As noted in the "Who" thread, the picture of the rear panel of the 978 says "made in P.R.C.". I would think that as many parts as possible would therefor be made in China. However, it seems that they don't know right now what components come from Japan, and what impact that will have on the release.

My wishful estimate that the 998 follows the 978 by six months is based on the assumption that the 998 differs only by the implimentation of Trinnov. The 978 was only created to get something to market more quickly. In fact, before adding Audyssey MultEq XT32, it was scheduled to be out by the end of this month.