I am not afraid to get a 978. I have two Outlaw amp, a 990, an OWA3 and an LFM1-EX. I just don't think it will be that much of a sonic improvement over what I have. I love my 990 for music as it is. I will run it until death comes to one of us. Outlaw is definitely not in Emotiva space. I don't think Emo likes to be criticized for the past practices. But... if they want people to stop they need to get their Sh*t in one sock with their newest device.
I've yet to purchase anything from Emotiva...mostly because of my aversion to spending money on higher end electronics that are assembled in China. That said, Emotiva DID recently purchase Bryston, a company that's very well respected in the industry. One would hope that Bryston's stellar reputation for quality and their very long warranties will be a good influence on Emotiva.
I was also a pretty big fan of my 990. I eventually stopped using it because of the lack of HDMI and more modern codec support. Outlaw's failure to follow-up the 990 with a successor in a timely manner has undoubtedly cost them a lot of business. I don't think I would buy a processor from them again after seeing the repeated flubs after the 990, but maybe some other folks are a bit more forgiving than I am...though I would caution those folks to avoid being the early adopter guinea pigs.
![smile smile](/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/default/smile.gif)
Such is life. I would still recommend their ATI-sourced amps, even though they are a bit pricey compared to similar offerings from Emo.
Best,