Well, since the 978 won't have a large torroidal transformer, gold plated connections or O2 Free copper I guess we might as well stop anticipating such a poor piece of equipment. It will likely be outweighed by many much cheaper designs. Maybe Outlaw will go the B.A.S.S cheaters route and plunk down a nice piece of lead to make it much heavier and then it can be considered high enough quality to compete with other "legacy junk". A nice brushed lead faceplate would make it so much better. How much does a good pre-pro go for per pound these days.