Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Pretty good Review of the Integra 9.8

I just noticed this review at Secrets.

I'm now intensely jealous of CV...


http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_14_4/integra-98-ssp-12-2007-part-1.html

Me too. I have the Outlaw 990 and I thought I was inoculated against upgraditis. Dang.

Hey, I remember reading that! It seemed impressive to me, but I have to admit I don't know the importance of a lot of it. So what part makes you jealous?

So what's with all the talk of weight in reviews of pre/pro's? There shouldn't be anything inside one of these that weighs a ton, as the huge tranformers and power supplies shouldn't be needed as all it is doing is low voltage stuff right?

Yes, it still needs a good power supply but that still shouldn't equate weight to a good product like analog amps. I would think if pre/pros are built of similar size and material they will weigh the same no matter what. There might be a few ounces difference for plastic parts instead of steel/aluminum but to me as long as they do the job as intended weight doesn't matter as it doesn't get touched much.

It seems some of these reviewers put such stock in weight, I could build a pre/pro with a lead bottom and own the industry.

Rant over. Bad night at work.

It looks to have everything one would want in a pre/pro and a good price too.

I don't mind the rant. I also don't see why a pre/pro should need to be heavy.

When they show you the pick of the insides, I swear that torroidal transformer is out of the A1400-8. Now why would they need such power for low level outputs? $$$$$

Now, how is having such a huge power supply sitting right there any different than regular AVR's? I will guess the differences is in the ability to route the circuits better with out having to worry about the amps getting in the way more than any interference from said amps or power supplies.

I was just looking around, and it seems like there has been a firmware update since I've had mine. I'll have to see about getting ahold of it.

I understand the need for 9 channels of audio but what would I do with 8 subwoofers ?

Ha ha. If 4 is really the magic number, then why is it a magic 8 ball and not a magic 4 ball? Sorry, bridgman, but 8 is the magic number of subwoofers to have.

CV....

The 9.8 is so tweakable, it's silly. I like to tweak. I do not like how they've botched the Reon implimentaion, but for the price, it's one hell of a PrePro.

Weight is a man thing. If it's heavy, its got to be tough. It's ridiculous any more as technology has made many electronic components more efecient, with less weight.

Being new to all of this, it sounds like you cannot use this unit w/o having an external amplifier. This unit would do all the video/audio processing and an external amplifier, um, amplifies the sound. Is that about right?

Yep...

Hence the name "Surround Sound Processor".

I don't know why they have such a huge transformer. Maybe it has to do with economics. Maybe they can get a big one for less cost than a smaller one. More likely, they did it to add weight to the unit so people can equate the weight with higher quality.

Thank you. Integra 9.8 + Axiom amp sounds like it may be a winner! I was thinking of upgrading my Marantz 8001 with Denon 3808 or Marantz 8002. Now, I may have to consider the above combo. I will never use the power, but *knowing* I can crank it up may be worth it!

The Integra 9.8 plus Axiom A1400-8 is the combo I'm excited about as well.

This is what it's all about.

Although this is silly, as both units are pretty much identical, performance wise, but I prefer the way the Onkyo Pro 885 looks.

I was going to go with the NAD T175and Axiom A1400, but NAD screwed the pooch as far as I'm concerned. They delayed production so that they could use the HDMI 1.3 hardware, but then they announced that the unit will not process anything other than Multi Channel PCM and the unit will not come with DTS:HD and DD-TruHD decoders. I do prefer that NAD has left the video processor out of the mix, but no advance audio decoding is ridiculous.

Now I'm just waiting and enjoying what I have, and plan to rob CV.

Ok, so now I need $1700 for the Integra, $3800 for the A1400-8 and $1100 for a sub, where the heck is that money tree?

Oh ya just got the first quote for kitchen cabinets, $10,000 - 12,000, depending on the quality of the cabinets we go with. I am not going to be able to get seperates, or anything else for that matter, any time soon.

I don't make a lot of money, but thankfully I'm in a position where I can have very skewed financial priorities. For the rest of you with funds being diverted into other more practical obligations, all I can do is wish you find sudden wealth.

I keep looking but I haven't found it yet!

You must be a U2 fan.