Integra DRX-8.4 11.2CH Flagship AVR Better than Denon?

D

dlaloum

Full Audioholic
It is interesting to consider some Onkyo history... around the time they purchased Pioneer, they dropped Audyssey, and introduced AccuEq (rebranded MCACC on Onkyo/Integra gear).

Clearly Onkyo thought MCACC was a match for Audyssey.... the market / buyers thought otherwise, and it cost them quite a bit of market share I believe... Hence their ultimate decision to go with Dirac (audyssey is now on an exclusive arrangement with D&M/SU)

But some long time Pioneer fans, have sworn about the capabilities of the more advanced versions of MCACC for a long long time.... and perhaps they are not wrong.

I do think Dirac brings something more to the table - based on my own comparison with my Integra 3.4 - but the difference is far from chalk/cheese.... and depending on the individual room and speakers, it well might swing towards MCACC.

With DLBC and Dirac ART it is probably a whole different ball game - but that is a different category.

I just hope Onkyo/Integra/Pioneer do enable the RZ70/8.4/LX805 for Dirac ART, when it becomes available in October.... it should be a game changer.
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
It's all relative - I was surprised how good MCACC/AccuEq was.

On the other hand - my mains are pretty good, and the room doesn't make the struggle - so it is always a matter of additional detail rather than dramatic changes.

The dialogue is something that has been troubling me for years, and Dirac has made dialogue a lot more intelligible - which is interesting - I was expecting changes in the bass, when where it really made a difference was in the midrange. - So much for limiting roomeq to below 500Hz!
Do the before vs after FR graphs look very different between Dirac vs AccuEq vs Bypass?
 
P

Pace

Audiophyte
Ended up upgrading my TX-RZ1100 to the TX-RZ70 and while I would've preferred to continue with the class D platform, this amp seemed to have a very nice feature-set for the price. Local retailer offered me a nice deal where they gave me just 470 euros less for the 1100 than I originally paid for it 6 years ago.

Dirac Live works really nice and addresses the main issue I had with AccuEQ; I actually like the way my speakers sound (KEF R700/R300 + 2 Arendal 1723 Subwoofer 3); except for the room modes in lower frequencies, so allowing me to select which frequencies I want to correct is a fantastic feature.

Another issue I was a bit worried was the heat due to class AB, but turns out the new amp uses a bit less power with no sound compared to the TX-RZ1100 (75W vs 90W).

Only issue I currently have is that the recognizing the signal through eARC is quite a bit slower, but hopefully this can be addressed with upcoming software updates; or maybe a setting I just haven't stumbled across yet.
 
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