularly credible with respect to their processors at this stage of the game. That said, the features of the XMC-1 can be found here:

http://shop.emotiva.com/collections/processors/products/xmc1

Given the choice between two budget processors produced by direct-to-consumer companies that manufacture in China, the Outlaw effort is the lesser product (to my eye) based purely on the published specs. Once they actually come up with shipping products and we can do a true apples to apples comparison, perhaps my view will change.

Best,

Well, today is Tuesday and PT said there would be an announcement this week. Based on PT's reliability I would think that all of this speculation and comparisons will soon be put to rest in a little more than 72 hours.

I checked out the Emotiva site and their new upcoming soon to be released Emotiva XMC-1 and I like the looks of this unit but will say the blue might be a little much for my liking. Also the allowance for only one HDMI output makes me nervous about future product connections. I have had an itch now to upgrade for some time but have been doing my best to remain a loyal customer to Outlaw Audio. Having met both Scott and Peter Tribeman I can value their enthusiasm and dedication to Outlaw Audio. I think that the process of developing the 978 has been a not so easy road traveled. I have confidence that the Outlaw 978 will come to the market arena as with other products from Outlaw that we will be smitten with their style and much more important their performance in the Home Theater and two channel stereo genre.

Not to mention Outlaws tech support for all of the occasions that I personally called that hot line in desperation to find out what I was doing wrong or if there was a malfunction in my 990 was always professionally handled and I was always satisfied to my satisfaction with their service and advice.

I am anxiously awaiting the red carpet to be rolled out for a new venue of Outlaw products.

I think Peter promised early this week. I'm thinking anything after today would not qualify.

The bigger problem for me with the Emotiva is their poor track record for reliable hardware and software. At least when Outlaw puts a product out, you know it will be supported in a timely manner. (That's been my personal experience, anyway.) I'm not sure that's the case with what I've read about previous Emotiva products, and particularly their most recent processor.