Integra DHC-80.3 - Page 43

I asked Chris on Ask Audyssey last night - early March now
https://audyssey.zendesk.com/entries/20505941

Thanks. I hope they deliver a 100% solution when it eventually reaches us.
I wonder if Audyssey had to send it back to Onkyo a second time?

The 40% markup kills volume sales and keeps showrooms alive. Some will settle for less.
I hope you have free long distance, print out the dealer lists, suggest you start at port, distribution center is in the state of Kalifornication (although HQ in NJ) so usually are more likely to find stock on that coast. Better yet get the cell phone of one of the distributors. Oh, and keep a tight lip, the punishment i was promised for revealing the source was a broken leg, and by his tone i believed him, still the guy sounded right, had great credentials, and double boxed along with a full MSRP receipt

I played around with a DLNA iPad app last night and it works great streaming FLAC from my WHS to the 80.3...I don't see why it wouldn't stream from your PC to the 80.3. I was looking at PowerDVD and it looks like that will work as well but its kinda pricey. I am in the midst of an HTPC build so that will most likely be my long term streaming solution.

Have a question about the 80.1 but that thread is practically dead and many of you had 80.1 previously so I am trying my luck here if you don't mind.

Recently I noticed a constant humming sound coming from my left rear speaker when the system is off (or stand by). After some debugging I found the cause of it is from the 80.1 12v trigger which is connected to my B&K REF 200.5 amp. When I disconnect the 12v trigger line and it does not matter the amp is on or off, the hum goes away.

The other thing I noticed was that the current reading on my Monster Power HTS3600 is 0.8A after the system is turned off (go into standby) but slowly the reading goes up and stabilize when it reaches 1.4A. Is this sort of current leaking from the 80.1? This extra current seems to some how drive the output on one of the channel on the amp. When the current is at 0.8A there is no hum.

Has anyone experienced problem like this? Right now I have discoonected the 12v trigger and have to manually turn on and off the amp.

Thanks

The 80.3 can stream flac files over DLNA from a win 7 pc without additional software but there are limitations:

1. Multichannel is not supported
2. Max data rate supported is 96khz / 24 bit

If you use a streamer such as a Dune Player then FLACs come over as PCM and are limited to the DAC rate on the 80.3 which is 16Mbps. This can accomodate multichannel 96khz/24 bit and stereo 192khz/24 bit with no problem

Or is the B&K amp starting to have problem dealing with the 12v trigger? It still turn on and goes to standby correctly. Sigh.

There's a user here called djbluemax who had problems with the trigger on his prepro and the way it worked with his amp - I remember he had to return his amp for service as a result. I am not sure if it is in any way similar to what you are finding but it may be worth asking him. I can't recall if he uses this thread but he is a regular poster in the Official Audyssey Thread, or you could search for his username.

Thanks, i appreciate it!

Before I purchase this unit, I would like to know if there are any unresolved issues or problems that habe NOT been addressed by Integra. Also, I understand there is a "serial # to avoid" list posted on the 80.2 thread that owners to be have been made aware of.....is there a similar "serial #'s to avoid" list when ordering this 80.3?

Thanks

Paul

AFAIK there are no known problems with the 80.3/5509. It's probably too soon into its life for anything to have shown up yet. You will need to update to the latest firmware as it resolved one or two small bugs - mainly the Audyssey/'biamping bug'.

Where are these specs documented? .....curious as I am leaning more about bitstreaming over hdmi for my new htpc build.

Is your source the same one that provided you with the excellent info on bi-amping that you first advanced in this thread?

At first you claimed a 60% markup, now I see that you've edited your post to reflect a 40% markup which is probably closer to the truth if you're talking about MSRP. But how many actually pay MSRP? I purchased my Integra from a local B&M dealer at better than 20% off MSRP. That shaves down the markup considerably, doesn't it?

Considering the fact that a dealer is a private enterprise he can sell to you at any price he sees fit. Internet sales, phone sales, etc. would probably be limited by his dealer agreement, but nothing should prohibit a prospective buyer from visiting several dealers, price shopping, then playing them against each other in order to get the best deal he can. Naturally other things like convenience, reputation, customer service, etc. should be considered when making a purchase like this.

