The Official Integra DHC-80.2 Pre/Pro Thread - Page 69

Anyone else having issues of their volume knob occasionally not working? It's happened to me a few times over the past couple of weeks, although the remote will control the volume without any issues. Just curious....

that is exactly what I meant. thanks. by setting my listening mode pre-set for DSD sources to "straight decode" the 80.2 will do just that.

Thanks clear and helpful

I have not seen any problems in regards to the volume know on my DHC-80.2. My 886 at times seem to have some quirks in the volume control, but it never happened often enough that I could reach any conclusions.

Knob? What's a knob? Oh, it's that old fashioned thing across the room on the front of the unit. I'll be damned if I am going to get up out of my chair and fiddle with that. God gave us remotes for a reason in his plan for the Universe. We should all be thankful.

for those of you listening to 2-channel music through the 80.2:

preferred input?

coax, optical, analog rca, xlr?

which sounds best?

Great horny toads! So, that's what that hump on the front of my preamp is!

Never did touch that thing---thought it might mess up something.

LOL...too funny. Seriously though, if someone could check it every now and then to see if theirs works, that would be nice.

Mine works fine. Can you do a poll?

Don't use it much but haven't had any problems when I did use it.

Mine has intermittently been non-responsive. Upon several occasions, I attempted to do a quick down-volume, not having my remote handy.

Carl

Thanks...mine works sometimes too, but not always. I can't pin down why it's doing it since it's so inconsistent. My suspicion is everyone has this problem, but rarely change the volume manually.

ditto

I hardly listen to stereo, but in a few brief experiments, I think I prefer coax for CD, but the difference is very slight vs. HDMI. Perhaps I am influenced in my opinion by a theoretical argument. I believe that uncompressed PCM - such as CD - has higher jitter via HDMI than via coax. This has been measured many times and talked about elsewhere. There is jitter suppression circuitry on the Integra's receiving end on all the digital inputs, including HDMI, to help mitigate this, however.

Bitstreamed, compressed signal via HDMI counteracts jitter even more effectively than uncompressed PCM, because the signal is reclocked in the Integra after decompressing the input data stream. As a result, Ialso think bitstreamed, compressed hi rez Blu-ray codecs sound better than hi rez LPCM from older Blu-rays or from transmitting LPCM via HDMI which has been converted by the player. But, no compressed transmission scheme exists for Red Book CD's.

This also definitely holds true for SACDs. Bitstreamed DSD, which is compressed, sounds better than converting DSD to uncompressed PCM in the player. With Oppo's, there is also a volume difference between DSD and PCM transmission which must be compensated for in any valid listening comparisons.

Analog transmission to the Integra is inferior to digital, IMHO. If you use Audyssey, a stereo signal undergoes extra d-a-d conversions for CD, which cannot possibly benefit the sound. They can only degrade it. Turning the DSP and Audyssey off, as in Direct mode with analog input has no advantages that I can hear, but may be the best choice for maximum purity of analog sources, like vinyl. But, it's a tough call. Are the extra a-d, d-a conversions worth it to get Audyssey processing? I don't know, because I no longer listen to vinyl. In any case, analog transmission to the Integra is a second rate choice for digital sources, such as CD.

Bottom line: I bitstream everything that is bitstream-able via HDMI. For CD, I use coax. I use Audyssey and bass management in all cases. If I were to spin some vinyl, actually what I would probably do is bypass the Integra entirely by reconnection of my phono preamp with volume control directly to the main amps. So, I use no analog inputs at all.

For CD, I would think coax would be better than Toslink, but I have done no comparisons, and the difference is not really of interest to me since I hardly listen to CD anymore.

Which is the best place to "bump up" the LFE in this unit - going in to the speaker level settings and increasing it a few db, or the menu option where you specifically increase the LFE levels for each format (True HD, DTS-Master, etc.)?

So far, my volume knob is working fine....

