I would not call it an "arguement" so much as friendly speculation and refutation. My contention is that there is so limited a set of offerings in the pre-pro category that it is all but impossible for there to be some firm cranking out "generic reference designs" (whatever that might even mean is quite a mind twister) just waiting to order its yellow horde to slap name plaques on 'em to knock a death blow to a non-existant US based industry.

Just becuase the Outlaw business model includes reselling Marantz pre-pros does not mean that they have any more ability to tap into the D&M "supply chain" than a firm like Best Buy would tap Panasonic to build its house brand TV sets...

Similarly if one was to speculate that perhaps Outlaw partnered with a firm like ATI to supply some schematics / prototypes for the 978 I would wonder if there would ever be anything "under the covers" to link the "heritage" of that firm's costly solution to the likely much more affordable 978...

Firms like Denon, part of D&M, do not even offer a pre-pro. Other competitors, like Onkyo / Integra would seem highly averse to sharing technology / manufacturing with Outlaw and their much leaner business...

While it can be fun to speculate on "who makes what for whom" in my limited experience the similarities between the various products assembled by large off shore firms is all but nonexistant. The well built responsive iPads churned out by hundreds of thousands working in Foxconn plants are nothing likethe junkiy Chimei LCD monitors made by the same firm.