I don't think Outlaw has said one way or another about the balanced stereo inputs yet. One thing you may want to consider: Outlaw has said the 978 will ship with "state of the art" DAC's. I'm waiting to see exactly what they are before I commit to either the Oppo BDP-93 or 95. If the Outlaw has comparable DAC's to the Oppo 95, I will get the BDP-93 and use HDMI to take advantage of Audyssey XT32 in the 978.