integra dhc-9.9 or onkyo pr-sc866

Thanks four your input. My thoughts were that it would be quite expensive for the integra/Onkyo to make substantial differrences in the 2 lines. I agree that the upgrades from the Integra 9.8 to 9.9 in worth the extra couple hundred dollars but Onkyo also had the SC885 and sc886 which I believe ARE THE SAME. However pricewise, on the great audio site AMAZON.COM the SC885 is $1000, the SC886 is $1100.
The Integra models are about $400 more. So, in my humble opinion, I think the best "bang for you buck" is the SC886 (9.9) rather than the SC885(9.8). A lot of this is window dressing. I play tennis and discovered that MOST of the yearly changes in tennis racquets involve the PAINT ONLY!

As an aside, now that I saved $450 on the Pre-Amp, I will of course spend it somewhere else, i.e. AMP! Any thoughts? I think I am either going for the Parasound 5250 @$1500 or the Odyssey combo which is $2150. Klaus really seems to know his stuff and when I spoke with him, he states he does upgrades on the HT-3 designed especially for the Maggies and had some B-Stock Khatargo which could save me some bucks.

Dave - while I generally defer to Kal, in this case I disagree with his assessment of the value of the new features.

The problem with the Reon processing in the 9.8 is that it is global - so what you apply to your cable box is also applied to your BluRay input. Practically speaking, in order to run your BluRay straight through, this means bypassing the Reon entirely. And it also means that if you have a separate DVD player you will let it do the upscaling locally - in my tests the Oppo outperformed the Reon by a bit so it wasn't a big compromise.

With the new set up, you can bypass or apply the Reon to each video source separately to optimize it for your set up. I think this is particularly worthwhile if you have a lot of older gear in the system where adjusting sharpness, contrast and the like would make a nice difference.

While I can understand a purist not wanting the new Audyssey features I see a plus in anything that compresses commercials to the preset listening level. I haven't heard it but I suspect that I would be willing to live with compressed explosions in exchange.

And I am hopeful that it will enable listening at lower levels without compromising the intelligibility of the dialog which is the main reason I turn the volume up.

I agree,
BUT if SC866=DHC-9.9 and is better than SC865=DHC.9.8 , and DHC $$$ >>SC=$$, so best bet SC866!

Dave; I don't think you can go wrong with the odyssey amps as Klaus is very straight shooter in Audio;in my opinion he is the solid state version of Ralph from Atmasphere audio; probally 2 of the best guys to deal with in audio as had been my experience.