Received my 970 yesterday but had to work late so I didn't get started until rather late last night. Out of the box the 970 looks good and has a good quality feel to it. This is replacing a Marantz SR7500 receiver in a bedroom system.

Associated equipment:

Linn Ikemi CD player
Sony DVP-NS900V DVD/SACD player
Pioneer PRO-510 RPTV
Linn 5125 amp driving active Linn Katans as mains
Linn 5105 amp driving active Linn 5120 center
Linn 5105 amp driving Brand X surrounds
Klipsch LF-10 sub

Watched selected scenes from "War Of The Worlds" and was quite pleased, the sound was very clear and dynamic without being bright or etchy. Bass response was excellent, mostly due to being able to tune the speakers better with 970's quad crossovers (SR7500 has global crossover). At this point I was really tired but I threw Porcupine Tree's "Lightbulb Sun" in the Ikemi and listened to the track "Russia On Ice". This song is an interesting blend of styles with a couple of good low bass hits. The 970 did a great job with this in stereo bypass mode. By then I was completely wiped out and needed sleep but my first impressions of the 970 are really good. I think Outlaw has done another bang-up job of creating a processor and once the word gets out it should be a big seller for them. I'll post a bit more once I can spend some time with the 970 but if anyone's on the fence about it I would recommend ordering one now before the first batch sells out.

Thanks for the late-night testing, Audioholic. I look forward to hearing more as you get the 970 settled in.