After looking on the internet, I have seen several posts about the Integra/Onkio with HDMI failures. It's also hard to gauge if this is because there are a whole lot of units shipped and thus the number of reported failures will correspondingly be high? or because of a badly designed product.
I think that everyone is correct in getting the unit fixed. I have seen on the local kijiji this DTC9.8 selling used for 7-800 in perfect working condition. It may be no indication of what I could get, but I am pretty sure I would at least break even after the cost of fixing it. maybe even a few extra $$ in my pocket.
My plan was to wire the room for 7.2 or even 9.2 with extra speaker placements for Surround Rear and Front W/H. The cost of running extra cables is really small when the room is being built compared to trying to do it after the fact when drywall is all installed along with sound proofing etc.
In my old house, I originally had 5.1 with my lower cost directional small speakers. When I got a Yamaha 7.1 amp I put two more speakers in the back but that was still pre-bluray days and so they were not discrete. it did sound better but it was little more than enlarging a sound field due to front firing speakers in a rather small room.
As far as the Pioneer goes with the extra amps. Yes I could use them. Right now my power amp only has 5 channels, so if I have more speakers, then I need to power them in some fashion. The DTC9.8 can support 7.1 channels, so I would need a second 2 channel minimum power amp.
If I got a 7.1 or the bigger 9.1 Pioneer, then I could use the built in amp to power all the surround channels. The kicker part to it is that all the amps don't let you re-direct the main front left/right out to another zone. So if you plan on using the extra zone controls, you need another spare amp/receiver for that zone to power the speakers, or you give up one of the surround channels for that purpose.
As my current amp has 5 channels, I can use 3 of the to offload the L/R+C from the receiver, and have the 2 remaining for zone 2. Then have the receiver cover all the surround channels for maximum speaker coverage.
Thinking it through and looking back in hind sight, the Integra purchase wasn't all that smart of a buy.
