What happens to those aspects if Onkyo buys Outlaw outright? In this market it is not too farfetched.
I doubt that we'd see that. Never say "never" of course, but I don't see the business case that would justify this for Onkyo.
Is Outlaw saying that the R-972 has not been officialy launched by saying, "When you hear news of the Sherwood R-972's introduction, consider it a sign that the Model 997 is moving forward, but not the start of a precise "60 day countdown clock"?"
I believe that is true. It matches what I've seen elsewhere - the R-972 has not launched yet, and the handful that are out "in the wild" are mainly with dealers or past customers who are providing some testing services.
Are they saying that the differences between the two units are now much bigger than they anticipated by essentailly saying it will take longer than 60 days to release the 997?
That's harder to say. Maybe they plan to make some changes to the interface, which will require resources that may still be focused more on the 972. Maybe they are going to add or modify some functionality. It may also simply be that they are saying what I and some others have long suggested: just because the factory only needs 60 days, doesn't mean that Outlaw is going to sign off on the firmware at the same point in development that Sherwood does, so they may need more than 60 days to wrap up pre-production bug-fixing.
I am sad today. But with that said, thank you Outlaw for the open and honest update. Thank you for making sure this pre/pro is right. I will wait.
I'm a bit torn, myself.
On the one hand, I think it's a smart move by Outlaw, and it's an option that (aside from the Audyssey/Trinnov consideration) isn't going to be any particular compromise. The 886 is a mighty fine piece (nobody around here has ever suggested otherwise) and it gives Outlaw something to offer customers right now. That's good for the company, and doing this doesn't restrict what they do with the 997 at all. As an 885 owner, I particularly like the "Outlaw Guide" - I've gotten spoiled by Outlaw and OPPO Digital manuals.
(What's really funny is my knack for buying too soon. I got the SMS-1 before Outlaw posted their guide for it, and I got the 885 before this 886 guide arrived.)
On the other hand, my wife has never liked our 885. Sonically it performs as well as the 990 did, but it's slower to acquire audio streams, the video processing creates some delays in the picture appearing, and the smorgasbord of features leads to a wickedly complicated interface. She preferred the 990, and so she's fully in support of giving the 997 a try (which gives me both an excuse to upgrade and a chance to try Trinnov). This deal does suggest that we've got more than a couple more months to wait. As you point out, though, I'd much rather they get it
right than they get it to me
right now.
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