Well with that attitude, goodbye Outlaw 976. I'm gonna upgrade all my speakers now. Good job with that post. I will not be buying this processor now.

Waiting forever for a new processor from outlaw is what makes you a member of Outlaws-Forever, I guess. Way back before the 975 was offered there was a series of Outlaw processors that were on the drawing board but never made it to the street. The 997/998/978 were a little ambitious at the time and technology was moving too fast for the little guys to keep up. Peter has tried to keep the Outlaws in the loop as to progress and problems but it is a cut throat industry where even the bigger companies are being swallowed whole by competition. Small companies have to rely on loyalty and excellent customer service to stay in business.

Explain to me in a way I'll understand: upgrading speakers [to/from what] instead of buying 976.
what are you looking* at instead*?

Well if you have A-holes on here with attitude that guy had, forget it. Instead of spending my money on the 976, I'll upgrade my speakers instead. I'll just keep the Yamaha I'm using for a processor longer and they can keep the 976. I'll start my speaker upgrade with 900 bucks saved on the processor. They just lost a sale because of the "outlaws-forever" club that I wasn't invited into. And no I have no intention of joining any way. I wasn't looking at any other processor.

Sheesh...

The pace of change for audio gear is NOT linear -- there are LOTS of really excellent speakers that were made when Bill Clinton was in office, no matter if you goal is two channel or seven ++ channels of surround sound well cared for speakers from the 1990s or earlier that might work extremely well...

Amps have evolved a bit, with a variety of things to increase the dynamic range, drop the noise floor to absurdly low levels and deliver lots more "watts per dollar". A small number of really well built amps that maybe 30 years old can still crank it out, but most folks are better off with amps that won't throw off enough heat to melt an iceberg...

When it comes to pre-processors for home theaters I suppose there are some folks trying to get by with stuff that does not have current HDMI or HDCP but they are really limiting themselves. The newer codecs that include things that are much more immersive make "movie night" at home rival some poorly laid out commercial theaters. You don't need to have a mansion with butlers to appreciate things like the ability to play music from a personal device like a phone on a multi-zone home system with maybe some speakers permanently wired up for outdoor entertaining area or one's kitchen, where many gatherings both casual and more formal are centered these days...

It is no secret that with things like Atmos there is now greater than ever importance on having similarly voiced speakers. The challenges of upgrading speakers piecemeal can have less than optimal results -- even with the most sophisticated ARC system the "match" than can happen after digital filters is rarely as satisfying as when starting out with speakers that are harmonious.

For folks who for whatever reason are in currently in need of gear the Outlaws are authorized sellers of Marantz -- the pricing on the 7703 is quite attractive either standalone or paired with any combination of robust Outlaw amps designed and / or built in cooperation with the highly respected staff of ATI.

Please don't let TCat get under your skin. He's a new forum member that just joined in March. He's only got 14 posts and most of them are either trolling or bashing other forum members. I've called him out for his aggressive posts a couple of times because that's not the community we have here, nor is it the one we want to foster. The club he mentions isn't a real thing; it's his way of slighting members willing to wait for Outlaw's processor. Those of us that have used their products in the past are pretty loyal as the price to performance ratio is incredible. I am guessing he hasn't had that experience yet so doesn't understand our mind set.

You've been a forum member for a long time, J.H. I'm sure you have noticed that the vast majority of us are happy to help and are very friendly! We're doing our best to keep it that way!

Well if he is an annoying troll, he should be kicked out.

Annoying... to some. Troll, no.

I do understand the acoustic benefits, but the company's lack of updates and wildly-incorrect release dates were extremely frustrating to me. And the response to that, here, was generally in the "White Knight" form of "You just don't understand", rather than of "Hmm... yeah, that is pretty bad, what's with that?" or similar.
Owl is correct; I was using the term "club" in the same way I used "White Knight" a few sentences ago... I'm not aware of any blessings and bestowing of swords. My point was this...

Read the entire thread, along with the 976 Anticipation Thread. All of each. The statement in January was "Spring 2017", which initially people (perhaps optimistically) expected to be in middish-Spring.

It's now Autumn. Summer is gone. And there hasn't been much status or updates. Yes, a dribble of perhaps two messages. But nearly nothing. Meanwhile, not Outlaw's problem, but for example, I actually moved in March. So for me "Spring" was a relevant timeframe; waiting through June knowing an end is in-sight is radically different than, more than six months later, still having vague, but unmet, promises.

Now, back to the diehard-loyalist (for which internet shorthand is "fanboy", but to sound more respectful I'll avoid the diminutive) responses, versus, for example, a disappointed and therefore annoyed consumer who was actually waiting to spend the money...
The dominant one was, "This happens all the time in the electronics industry."
I've spent most of my life in that and related fields. No, no it does't. But here's a similar example.
Anova is the dominant start-up sous vide company. Sansaire actually sort-of innovated first, but Anova was almost immediately right there, and kept improving while Sansaire didn't.
In June 2017, Anova started pre-selling the Nano cooker... much like a self-run kickstarter. Pre-orders were expected to begin shipping in October. Last week I received an email that it wouldn't ship this year, with three options, including one of switching to their current flagship model, which is a $30 discount from what Amazon charges and about $60 off their MSRP.
There is a difference, of course. Anova took money. But there's another difference... they did this well before October started. Outlaw updated us well after Spring ended. And then hasn't kept us updated.

If Outlaw really has no idea whether the 976 will ship in a week or in three months, it's hard to put faith in them. If, in May, they had no idea that they were at least two months from shipping, well, ditto. Regular updates wouldn't kill them, and might have kept the excitement alive, but more importantly, I could have time-budgeted and, for example, purchased a cheap throw-away Denon receiver for a few months while waiting. As it is, anyone who has faith that the 976 will ship in, say, six weeks either has inside information or perhaps should speak to a professional... in a non-electronics field.

Should you wait? Hey, I still believe the product will be amazing. If you don't need it, but merely want it, sure. And since you've mentioned repeatedly that you won't buy it, regardless, until near Christmas-time, you already are committed to waiting at least another several months. Heck yeah, get the best unit out then, and if the 976 is out, I'm sure it will spank the Emotiva.

You also, BTW, said six weeks ago... " I believe it will be out very soon." The question is... do you still believe that?

When this processor hits the market, and after some reviews and customer comments, I'll probably pick one up. I just hope that it sounds good enough to put my current processor into retirement. After having spent a few months with the 950, there were a few quirks that I hope get changed with the 976. First and foremost for me is input control and display. I hope that the 976 has the ability to rename inputs via the setup menu and have it displayed in the front window.

If there's to be beta testing, I'd be willing to take part. Bottom line, I can wait.

I wonder if Outlaw is working on their upcoming object based prepro at the same time they are working on the 976. I previously mentioned that the 976 would be the one for me since I saw no way I could do Atmos(using on or in-ceiling speakers) in my apartment, but I am now thinking about waiting on their Atmos prepro because I ordered some Atmos enabled speakers that I am going to try out next weekend. If I have success with them, then I may just wait on the Outlaw object based prepro or even consider the Marantz AV7703 which Outlaw is selling. If I don't have success with the Atmos enabled speakers then the 976 would be my choice.