Whatever the outcome, the prospective purchaser should make absolutely sure that the person selling this piece of gear is, in fact, a factory authorized dealer. It would be best to call Integra directly to verify dealer status before commiting. Having no warranty on a purchase this large can be a real bummer.

Cheers,
SB

Sounds like it could be a grounding issue? Are they plugged into the same circuit? Can you do anything to better tie the grounds of the two units together?

You have a point, i corrected it for accuracy. Cannot mention exact pricing as you know.

Absolutely, i got the dealer's phone # from the zip proximity search on the Integra website.

I agree with you that there is a lot more to it than just the purchase, i wish i had the luxury of just walking into a showroom like you city slickers do, but i live in the middle of nowhere, nearest dealers are 3 hours away and holding a wide area captive market so absolutely no deals, and trust me, i have contacted these people repeteadly before every major purchase every 2-3 years. About the only decent deal i got from one of them was a pair of second hand speakers.

I'm not a "city slicker" at all. I happen to live out in the country, about a mile outside of a small town (pop. 2500) on the western slope of the Rockies in Colorado. I traveled to Denver, Salt Lake City UT, and Albuquerque NM and visited several Integra dealers over a couple of months to do some hard bargaining before my purchase. Make no mistake, I didn't make these trips strictly for audio shopping, they were pleasure trips too. Very fortunately for me, there's a B&M Integra dealer (they're mostly in the custom installation business) located only 25 miles away in Grand Junction, CO who was willing to match the best price I was able to get on my shopping excursions. Probably at least a thousand miles of travel, but I gathered enough price information to secure the best deal that I could find. As a bonus, I discovered that my local guy is heavily customer service involved and tries to treat his customers as friends. As long as he treats me this way I'll be a customer for life

BTW - The dealer info on Integra's website can be very outdated.

Cheers,
SB

I still maintain that would never stand up to legal inspection you know. To void the warranty if the unit is not purchased from an 'authorised dealer' requires the purchaser to know the status of the dealer he is buying from and this seems to me to be way too onerous an imposition for a manufacturer to make on a consumer. How would one verify the status? It's no use asking he dealer because his reply cannot be relied upon, and to expect the prospective buyer to have to call the manufacturer in order to determine it is asking way too much. There have been several reported cases on here of Onkyo/Integra honouring warranties even on 'grey imports' and it seems to me that they are aware of their legal obligations in this regard which is why they do that. Your consumer legislation in the USA will be different to ours here in Europe of course, and ours do offer greater levels of protection (more nannyism) by forcing manufacturers to give a two year warranty for example, regardless of what they publish as their warranty period. It would be interesting to find a single case where warranty service has ever been refused so long as proof of purchase is available, regardless of where that proof originated. I suspect Onkyo simply wish to protect their dealer network by disseminating FUD over warranties being void if the (new) unit was not purchased from someone they approve of.

In the meantime though, your advice is, of course, good and it is best to play safe.

I will comment here on pricing from an Authorized Integra Dealer on product.

I was in sales for a very long time, (Plus 30-Yrs.)

I sold IBM. Xerox, HP etc.

Back to my comments on pricing.
I think one needs to keep in mind that if we beat the Dealer to death on Pricing then can we really expect or in some cases demand full customer service after the sell.

My point here is simply this.
I told my Local Integra Dealer which also in this case is an Authorized Runco dealer the following,
I don't mind paying you profit but what I do want is Honesty & Service "Before-During & After the sell).
Dealers cannot stay in business with hardly any profit margin.
That is just the way it is and I know from personal experience.
None of us work for Free or almost for Free.
We want and expect to be Paid the most we can get for what we do for our employer.

I always keep that in mind when dealing with other companies.
Including A/V Shops/Dealers.

No speeches intended just sharing my take on paying reasonable prices for what we get from companies and expecting, (Total-Support).

I feel I can post this here on this Thread as I am a multiple Integra Research owner now and soon to be receiving New Up-Dated Integra multiple components in a few weeks or so.

