1. I appreciate Peter's acknowledgement of the discontent that's been brewing in the silence. I had been approaching a 3 and considering other options, wondering if there was ever going to be a 997. Fortunately for me, my current unit is still operable. Just completely outdated. Believe me, it is not that I haven't wanted to upgrade. I have been waiting for an HDMI capable unit from Outlaw and have been for quite a while. When they announced the 997 over a year ago, I bought an amp on Audiogon and it is still sitting in the box. I had planned to buy one of the first units to be released, but given the bugs on the R-972, I'm going to need to wait to see if the 997 fares better.