gonk, it is indeed the Anthem AVM 30. in fact I was just about to pull the trigger when I got the email about the 990. Still not decided on which yet. With IEEE-1394 I could listen to all formats including SACD. With HDMI, no SACD support.

But Firewire may be a dinosaur if the HDMI format is finalized for everything including HD-DVD/Blue Ray and Anthem is wondering if it is worth the cost to implement it if it will indeed be obsolete. My DVD player (Denon 3910) has both HDMI and Firewire. And I have read issues of audio dropouts via HDMI. I think Anthem will introduce IEEE-1394 despite the fact that many current Anthem owners don't even know what it is.

The Anthem is termed "future proof" in that there are rear panels that are ready to handle these future upgrades for firewire and HDMI. If Outlaw could be upgraded in the future to HDMI, I would do it and not look back. But I don't see anywhere on the back of the unit that could accommodate a future upgrade.

There is so much happening now it makes my head spin trying to decide.