See the thing is that I really do believe that there is still a whole lot of potential for someone with the right mix of ideas to make a profound difference in the direction of direct-to-consumer audio / home theater products.

From what I know about working in larger organizations there is a whole bunch of concern about "keeping the front line sellers happy" and that typically involves all kinds of decisions about things that happen before anyone has really made any decisions / designs for a "new" product -- things like having a "good/better/best" range of offerings, giving buyers reasons to "move up" to the more profitable product, making compromised on the 'entry level' offerings...

Don't get my wrong, I completely with EEman that it is exceedingly unlikely that any of the "big guys" that sit on the standards boards for things like HDMI or 4K will willingly allow a tiny firm like Outlaw or similar direct-to-consumer firm make a huge leap in terms of TIME TO MARKET for these technologies BUT I do think that there is probably a way to profitably sell something VERY "up to date" inside the price framework that exists.

Right now:

Outlaw Model #975 $549

next "step up" is

Marantz AV7701 $1699

above that is

Marantz AV8801 $3599


(yes I know about open box specials / combos / refurbs, but those are current 'normal' selling prices)

Seems to my with eleven hundred bucks between the entry model OR nineteen hundred bucks between the 7701 & its big brother there is room for something in either category. The amount of features that are in even the 7701 seems excessive to me -- the darn thing supports TWO FULL zones with HDMI and a THIRD zone with audio. Really, who uses those "features"? It has been capable of 4K upscaling since its introduction, how many people could possibly be using that?

Heck look at all these inputs:
HDMI In: 7 (including front HDMI input)

• Component In: 3

• Composite In: 4

• HDMI Out: 3 (2 x Simultaneous, 1 x Zone 2)

• Component Out: 1

• Composite Out: 2

• Analog L&R In: 6

And networking:

• Networking: AirPlay, DLNA 1.5 certified Audio/Photo Streaming, Internet Radio, Streaming service capability (Pandora/SiriusXM/flickr and Spotify)

Just create a less "glitzy" pre-pro that is "handicapped" in only doing 4K video pass-thru / source switching, sane amounts of inputs, all the various codes and TOP NOTCH high resolution / narrow bandwidth computerized audio equalization for a much more attractive price and I would be thrilled to spend something quite a bit more than double what the 975 sells for ...