If you want "bump up" only the LFE and not the rerouted bass, then the latter is your only option. If you use the speaker level settings (or the level control on the sub), you will be "bumping up" everything that goes to the sub.

Ha - leave it to the forum to find issues for me I didnt know existed. I have the 80.2 and JVC rs20 projector. Other than tons of annoying clicks I have never seen any incompatibility or inability to display a PS3 or other signal that goes through the preamp first with HDMI and out to the projector. I have been using an ATI videocard based HTPC for the past couple of years, and now also an OPPO 93. I think the 80.2 is set to "through" mode on the vid processing but I have never done the "trick" to truly disable it. I didnt know that existed until today...but I will check it out. Also, the OPPO can output 36 bit deep color and when that is enabled the JVC confirms it is receiving 12 bits per channel.

So is there an updated firmware for the JVC rs20, and do I even need it since I dont seem to have any handshake or incompatibility issues?

fitz, again, you're a wealth of helpful information. thanks.

80.2 arrived today. Just starting to dig into things and I'll post more thoughts later. As a separates newbie, my thoughts might not help anyone, though...

Ran into an early issue that stumped me and the installer. 80.2 connected to an Emotiva UPA-7 with interconnects that had XLR connectors on the pre/pro side and RCA connectors on the amp side. I didn't think there would be issues, and the installer said he had used them before. But there was virtually no volume coming out of the speakers. I pulled out some old/generic RCA cables and everything came to life. Not sure if this is an amp issue or a pre/pro issue - time to read through the thread again.

If your amp doesnt have XLR inputs I would just get a decent set of RCA cables for both ends. No benefit to XLR in your case.

The benefit is debatable anyway if you dont have a pretty long run of interconnect.

That's my plan (now). But is there a reason that an XLR to RCA cable would behave like this even if using an XLR plug on one side doesn't bring any benefit?

I cant think of one other than a faulty cable. I dont remember the 80.2 having a setting to tell it whether to make the balanced or unbalanced outputs active, but there could be one. I assume you have checked all settings?

Balanced outputs generally have a 6db gain advantage over the rca outputs but Onkyo may compensate for that. If they do compensate then you may be experiencing a a lower overall output which the rca input of the amp does not add back in.

It is very odd to use the XLR outs to a rca input amp if rca outs are available. I have never really heard of anyone plugging in consumer made gear that way so I don't think it a big deal or something that should be worried about at all.

I have the same problem .The pops are caused by my amp B&K EX-442 with musical concepts mods all new wires ect. When I switch amps I get no pops only faint relay clicks.At least I know what it is , I could not do anything to remove the problem from this amp.

My 80.2 last night started to turn it self down, By it self and had a remote fight with it (it would go down I'd turn it up) until I turned it off then it returned to normal. I remember in other times it would turn it self up, and stop (i just thought it was a glitch) but now I wonder. Other's?

Nope. Never had that.

About 2 months ago, I had the unit lock up on me (it would not respond to the remote). Dave Vaughn suggested that I unplugged for some time. I did that and all was well. Well the same thing happened to me over the weekend. This time I was watching the DVR, so I just let it go thinking I would unplug it overnight, and it would be ok. Well after about 15 minutes of watching the frozen 80.2, the cable/sat input flashed on the screen, and this would happen every couple of minutes. I could not adjust the volume or even turn off the unit. I unplugged the unit overnight, and then tried again. Everything seemed fine, switched to the blu-ray input to watch a movie. Well after about 5 minutes it switched back to the cable/sat input, flashing it on the screen every few minutes. It was locked up, so I had to unplug it. I then quickly tried the hard reset, etc.. but the problem continues.
Even with nothing plugged into the cable/sat input it still does it.
FYI
My unit never gets hot (I have two cooling fans on top of it).

Does Integra swap out units or do I have to send it back?

Thanks

I'd call the tech support line or your dealer and see what they say to do. If you bought locally, your dealer may swap it out for you.

Talk to your dealer. They might swap it. I have had no lockups.