Real-World Performance
I wanted to start by testing the Dolby TrueHD decoding of the pre/pro vs. decoding in an HD DVD player, so I popped in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on HD DVD and watched the climactic battle between Dumbledore and Voldemort. Just as I have discovered in the past, decoding in the pre/pro was the better option. The soundtrack had a bit more punch and depth compared to the internal decoding of the HD DVD player.

I don't have a bitstream-capable Blu-ray player at my disposal, so my audio experience with that format is limited to the internal decoding of the PS3 output as PCM. Utilizing the core DTS stream embedded in the DTS-HD MA soundtrack on the Blu-ray release of Ice Age was remarkable compared with the Dolby Digital track on the standard DVD. The bass had more profound impact, and the discrete effects in the surround speakers provided a more immersive experience.

The benefit of using separates really makes itself apparent when listening to music. When I played the DVD-Audio disc of Dance With My Father by the late Luther Vandross, I had high expectations, which were happily exceeded. I have listened to this disc hundreds of times, and the combination of the Onkyo Pro and the Anthem PVA-7 power amp revealed details that remained hidden before, especially in the rear channels of the 5.1-channel mix. The bass had more punch, the midrange had greater depth, and Luther's silky voice came to life.

Two-channel CDs were just as impressive. I tried all three modes—Pure Audio, Direct, and Stereo—and I preferred the Stereo mode with my system. My front left and right speakers are studio monitors and sound pathetically weak without the assistance of a subwoofer, which is bypassed in the Pure Audio and Direct modes. The soundstage was very impressive in Stereo mode, with great separation and sense of depth. The Onkyo Pro also offers various DSP modes to turn 2-channel sources into multichannel presentations, but I prefer to listen to my stereo music in its natural form.

Utilizing the Onkyo Pro's HD Radio capabilities, I was able to tune in a classical station broadcasting in HD. I was impressed with the dynamics and clarity provided by HD Radio, which surpasses the quality of FM broadcasts.

Editor's Note: There have been reports of a serious problem when the PR-SC885 and Integra DTC-9.8 receive a DTS-HD Master Audio bitstream—a very loud, speaker-threatening pop is heard at certain points during playback of some titles. David Vaughn did not hear this during his review because his PS3 does not send a DTS-HD MA bitstream, so he didn't discuss it here.

However, Home Theater reviewer Kris Deering heard it when he played a check disc (pre-release copy) of The Golden Compass on both the Denon DVD-2500BTCI and Panasonic DMP-BD30 Blu-ray players as well as two imported HD DVDs on a Toshiba HD-A35. Others have reported the same problem with The Fly, Fantastic Four, and Chronos on Blu-ray as well as The Eagles: Farewell 1 Tour on HD DVD among other titles, but still others have had no problems with these titles using the same hardware as those who reported it.

All of this leads us to suspect it could be a problem with the initial authoring of these discs that was rectified in later pressings. Yet the only products that seem to be affected by it are the Onkyo Pro and Integra pre/pros as well as some Yamaha AVRs, which suggests a problem in the way their DSP handles the extended data in a DTS-HD MA bitstream.

Onkyo USA has not yet acknowledged that the problem exists, but Onkyo Europe has issued a DSP update for its AVRs and pre/pros that addresses the issue. Deering obtained a copy of the update and installed it in his PR-SC885, which fixed the problem, though he warns the process is not for the faint of heart. Hopefully, Onkyo will soon issue an update for the US market, which will probably require an authorized service tech to install.

Then there's another reported but apparently unrelated popping problem, which is moderate in volume and not speaker-threatening but certainly annoying. In this case, it seems to happen with some amplifiers whenever the pre/pro loses its HDMI lock—for example, when switching inputs or whenever the player drops HDMI as it starts a movie or while navigating the bonus features. This is especially common on the PS3, but again, reviewer David Vaughn didn't hear it with his Anthem PVA-7 amp and so didn't comment on it. UAV Web Monkey Jon Iverson heard it with his Integra DTC-9.8, PS3, and Adcom 535 amp, but a Classé 350 amp worked perfectly. Adcom said it occasionally gets reports of such problems and provided a fix—attaching two capacitors and a resistor to the amp's inputs to block any DC current. Talk about a kludge!