Don't you mean the 'original 997'?

As you said, the 998 has been put on hold, but has not had the 'plug pulled', correct?

Good catch.

Sorry about that.

Peter

PeterT,

Can you confirm if Trinnov room correction is still planned as a feature of the on hold 998? I understand there are no gaurantees but is it still an intention? Thank you.

Concerning Trinnov, we would certainly like to do it but there are now some uncertainties.
First the implementation of Trinnov in the Newcastle 972 was less than optimal(,along with several other aspects of that receiver) and a lot of work would have to be done to get it up to our standards.
Second,the ADA Trinnov product which is great and a very sophisticated implementation is extremely expensive due to several factors, some of which are costly licensing and NRE fees.

The above could put Trinnov out of reach. It really depends if other licensees can come on board to help lower overall development costs. So while we really like this system, the cost benefit/ratio might not be justified in the 998. We keep looking at this situation and have made no final decision. However we wanted you to know just what challenges we presently face

Our total focus now is to complete the 978 and then we will again visit the Trinnov situation.

Getting back to the original question:


I think Peter's latest post has bumped me into the "no" category. Even if there is a business case for the 998 it sounds like a multi-year development effort to me.

Thanks for the update.

This solidifies my focus on the 978. I believe it will have all I need. I was intrigued by Trinnov, but without it, I'm not sure what the 998 would offer me. I had debated waiting for Trinnov given my odd room configuration, but if the 998 may not even have Trinnov, I'm not sure it would make sense for me to wait any longer.

I wonder if it would be possible for a company like Outlaw to bring out a stand alone version of Trinnov like the old ICBM. Make it HDMI and analog compatible and lots of people would buy one just to see it work on their system. I had thought a while back of getting a used r-972 to try out Trinnov. I would have output my Onkyo 886 to the r-972 input and fed 7 channels out. It could have gotten confusing but it would have been interesting to try.

I waited (and waited and waited) only because of Trinnov. Without it Outlaw sort of becomes the bang for the buck answer again. Not that that is a bad thing. But you were really poised to be a leader, not a "quality for lower price alternative".

That said, I really appreciate the response. As I've mentioned in month past I'm guessing the programming just couldn't come together. Whatever the exact reasons, things are what they are. And I appreciate the realities of the Trinnov costs. Since I really like Outlaw and their business model I will continue to "attempt" to offer suggestions.

My pitch to Trinnov, and any other license holders, is have them analyze how many units they sell at (what is it, $15,000?) and to think long and hard whether they would make more money as a volume proposition. For as stand-alone correction device $999.00 strikes me as cut-off where you could sell them all week long and Sundays too.

Of course, this may be simply unrealistic and an impossibility. If within reach, however, be the first to market this and you could really be on to something. To my ear, the thing that sets today's mid to high end AVR's and processors apart is room correction. Sell this idea and a stand alone "one set of correction algorithms to rule them all" solution could sell well. Then again, it took years for the market to figure out you needed high-def input for a high-def TV to look better than standard def so there is always risk!

Good luck and get that damn 978 out NOW before my wife forces my hand and I find myself in the arms of Integra/Onkyo, or Marantz!

If I am to be honest, I think without trinnov there is no point in releasing the 998. I doubt it will have anything of significant value over the 978. You might as well just move on to the 1198 (or whatever your next major number will be) and to your next major processor release. Calling the 998 an enhanced version of the 978 will sound like a missed boat. Just dump it and move on to your next great thing. At least then we won't be waiting another 5 years for a non existent processor.