My Take is this: I have not bought a Pre-Pro since the 950 which sold a few years later hoping to get the newer models. It seamed that there was all ways bugs, so I switch over to the receiver as a pre-pro method and have not looked back. Emo has been hit with bugs as with most of the smaller companies. Even Onkyo and Denon latest offerings had a few bugs, but like the 4311 the bugs were fix. These are DSP based machines now and I guess it is a lot harder to bring a product like these to market as fast as the giant companies with hundreds of people working the issues.
Maybe Blasphemy for saying, but maybe Outlaw should connect with Marantz or Onkyo (since Outlaw sells their products time to time) and have them make a new pre-pro with any of Outlaws requirements, brand it Outlaw. Outlaw probably could bring new products like these to market much faster and with less bugs and be able to keep further up to date with the barrage of features that keep coming out.
I am still rooting for the 998 to come out.