Alas the 975 does not have balanced outputs. I think the 976 is a great value proposition even if I use it as a dac and volume control.

PEQ will not correct for a speaker's impulse response. Dirac Live will.

An alternative is an Essense Evolve II-4k HDMI 7.1ch DAC and Parasound Halo P7 preamp, but then you're talking $2300 new and around $1900 used for JUST a 7.1 HDMI DAC and analog preamp, DTS and Dolby decoding having to be done elsewhere. Still, people have paired Oppo players and the P7 to great success, with out room correction beyond bass, level, and delay management in the Oppo.

With that, you'd have to add a nanoAVR HD and nanoAVR DL (or nanoAVR HDA with the $300 DL upgrade and forgo the Evolve DAC) at a cost of $800, for a total of $3100, not counting an HDMI 2.0b switch. But, this is only $600 more than an Emotiva XMC-1 with FAR better audio quality.

On edit: Hmm, the nanoAVR HDA used AKM AK4440 DACs and the Evolve II 4k uses Cirrus DACs. IIRC, Outlaw likes to use Cirrus DACs. Probably be OK with the DACs in the Outlaw 976, though it would be fun to A/B a nanoAVR HDA with DL upgrade through the analog in section of the 976 against the HDMI out of the nanoAVR through an HDMI input.