Can't say for certain when it changed, but SB has dropped the price of the RioCentral to $1,149 on their website. Who knows, maybe this is a "test" of sorts to see how many folks will buy at that price (although, I must admit, I didn't realize they dropped the price until I read it on another forum -- so this seems to be an un-advertised price) OR perhaps SB is coming out with the next generation of this unit (which will presumably be cheaper ala the RTV units) and they're trying to unload the existing units. $1,149 is CLOSER to what I'd pay, but not quite "there" yet. With the drop in HD prices, I'd expect the target price (mentioned in my first post) of $1,130 to drop. Perhaps something closer to the $850 range for a 40GB HD unit.