I was pleasantly surprised at the 976 announcement and I look forward to learning more in the near future about this new pre/pro.

It seems to me the 976 is like a less cluttered 990 brought up to date with better DACs, HDMI that works with the latest video, latest audio codecs, etc in that it is still largely a "manual" pre/pro. Video processing is now probably best applied in the display versus the pre/pro so the 976 video is a pass through. We don't have a manual for the 976 yet but audio setup is probably with a mic and test tones that can be adjusted with further equalization. That could be helpful but I'm not sure what tools Outlaw recommends to identify where and how further EQ would be used. Is Room EQ Wizard a solution? Of course all the manual fine tuning could be avoided with room correction software that should be part of their next pre/pro. But if I still have to tweak the settings following room correction I'd rather have the 976 if Outlaw provides detailed instructions on how to set PEQ including what tools to use.

I think I will wait a bit longer to see what features are included in the next Outlaw pre/pro. I don't have any way to incorporate all the speakers needed for Atmos etc so presently that feature isn't important to me but it should have room correction and other goodies that may be worth the $1500 estimated price and the additional $600 to $700 above the price of the 976.