I actually think Gonk has checked out. I believe he has moved on from Outlaw. His last post sounded like someone who was completely disinterested in the 978 or anything "Outlaw". That was my "impression". I certainly don't speak for him, but it certainly sounded like he wasn't even reading the posts on here anymore. I truly believe he is not beta testing, though until his last post, I thought that must be where he was.
According to this BBS, this seems to be
Gonk's last post, dated from March 21st:
I have continued to be a scarce presence around here lately, but a friend told me to check out the announcement about the Model 978 so here I am (however briefly). It's a very detailed update, and a clear picture of how much else is happening in the background to move the project forward. It looks to me like they stayed quiet so long because they wanted to get an answer to the hardware obstacles facing XT32 before they said anything, which I can understand. It's hard to be excited with plenty of work left to do, but it is heartening to see that they have cleared some hurdles that appear to have been significant delays up to this point and have a plan laid out in front of them to get through to completion.
As we can see, he reports his impressions on where things stand and shows understanding for the situation Outlaw is in. I doesn't look to me as if he's disinterested. Although he points out that it's hard to be excited with the all the work that remains, he shows optimism that Outlaw seems to be on their way to complete the project.
I remember when Gonk was beta testing the Oppo BDP-83 and participating on the AV Science Forum's thread for the BDP-83. He was reporting back fairly regularly what he was allowed to under his NDA. Maybe he's just too busy now with his work, the family, the 978 beta testing
, etc. The Oppo beta testing program was a much more open process than the 978's beta program appears to be. God, how often I've wished that Oppo would have produced a processor along the lines of the 978, they basically already have about half the design needed under their belt.
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