I picked up an Onkyo 876 on sale at Visions today. It was some kind of one day only grand opening although they weren't actually opening a new store. I snagged the last one but its still in the box, I'm not sure if I want to keep it or not. I was very much set on either the 2809 or the 3808, leaning more and more towards the 2809 simply from a price stand point. Then 876 ran me $1200CAD which seems like a decent deal, nothing crazy, but honestly I didn't call around much for Onkyo prices. From what I checked online that's not a bad price at all. I would have had to pay $1300 for a demo model of the 3808 + $100 for the firmware upgrade, or get the 2809 for $1000. Seems like the Onkyo lands in the middle.
There's only two things that sort of worry me about the Onkyo, I hear that it's a "bright" receiver and so are Axiom speakers and that it has heat issues. I notice a lot of people mention that the unit runs hot and tends to shut off when the M80s go beyond 100db. Now, this isn't really that big of an issue because I'm going to be using the Outlaw monoblocks for that. I'm assuming the Onkyo shouldn't have this problem powering the 6ohm center and surrounds. As a pre/pro the Onkyo is absolutely wonderful from a feature standpoint, it's also certainly much heavier than the 2809 (25 vs 50lb) so if the Denon can run 3 speakers, I hope the Onkyo can manage. Anyone have any experience with the 876. I have 15 days to return it still, so let me know
