Again, I most respectfully ask what it is that is duplicative of the upcoming 978?

I would be curious to hear you explain your view of who / what is offering a "commoditized" overall design for any prepro...

Walk into any sort of store that sells ANYTHING related to "audio" in the broadest sense and while the functionality may be similar from a "30,000 foot level" the fact is there are relativeluy few offerings with the feature set that has been promised of the 978, and here I don't just mean the "software", but the analog portion of any pre-pro has LOTS of design decisions. Everything from what sorts of input tolerances are allowed to how the volume controls are designed have a rather immportant impact on what ultimately is sent to the amps. As has been discussed before there are only a handful of pre-pro units that could be considered "electrical peers" of the presumed features of the 978 and the value proposition of most of that small group is considerably more constrained -- many can only be considered the sorts of products that the top 1% of earners would ever be in a position to buy.

I find it odd that the skills /qualifications of a founder of Outlaw are being questioned. Scott Jackson's title, as Director of Sales, has included a hands-on role in product development, internal and external testing, logistics, QC, vendor relations and many other tasks that in a larger firm would certainly fall onto more specialized staff. The leanness of the firm and the past success have probably forced many competitors to re-evaluate how much overhead makes sense in this day of highly virtualized production.

Finally I find it most curious that you consider the "software and firmware" as so important, yet continue to suggest that there is something bad / cheap / undesirable about "standardized offerings". Taking that literally I would suggest that highest value software in the 978, the room equalization, is definately a "product" of the LOS ANGLES CA, USA based Audysssey LLC ( founded by Tomlison Holman & Chris Kyriakis of USC's Imersive Audio Lab) which is certainly offered, in admittedly a wide range of variations, by a huge variety of firms, all of whom do a substantial portion of their assembly in a part of the world that you are vehment in your distaste for...