The Ref70 is an impressive looking piece of gear, but it looks to be at least twice the price of the Model 997 (street prices I found in a quick search were around $3,150 and I think the MSRP is around $3,800) and judging by some searching I did this morning it had a similarly delayed launch (mention of a planned January 2008 release followed by folks wondering in late September when it would arrive). Plenty of inputs, some interesting control capabilities, a Reon-based video processor, and I would expect very good sound quality, but it's in a different price range that should be accompanied by some associated benefits in performance. At that price point, you are starting to compete with the AVM40 and AVM50 just as much as you are with the Integra 9.9/Onkyo 886. At the same time, it doesn't appear to have on-board decoding of the new audio formats or any form of room correction, both of which will be offered by the Model 997.