Integra DHC-80.3 & Integra DBS-50.3 coming soon.

Terry

Agree with all that, Terry. Personally, I buy almost everything on the Internet and take the risk that if anything goes wrong I am on my own more or less. Things rarely go wrong so, so far, I am a winner with this strategy. I also find that 'dealer advice' is usually useless. Either they are biased towards the gear they sell, or towards the gear they make the most money on, or they are just plain lacking in knowledge and I either know better myself, or trust the experts here more than I trust the dealers I have encountered.

I think the net has been the real game changer. It has empowered us consumers and we can buy where we like, regardless of geographical location. It has enabled us to seek out the very best prices and, given what I just said about dealers, I don't care if they make hardly any profit or even if they go out of business on the back of squeezed margins. I have one champion and it is me and I do the best I can for me and that means getting the best possible prices. Currently, my amps have been bought on the net via the USA, my subs via Norway, my 5509 via Germany, my speakers via Canada and the USA and so on. I just bought the Pro kit direct from the States too.

I am not proselytising here and respect those who prefer to buy through a dealer but I am just giving the other side of the coin.

Keith,

Different consumer laws for different countries and jurisdictions!

In many (most?) cases here in the USA non-authorized dealers buy their merchandise at clearance prices from dealers or distributors that are overstocked, going out of business, or in distress. This can be considered by the courts as used merchandise. The non-authorized dealer is usually considered the first (original) owner. The merchandise is normally considered to be used merchandise when in the hands of any subsequent owners (buyers).

I'll quote a snippet of a large A/V equipment manufacturers warranty sheet as an example:

Limited Warranty for U.S.A.

.......This Limited Warranty only applies to products purchased and serviced in the United States or Puerto Rico. This Limited Warranty is extended only to the original purchaser and only covers product purchased as new.

BTDT

I once purchased a pair of Marantz monoblocks from one of those large New York City online/phone order discount houses who also operated a storefront in Manhattan. One of them stopped working about two months after purchase. To make a long story short - I was screwed. When I took it in for repair the authorized Marantz repair facility reported the serial number to the manufacturer and was told that they originated from a non-authorized seller who in turn got them from a now defunct distributor. They considered it as second hand goods and hence no warranty coverage

More stringent consumer protection laws tend to drive up the cost to the consumer. Perhaps that's one (among many) of the reasons that a lot of this stuff is much more expensive in places like the UK and Canada?

Cheers,
SB

Keith, I understand where you are coming from if one has the ability to install and program the gear.
And like you say not worrying about Warranty issues or Dealer Support.


You are 110% exactly correct in the above with almost every dealer.
One had better have done their own research and have at least general knowledge of what they want and not be Mis-Lead by the Dealer.
I could not have said the above comments any better.

In my case I do-not have that ability any longer.
Many years back I could install gear when it was simpler but not with this new to me complicated components.

It is just a matter of knowledge base and having to rely on the Authorized Dealer to do the installs and set-up the gear to operate correctly.

(1) Price on one end with not needing any dealer.
(2) Full Support and paying more dollars to get that.

It just comes down to where one is on the two different ends of this.

Terry

Oh sure, the manufacturers will write anything in their warranty. What I am saying is that just because they say it doesn't make it legal and doesn't mean it would stand legal inspection in a courtroom. It would never, IMO, be expected in a court of law that a consumer should be required to know if a dealer was 'authorised' by the manufacturer. But yeah, different strokes etc and my legal knowledge is 4 decades out of date anyway


The important words there are "they considered it....". That doesn't mean a court would consider it as second-hand and I doubt if any normal consumer would see it that way either. The courts are always inclined to be on the side of the little guy if he's running up against a big corporation. If that had happened to me Marantz would have been off my prospective list for *ever*. Shabby service.


Nah - it's tax. 20% sales tax plus import duties on top. Plus all the employment taxes that the distributors have to pay. Plus the real estate taxes. Plus the high corporation taxes. They're all higher than yours in the USA I'm afraid. Time was, I could buy stuff from the States and never get caught for sales tax or import taxes - I used to buy all my photographic gear that way - but nowadays, with the advent of computerisation I guess, you get caught every time without fail. Even so, it's usually still cheaper to buy from the US if one can. I never understand the situation with the Canadians - AIUI, they all live along the US-Canada border don't they? So why don't they just drive into the States to buy their stuff, stick it in their trunk and take it home?

