I went with the A-9 too. I have a Futaba 9-C I have been using sense they first cme out. I upgraded from a Hitec 7. At the time th HT I had only could program 3 planes and that turned into a problem very fast. The 9 allowed me a lot of planes set up in one radio and a ot of room to grow/expand. I have had to use a match box on planes like 35% to 40% nut that isn't any big deal.
The Hitec A-9 is the radio I have been looking at in 2.4, I have my futaba set up for both 72 and 2.4 but my radio is getting a bit old. With the A-9 you are able to just go back and forth from 2.4 to 72 by changing out the module so you don't need to buy a thousand dollars worth of RXs all at one time to change over.
To date I haven't seen one radio problem with the Hitec or Futaba. No one can say that about JR/Spektrum. I can't afford to sacrifice a plane to a radio glitch or brown out. With the A-9 and Futaba system there is no reason to run the risk.