It is hard for me to envision someone buying the 8003 and then the 998. What would be the motivation? The 998 will have Trinnov and HDMI 1.4 and on the surface will likely be as well spec'd as the 8003. I wonder with the El Cheapo nuts and bolts kind of customer that Outlaw has cultivated, if they will sell enough to make a mark. I bought the 886 only after they dropped the price $350. Even Peter T. was surprised at how many orders they got in 6 hours. I got mine for $100 less than the 997 would have cost after the $200 discount. The same type of sale won't work with the 8003 being twice the cost of the 998. The buyers of the 8003 are playing on a different field than most of the Outlaws are.

I doubt anybody will buy the 8003 and then the 998. Some folks may not be in a position to wait for the 998, and thus may get the 8003 now because it's available. Somebody setting up a system from scratch today could get a combo of 8003 and amp - the combo provides some discount (possibly a major discount, if they're buying one of the bigger amps) and equipment that they can use today. I doubt such a buyer would buy a new processor for a while. The kicker is that they can offer something to those people who want to buy today. Those of us who may want to buy at some point are not likely to need this option.

I stand corrected on the homework issue PT.
For the record I am staying put with my 990 until the 998 is up and running.
I never had doubts that Outlaw was anything less than a first class act for quality and service.

Thanks for the clarification on the AV8003.

How cool it would have been if Outlaw had taken maybe 100 bucks off the list price and still provided all the great service, etc. A real differentiator from the rest of the "bust-out-list-price" gang and still (unless I am completely mistaken) a nice profit for Outlaw. Hard to believe that Marantz insists on approved distributors charging full list, but it wouldn't be the first thing I've ever been wrong about (maybe the second or third...;-)

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Marantz tries to hold online dealers to the list price, as that protects their other dealers (the brick & mortar outlets and custom installers).

Outlaw's work-around to that seems to be the package deals. Buy an amp with the AV8003, and you can get more than $100 knocked off the total price...

In late winter of 2009 when my old Yamaha AVR died, with my two 7125's waiting on the rack and no sign of the 997 and since the 8003 had been out for a few months, at the time, I seriously pondered buying this unit. Just a few months prior to that, Marantz also introduced the 5003 and 6003 AVRs(with similar faceplates to the 8003) and in all honesty when looking at the feature set and processing power, which were very similar to the 8003, I ended up buying the 5003 using it as a Pre-Pro because, for the life of me, I just couldn't justify the massive difference in price point between the 8003 and the 5003 unit. My observation would also apply to the newer 5004.

The 8003 was introduced in August of 2008 and considering what has "come down the pike" since that time, in essence, this is now a "legacy" piece of equipment which, in my opinion, wouldn't make sense to purchase at this price even if I was looking for a new Pre-Pro or AVR today!

There is no question in being able to sell this product and appease the manufacturer, prices must be kept in line, however, assuming the 998 is introduced in the next few months, realistically it will more than likely be, at a minimum, "light years" ahead of the 8003 in feature set and maybe even performance for considerably less money, so I think I will just wait.

As a happy 990 owner, I've got amps a-plenty. Guess I'll wait it out. I've shopped at authorized dealers in the past, and as often as not still seen some kind of discount, sale price, temporary reduction or whatever you want to call it. We've become acculturated to not paying list price for this kind of stuff (even on this site with "family" discounts, regular sales, and so on), and so this remains a bit hard to swallow. Also a departure from the normal Outlaw pricing sweet spot, IMHO.

when your competing with other online vendors price everything will drop in price..

for the moment atleast I would say the 8003 would be the only option you could go, since the 998 is no show for the time being atleast, feature specs the 998 may win hands down comps, though you're still only going on a speculative of what the final specs will be for the 998..

until the 998's release, you're playing a wait and see game..

if you want something to use now, the only options I see is, if you want processor/pre-amp then the only 2 options you got is 8003 from marrantz or pr-5507 from onkyo unless you got the cash to buy the denon avp, you're going to be limited at looking for avr's with pre-outs.

looking at the current 2010 avr line up you'll be looking for high end models for pre-outs as looking this year's avr releases from onkyo, denon and yamaha most of the mid level gear likely have no pre-out support... the only difference will be wattage output..

agreed, it is a wait and see game (anyone noticed that it's been a couple of months without any update since the 998 announcement? just sayin'...). luckily, my "still kickass" 990 is making the wait quite bearable, wire jungle notwithstanding.

hmm I wish the 990 was still available as it would give me something to use.