Get the Onkyo. My experience matches Sfar. I've had mine for 6 mos. I like it better than most British integrateds up to around $1500, and certainly like it better than anything available under $1K. It has a very low noise floor and lots of transparency and speed for the money, while managing to sound warm and cohesive. It doubles its rated power into 4 ohms, and sounds bigger than its rating because of its incredible instantaneous current delivery (up to 80 amps). Nice ergonomic remote, silky smooth controls, heavy build quality.
Give it 100 hrs to run in, put a good aftermarket AC cord on it, and make sure you have your speaker cables terminated with bananas at the amp end. And leave it on all the time. It's only drawing about 1/4 watt per hour in standby and it makes a big difference on how nice it sounds when it's playing.
Give it 100 hrs to run in, put a good aftermarket AC cord on it, and make sure you have your speaker cables terminated with bananas at the amp end. And leave it on all the time. It's only drawing about 1/4 watt per hour in standby and it makes a big difference on how nice it sounds when it's playing.