I remember that when Outlaw announced the original 997/998/978 processors with an expected date of release there was a lot of enthusiasm for the new processors, same as for the Phoenix. The issue begins to fester when the release date comes and goes with no further information. Once the processor is very late people tend to get disinterested and start griping about no news, Outlaw offers another processor at a good price from Onkyo or Marantz. People then buy a processor and are out of the market for several years until the next great thing comes along (think HDMI, 3D, HDCP 2.2, HDR).

Ritz2: software IS a major part of a pre/pro these days, but correctly designed PCB's and component implementation is important.
All: a hardware update would tell us loyal customers that Outlaw is still working the project. I certainly don't expect a target release date announcement.

Given that they are likely using merchant silicon for everything (probably a good assumption, but you never know), it's a matter of sticking with a reference design for the hardware and then layering on the software. The hardware is likely the least of their worries and wouldn't really tell me anything about how far along the process is. Color me jaded. I would be interested to see them pull a rabbit out of their hat and bounce back from the previous oopses. Time will tell.

+1

+2 If Outlaw isn't currently working on a new pre/pro I'd like to know that so I can get better acquainted with the current crop of pre/pros should my 990 die or I decide I want to take advantage of new features (e.g. HDMI )

Well, they've been giving us updates January-ish the last couple of years so I expect that's when we'll hear the next state of the union on the Phoenix. It'd be nice to hear something sooner than that, though, especially if it's to be of the bad news variety in the form of "no real news yet" or "project cancelled". That would let folks that have been holding off maybe take advantage of any deals that might catch their eyes over the holidays.

+1

I realize I am in the minority here but I would still prefer to have the eq in a seperate device. It seems silly to me to have to pay for room correction every time I upgrade.

As an example if I wanted to add eq to my 975 I set the outboard eq in the rack with a single HDMI out from the 975 to the eq. Run from the eq to the amps. Use the sync in the 975 to correct any issues or do a simple HDMI passthrough the eq with the sync correction built in there.

I had once suggested Outlaw partner with White Instruments to revamp their Paramedic line for this purpose. Either 24 or 48 bands with adjustable iso centers should be about as future proof as one could get. With 24 bands one could eq multiple zones so the single unit could provide room correction for any system in the home.

I wonder how much of a market there would be for this device.

Good question Xenon. There is a stand alone unit running the Dirac Live processing so someone thinks there is a market. The big question in my mind is what are the costs associated with adding top level room correction to a pre/pro or AVR?

Someone with more knowledge than myself would have to chime in on this but it seems reasonable to me that if a person bought one of the new OPPO (or any other top level brand) 4k players and had outboard room correction the 4K player could become the media hub and volume control eliminating the need for a new 4K pre/pro all together. Some sort of pre/pro, AVR would still be necessary for multi zone capability and quite possibly Atmos/DTS-X though the new 4K players do include the capability so the Atmos/DTS-X point could well be moot.