Integra 9.8/Onkyo vs Denon A1HDCI

Same 1796DAC, but Denon has them in differential mode.
For price wise if you can afford the Denon, you should get Anthem.

Wrong, why would you say this?


I am looking into it but right now I do not know.

the integera has xlr's but 8 dac's, the Denon has 16.
Decoding next gen audio is irrelevant because the Ps3 and the new Panasonic and Sony BD's decode internally. Anthem is modular so the DSP chips can be replaced with HDMI 1.3 if everyone feells it's worth it.

I appreciate your opinion fanboz, but I have owned the Anthem D1 and sold it to buy the denon AVP A1HD. The Denon is superior for HT. The sound is more enveloping and dynamic. For 2-channel I can't say I could tell the difference.

In fact, the Denon 3808 which I used until the AVP A1HD arrived was darned close to the D1 if not equal. I have been a big fan of Anthem for years and owned the AVM20 for several years prior to the D1, however the new Denon is just simpky a better unit.

Having made the last two posts, now I apologize to the OP. Your question was about the 9.8 vs. the Denon and I can't answer that. I like the Denon but it's evident from the very long thread that lots of people love the 9.8. If you read the Denon AVP A1HD thread, there is at least one poster there who bought the 9.8 and sold it. Maybe you can PM him and get his opinion.

That is not true...

Former D2 owner, current Denon owner (5308, not the AVP.)

I had a Onkyo 905, and can tell you the video processing on the Denon (I have a 5308, which has the same video proc) is better, and on par with the Anthem D2 (which I had.)

The Denon's can be controlled over Ethernet via IP..

Onkyo's customer service is similar to Denon''s (read poor) but their upgrade policy is very consumer unfriendly.... see the Onkyo threads.

Do check out the AVP owners thread.. people over there are very happy

This is fundamentally incorrect. Lots of casual disinformation being spread. Based on what? Anthem has said the unit cannot be retrofitted to 1.3 without effectively replacing the majority of the unit, regardless of how anyone feels, regardless of the relationship of the HDMI interface to the DSPs.

It's been my experience that upgrades to "modular" units usually cost just about as much as simply buying a new non-upgradable unit that was designed to do what you want from the start.

When you consider that you could also sell your old unit to offset much of the cost of the new unit, paying for hardware upgrades is usually just a bad idea.

Amen to that...I just replaced my Integra Research RDC-7 in favor of the Integra DCT-9.8 for this very reason. When I purchased the RDC-7 it was suppose to be "future proof" WRONG. Most RDC-7 owners were so unhappy with the support or lack there of they will not buy another Integra or Onkyo piece.

See page 68 of the Owners Manual too..

Yeah that would suck.
As far as I know the only truly modular piece where it might be worth the bucks for a new module is the Meridian 861 but we`re talking stratospheric pricing for the original unit.

On the 9.8 vs AVP front - I think it really depends on your budget. The Denon has much higher build quality and surprisingly a larger feature set. Whether that translates into better audio performance remains to be seen - on paper it seems as though it should wipe the floor on the 9.8 and that it should easily compete with the `big boys`.

I sold my 9.8 and I`m waiting for the AVP. I could have easily lived with the 9.8 but since I can afford the AVP I`m going to give it a go because it has some features the 9.8 doesn`t that I can put to good use;

Three sub outputs that can be configured to match my 3 sub set-up.

Dual simultaneous output 1080p HDMI outs - I have two 1080p displays in different rooms.

More Audyssey Pro options like `front`where you EQ the rest of your system to match your fronts, and the addition of Dynamic EQ.

The Anthem D1 was easily transformed into the D2, and the D2 will be upgradable to the upcoming D3. So the 5-6 years old D1 WILL be upgradable to the D3...

And about Audyssey Pro... Like Bob pariseau said elsewhere: ''I've heard rumors that Audyssey vs. ARC reviews are in the works. Again these are just rumors so we can't really get them yet, but the early word that I've heard is that ARC beats the pants off of Audyssey. And at a fraction of the price of course.''

And after comparing both The IR 9.8 with Audyssey Pro and the Anthem D2 with ARC, I totally agree with that.

Regarding the upgrade of a D1 or D2... they are limited to 5.1 input on HDMI, and would require a complete DSP swap out... it would be a new unit for all intensive purposes...

Your quoted Bob P. said:


And he's just talking about going from 5.1 to 7.1 on the HDMI inputs.

Trade in maybe.

Upgrade? That's stretching it... and once again, the OP was asking about the Denon vs. Onkyo/Integra.

And your comment about the ARC vs. Aud doesn't hold water... perhaps the ARC smokes it... but to say one is a fraction of the price than the other is untrue...

In fact, you need a stand alone PC to use ARC, whereas the Aud is built into the products and integrated into the UI.

I get a basic Aud on my Denon included in the price of the unit.. if I want it on my D2, I have to pay for it unless I buy a new unit.

And the cost of a Pro key is $150 last time I checked... the Anthem is the same price as the Denon pre, and I can't honestly say I've heard the AVP.. but can tell you on feature set alone, it kills the D2, and I bet it sounds pretty great, ARC or not.

Nothing will ever be better than the Anthem in Levesque's world.
It's a worthless opinion because of that fact.

If someone in the Vancouver area wants to bring over their D2 for direct comparison I'd be up for it. (When my AVP arrives of course.)

Do differential DAC's make anything better, or is it seem better.

And what would you keep from the D1, the chassis?


I doubt that since there are plenty of happy audyssey users even without the installer option.