Onkyo 576 or Pioneer 1017

creative

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Cant make up mind between the onkyo 576 and pioneer 1017. Around the same price bracket. Shame I cant stretch budget to the onkyo 606. Any opinions / advice on the onkyo or pioneer. Pioneer does look alot better than the boxey boring onkyo. Any other thoughts?
 
The 1017 doesn't do audio over HDMI if you're looking for that feature. If you had a PS3, you would be missing out on the new formats which the PS3 can decode and send out as LPCM. As far as I know the 576 does accept LPCM over HDMI. Demo both, preferably with a familiar movie and ideally the same speakers as yours and see which one you prefer. The 1017 would arguably have the better components etc. as it was a £500+ amp when it was new but in the end, decide with your own ears, particularly as the 576 is brand new and most folks won't have seen/heard one.
 
The 1017 doesn't do audio over HDMI if you're looking for that feature. If you had a PS3, you would be missing out on the new formats which the PS3 can decode and send out as LPCM. As far as I know the 576 does accept LPCM over HDMI. Demo both, preferably with a familiar movie and ideally the same speakers as yours and see which one you prefer. The 1017 would arguably have the better components etc. as it was a £500+ amp when it was new but in the end, decide with your own ears, particularly as the 576 is brand new and most folks won't have seen/heard one.

Thanks for the reply. That then leads me to the next question. Is HD Audio such a big improvement over the typical 5.1? Im dont believe the 576 does the new HD audio formats either. I may be wrong though...
 
It doesn't decode them but I read in a recent thread on here that it can handle LPCM over HDMI so you would get HD audio formats using the player as a decoder and the AV receiver for amplification of the multi-channel signal only.

As to whether the new formats are a significant improvement, do a search. I've been quite impressed with the odd HD audio soundtrack via analogues on my 3805 but it's not the vast improvement I had been looking for or had been promised by all the marketing blurb.
 

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