John,

Ya, what JohnK said about the DAC’s. Allan has also commented before about DAC performance. What most folks don’t realize is that DAC’s are cheap. I believe the very best DAC you can buy is under 10 bucks. What’s more important, is how well they are implemented into the whole electronic package. This is the same as with video processing chips. Even though the Reon is getting some very good praise, if it’s implemented incorrectly, it won’t do a lick of good. Having said that, I don’t think anyone can make a claim that any piece of audio gear will sound better than another without doing a true blind listening session, and those that do make those claims should probably be ignored because they are obviously F-O-S.

As far as the Onkyo quirks I mentioned, I’d prefer to not get into that in this thread because it was not my intention to turn this into a “which receiver should I get thread”, but just a user report on this particular Denon. Denon has a large fan base on these boards, and I figured I’d just pass along some information to any who may be considering this receiver. If you go to AVS, there’s a multitude of threads discussing the new Onkyo’s and their related problems.