The Model 990 case is taken from Sherwood's R-965, which was also used by Sherwood's P-965 and Boston Acoustics' short-lived adventure into separates (an adventure that came to a screeching halt around the time that D&M Holdings bought them - no point sustaining that line with Denon and Marantz already in the stable). I've read that the R-965 chassis is being used for Sherwood's planned R-972 receiver. The question is whether Outlaw plans to build on that platform or on something else - their relationship with Eastech pre-dates their relationship with Etronics (the company that owns Sherwood and does the manufacturing), so it's hard to say which way it could go. The 990's chassis is pretty darn huge, which was a problem for some people, but it's worked out nicely for me - I certainly wouldn't object to seeing it return for a second generation, although Outlaw might be just as happy to shave an inch or two of height off just to minimize the "but it's HUGE" objections.

As for the front, I am going to agree with you - I've been quite happy with the industrial design of the 990 and the other products of its generation. The "950 style" got made fun of a great deal, and I think some people still criticize Outlaw gear as "ugly" because of that even though they made some pretty significant changes. As for the Emotiva stuff, I thought the DMC-1 design was nice even if I didn't care for the single-line display (too little info for the gadget geek in me), but the LMC-1/MMC-1 design that has become their new standard isn't one I'm as fond of.