Seriously, why does it matter?

I have laid out probably half a dozen theories as to how this happened / why the other party decided to pressure the overseas fabrication firm and at the end of all such speculation it STILL does not make me want to deliberately attempt to "torpedo" the competitor (as there are precious few choices in audio products right now) NOR does it make me want to seek out this firm as a possible "replacement" for the 978 -- it almost certainly is NOT the same kind of value proposition...

I agree.

Some may laugh but, my guess is Harman.

How about Bryston as the culprit? They are a North American company. They do offer two multi channel processors (SP2 and SP3) but they do seem like a low volume brand.