I don't know a lot about either company's offering at the moment. On the one hand, Outlaw has been pretty tight-lipped. On the other, I got a bit burned out on Emotiva after the LMC-1.

We have seen a few tidbits from Outlaw (I'd find the latest newsletter but I'm on my iPhone at the moment). They have mentioned some new and important technology, which has generated several guesses around here, ranging from video processing to room correction). The first one we'll see is a replacement for the 990, so combine the 990 with HDMI v1.3, newer video processing, and probably some sort of room correction.

The Emotiva stuff is apparently based on the Cirrus 49700, as it has been delayed from December 2007 or so (in part because of delays caused by Cirrus). I haven't visited their forum in a while, though, so I don't know what the release schedule or feature set is. Probably ought to check into it at some point, just because it will start to come up more.