I would argue that to some small extent we are all business partners with SN and Outlaw. Most of us own Outlaw gear which is still under an excellent 5 year warranty which could be put in jeopardy by the deceptive practices of SN towards the very people they want to convince to buy their creations. I can tell you that I jumped to the Onkyo even though I have heard about service issues and the warranty is way shorter partly because I don't know if either of the two main partners will make it through these tough times and I got tired of justifying the wait. Even with the loyalty discount I saved $100 over the 997 and got a proven piece of gear.