My Take is this: I have not bought a Pre-Pro since the 950 which sold a few years later hoping to get the newer models. It seamed that there was all ways bugs, so I switch over to the receiver as a pre-pro method and have not looked back. Emo has been hit with bugs as with most of the smaller companies. Even Onkyo and Denon latest offerings had a few bugs, but like the 4311 the bugs were fix. These are DSP based machines now and I guess it is a lot harder to bring a product like these to market as fast as the giant companies with hundreds of people working the issues.
Maybe Blasphemy for saying, but maybe Outlaw should connect with Marantz or Onkyo (since Outlaw sells their products time to time) and have them make a new pre-pro with any of Outlaws requirements, brand it Outlaw. Outlaw probably could bring new products like these to market much faster and with less bugs and be able to keep further up to date with the barrage of features that keep coming out.
I am still rooting for the 998 to come out.

I think that connection has already happened with Marantz or rather D and M Holdings. But of course it is just speculation.

I have my doubts about D&M Holdings or any of their companies making such an arrangement. There's no incentive for them to do so.

The only incentive for any company to make an arrangement is to make a profit. Some company has to be building this product but who.... I was suggesting D and M Holdings because the original pictures showed a display very similar to Denon's mid level recievers. But we will have to wait and see.

I still think the likelihood of a company like either D&M Holdings or ONKYO partnering with Outlaw in this way is vanishingly small.

As for the D&M connection based on the front panel displays, the similarity could simply be that both are sharing a common supplier for that component. D&M Holdings is in business to make money, but they're also a large corporate entity headquartered overseas. The potential profit for them to invest some R&D resources into working with Outlaw on a unique product and then building it in relatively modest quantities (by their standards) is fairly small. Keep in mind that aside from the AV7005, the only D&M Holdings processors we've seen have been either $2,000+ Marantz units or a $7,500 Denon unit. One could argue that Denon's been leaving money on the table for years by not taking each year's flagship receiver and stripping out amps to make a processor. (I've seen plenty of people say exactly that for as long as I can remember.) The truth is that they're not interested in that. Likely the only reason Marantz has offered even a single processor at any given time is pressure from their dealer networks who can help justify the modest cost of creating a separate model. The potential earnings for D&M Holdings simply aren't great enough for their corporate big-wigs to depart from their past policies and partner with a company they don't own. They'd rather sell more Denon receivers to folks who will use them as processors, taking all the profit, than take a share of the profit on Outlaw processor sales.

The same is true for ONKYO, for similar reasons. It could be even more extreme in their case, as an Outlaw processor stands to be a competitor of the Onkyo and Integra processors. I would expect them to be able to get a good bit more profit per unit out of either of those (both of which have list prices in the $2,500 range) than they would out of taking a cut of the profit on an Outlaw processor with a price that's likely to be closer to $1,400 or $1,500.

There are manufacturing partners out there, of course, but I wouldn't expect any of them to be "brand names" we're used to seeing on store shelves.

HDMI killed the internet direct pre/pros?

It sure seems to be working out that way. Even the boutique companies are having a hard time keeping up. Not sure if this was by design or by accident.

I gave up on these projected pre-amps quite a while ago. The same updates were getting old. "next quarter", "next spring", "next year" got old after YEAR after YEAR.

Its very sad; a very good company amking a great product for a really good price, unable to deliver an electronic product that is mass made by numerous companies worldwide.

I don't think it was by design - that assumes too much forethought in the development of HDMI as a standard, and if there's one thing that they can't be accused of with HDMI, it is forethought.

I think HDMI contributed to the problem, but I think there have been other factors that have made it hard for folks like Outlaw, Sherwood, Parasound, B&K, and similar smaller companies. HDMI is a tough nut to crack. Add room correction. Add a significant video processing solution (Reon, ABT, Marvell, etc.). That's two more components that, if done properly, are similarly challenging and fast-changing technologies to assess and implement. Then you have to decide what you're going to do about the other features that people are starting to expect now. New processing modes that expand beyond 7.1 will either require additional DAC channels or force you to select between back surround channels and front height/wide channels. Network capabilities like DLNA, Netflix, Pandora, and Amazon VOD are even harder to evaluate than video processing vendors, and costly in R&D efforts to develop. (Not to mention some leave you at the mercy of a third party, like Netflix, who may decide to push you down the list for certification so a new PS3 update or a new player from Panasonic or Sony can get certified because those clients have larger customer bases.)

I still think it can be done if you can hook up with the right partners for manufacturing and design. (Because smaller companies like Outlaw simply aren't going to have the in-house staff to write this sort of code, they will need consultants to assist with parts of it. There are presumably some companies out there that have had the opportunity to gain some useful experience in these matters over the last several years.) That being said, I don't envy them the task of actually doing it...

As I mentioned before I am still rooting for the 998, however I am most concerned about this Pre-Pro due to Trinnov for these reasons:
The Newcastle R-972 has not created the buzz you would think if Trinnov was as good as billed. I know the professional versions of Trinov's capabilities is well known but getting it down to a consumer receiver and pre-pro has been challenging to say the least. The new R-876 is to be release this coming July, but I have heard absolutely nothing about a product this close to release. I have heard nothing in the way of other manufactures bringing it out, no Denon, Marantz, Yamaha, etc- no one except Outlaw. It may be due to licensing, but you would think if Trinnov is that great, then more folks would be looking at it. I do believe that in the Engineering and labs departments it is, just heard absolutely nothing. I am afraid that the scaled down version of Trinnov may not deliver as hoped and I would not want Outlaw to bring it out if it does not live up to what is expected.

Although I initially wanted to get the 997 because of Trinnov, I have come to the realization that it is likely way overkill for what many of us need for our room correction and isn't now going to be a factor in any upgrade to my system. If your listening space is like most, it is already pretty good and could get better by small physical adjustments to the equipment or the room. If for some reason you need to make your back left speaker sound like the right front speaker then Trinnov will likely be a good thing. I primarily thought the ability to save different setups was interesting for those times you are not sitting in the sweet spot.

Yes, the unintended consequence of HDMI is making it hard for anyone to keep up. Small companies are likely to be able to bring out a new device much less often and it will hurt them severely if not done right. Although we would like the 978 to hit the streets late last year or sooner, Outlaw has to get it right or it could really be the last thing they ever develop.