I wrote the post below and was about to post it, but decided to add something to the start. Like grimster, I've seem some very positive information about the 9.8, which leads me to suspect that it is a very good product even without taking into account it's early arrival (as compared to most everybody else) in the market. The musings that follow aren't meant to detract from the 9.8 at all.

The 9.8's feature set is definitely a good point to aim for and is likely to drive some very nice sales numbers for Integra, but it has also caused me to start wondering just how significant the feature-set shift is going to be in this next generation.

This next generation seems to be primarily thought of by many as the "HDMI generation." HDMI v1.3 (the first version that many manufacturers felt comfortable embracing on a large scale) is the driving force behind that, of course. But the new generation of DSP chips appear to be offering a lot of other things as a result of the new horsepower (brought about by probably a combination of the need to support the new audio formats and the inevitability of Moore's Law) and the notion of video processing has started to take off. The result seems to be that these "HDMI generation" products are also consistently offering various flavors of auto-setup and auto-EQ (something that's been happening steadily for several years now, of course, thanks in large part to Audyssey), and they are using one of the numerous video processing chips (Genesis Faroudja, Silicon Optix's HQV Reon and Realta, ABT's stuff, ...) to incorporate much more sophisticated video processing than we're used to. Ironically, the HDMI v1.3 that everyone has clamored for has yet to be truly put to the test, as we still lack any sources that can use v1.3's bitstream support for TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio or any sources or displays that can make use of the greater video bandwidth.

As things stand right now, the 9.8 has a very potent feature set for its price, and I certainly wouldn't argue against it as a good choice for a processor. If we evaluate the situation again in six months or so, though, I wonder if the 9.8 will seem to have set the bar for features or whether it will have instead been the first to jump a bar that was already set by other factors. In other words, I wonder if Outlaw, Rotel, Adcom, NAD, and the rest aren't already developing products with just this sort of mix of capabilities at price points just as aggressive (relative to performance and companies' target markets) as the 9.8's.

Yeah, 2008 could be pretty darned interesting...