I had been waiting for the UMC-1 for near 2 years now (preorder list and all) and watching the 997 progress at the same time. Am I no EE but I do believe the the UMC-1's hardware platform is good, most users report of its impressive musicality etc.. Bugs are not fun, but I guess most can be fixed; what I'm really sad about is the EQ/bass management/delay routing implementation which is a design choice and will likely not change. So I'll be watching the news about the 998 closely now...