I tried these on, gave them a good walk-around in the store and left undecided.  I had tried several different shoes, my ankle was sore and I wasn't sure which shoe(s) was/were the culprit.  About six weeks earlier I had turned my ankle nearly sideways stumbling into a boot-sized hole.  I tried to slowly build up the strength in the ankle wearing my Reeboks but it became clear I needed more ankle support if I hoped to be able to return to some level of fitness walking.

Since the 978s came closest to what I was looking for, after a few days of pondering, I decided to give them a full-time shot.

Good news: the ankle support is there, thanks to a snug fit and the flexible tightening of the upper laces.

Bad news: after several short (less than two mile) walks, the ball of my foot was sore.  Small wonder, as the 978's insoles have no cushion whatsoever.  The shoes were beyond returning with a good conscience, so I decided to get a pair of third-party insoles (Dr. Scholl's Active Series).  The cushioning is definitely better but I now have learned the lesson that Scholl's Men's Size 7.5-10 is optimally set for a size somewhere in between, as the arch for a 10 hits me in the wrong place.  I have also determined that at least with this model of insole it raises the ball of my foot even more than I expected.  Hopefully I will be able to find the right combination of lace tightness and looseness to accommodate for the thicker insole.  Now I get to find out just how well their guarantee actually works.

Back to the 978s.  Like I said, they are snug in the width for both the ball of the foot and the heel.  I am really a Size 10C, but it's all but impossible to find any shoes other than expensive dress shoes in 10C.  The 978s at least for now come as close to a 10C size as any 10D I have ever worn.  They are bound to stretch a bit over use, but hopefully not to the point where my heel is swimming.

The rolling effect of the soles is just about right for how I walk.  Beyond putting them on and taking them of five or six times to stretch the upper, there was virtually no break-in time.  I haven't owned a pair of New Balance in ages, so I can't make any comparison in quality to recent shoe models, but they appear to be well-made by 2012 standards and prices.

INSOLE UPDATE:

Stay away from insoles that have a hard instep support.  The instep was the problem with the "Active" pair of insoles and the "Gel Sport" uses the same type of hard instep support.  There may be a certain "ideal" shoe size where the hard instep works in a 978, but it's not a Men's Size 10.  I dropped down a level and went with the "Massaging Gel"  Size 8-13.  The insole conforms to the shoe and the balls of my feet greatly appreciate the increased padding.  One oddity: cutting to a Size 10 leaves the insoles too long.  I cut down to a Size 9 and everything lined up.