Terry - you have a great, knowledgeable and free support network right here. Buy your gear and ask on here how to make it all work. I'd back the experts in these forums any day, compared with the dealers I have met. I know it's not fair to tar them all with the same brush and I don't mean to do that - but they are the exception not the norm. Only today I was watching a YouTube video made by a very respected UK dealership, representing all the major brands, and the guy was 'advising' how to set up an AVR. He ran all through all the menus etc but when he got to the Audyssey menu he said that you should "let your ears be the guide here - they are better instruments than any microphone" and he advocated a manual setup as being more likely to deliver a good result. My own, non-techie old school pal who lives in Thailand these days spent a lot of money on a high end Denon-based system with a Velodyne sub and good speakers etc. When I last visited him I noticed that it was all set up using analogue cables - no HDMI anywhere. I asked my pal why it was set like that and he shrugged - no idea. I explained that he wasn't getting the benefit of Audyssey and so on and he shrugged again. Long story short, I got his mic, did a full calibration and he was *amazed* at the difference it made - especially to his bass. If this is the sort of 'advice' even high end dealers are giving, exclude me out thanks.

Like I say, and it's worth repeating I think, you now have an expert on hand almost 24/7/365 and if the problem can't be solved here, then it's probably not going to be solved anywhere. Just ask away....

Thanks Keith

Terry

You're welcome. I have found the guys here to be unfailingly patient and helpful with me. I came here knowing very little about multichannel sound equipment and every question I needed the answer to was always freely given. Often by professionals and real experts. AVS really does rock.

Keith,

I'm waiting now for a call from my local A/V Rep.
He is coming over and we are going over the new positions for my 7.1 (4-Subs) system.

I think I have a really excellent plan for all the speakers now.
(Including the 4-Mirage-Subs)

If he agrees with me I have the guy that did some of our home renovations coming over this Thursday.
He is a custom cabinet fellow that now has his License and his own small business.
He is going to build me a shelf for my Left-Rear-Surround.
It will then go on the rear wall.

See this discussion on AVS,
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1396646

Terry

these are NOT documented. They are from my experimentation. Why are you building a HTPC? What is it that you are trying to accomplish?

Basically I am looking for a single control source for my audio and video library. I bought a Dune D1 a few weeks back and while it is a slick little device I can not live with the UI, in particular the lack of music library functions....so I am looking for my HTPC to 1) consolidate devices, 2) stream flac from my WHS, 3) stream DVD/BD from the WHS, 4) Internet browsing in my HT, 4) iPad control of all content, 5) watch TV/PVR using my Ceton tuner...those are the basics...obviously I am looking for pure AV replay, that will be the challenge.

I have not tried it, but I am not sure if you will be able to do anything in Mch to the Integra, unless you come out of the PC in HDMI (or analog).

I may not have as grandiose plans as you, but I use an Oppo 93 with an eSata connected hard drive as my media hub. Files are created/ripped on a PC, and the hard drive, which is then a backup to the PC, is reconnected to the Oppo. Cheap eSata/usb docking stations for the "internal" hard drives provide the interfaces to the PC via USB3 and to the Oppo via eSata. The Oppo's GUI is decent enough if you can live with Windows style hierarchical directories of files and folders. The 93 is also an excellent silver disk spinner, including SACDs.

It may be a "sneaker net" solution, shuffling the hard drive between PC and Oppo, but it did not take the frustrating hours I expect it might take you to get your HTPC fully functional. It looks and sounds great, and it's cheap and easy until the ultimate HTPC comes along.

Yes..HDMI to the 80.3....I'm not sure about streaming SACD or DVD-A but I do have a BD player that can support these if not....my gut tells me it's not any different then streaming a 7.1 DTS track but I don't know for sure...will be fun giving it a try. An Oppo is my fallback but I am really hoping this will work...