I am waiting to see 978 in the market. It will be nice to see 998 be introduce to rest of us but I doubt it will be anytime soon. Meanwhile, I am looking into if it is worth while to implement Audyssey DSX wide/height channel into my HT room. From installation stand point, it will not be too difficult to install height channel speakers but wide might be little difficult for my setup. Of course if I get 978, that is not even option.

My current 990 is still working without problem but I really do need to update HDMI capability soon. Room correction is very interesting concept and would like to see if it is improvement in my system. I have my money saved up for next pre/pro upgrade for a while and I really thought 978 was going to be my next upgrade before I left for this deployment earlier this year. Meanwhile all the big electronic giants introduce their next pre/pro like every year it seems like.

Emotiva UMC-1 was another one I closely followed. Even though it shared its many faults and difficulties updating its firmware but at least Emotiva can call it it's their own pre/pro unlike Outlaw's current situation. They do have many very loyal happy customers for UMC-1 even with well documented bugs among other users. Their next pre/pro is XMC-1 but it is anybody's guess when it will actually be available to consumers. UMC-1 has been on the market for over a year now and with their latest firmware, it should be fairly solid without too much glitches.

So if I have a chance to purchase my next pre/pro now, following products are my list to consider:

Integra DHC 80.2 / Onkyo PR-SC5508
Marantz AV 7005
Denon AVR 4311CI
Emotiva UMC-1

Audio performance is my priority and would like to stick with separates instead of receivers but Denon 4311ci makes strong candidate since it can process surround sounds with all 11.2 channels engaged if you wish. From its general concepts of 978, I really like how they concentrate its audio performance instead of bells and whistles. I will be perfectly happy to stay with my current 7.2 channels HT if I can have a pre/pro that concentrates on sound quality foremost thus waiting for 978 to be available. Who knows when 978 will be ready but I am still hopeful it will be ready within couple of months. Once I have a chance to purchse my next pre/pro, I will update here with my initial impression with the product.