The Short Form

$2,400 / INTEGRAHOMETHEATER.COM / 705-742-5325

Snapshot

Integra's top model delivers first-rate performance, with all the features you could want, at a better-than-fair price

Plus

• Impressive audio power and performance • Outstanding video processing • Accurate auto-setup and calibration, and effective room EQs • Useful Internet/streaming-audio features

Minus

• Standard-def onscreen display • Supplied remote works fine but is a little dated

Key Features

• 7 x 140 watts (2 channels driven) • THX Ultra2 certified • Four HDMI 1.3a inputs and 2 outputs • Converts analog video for 1080p output over HDMI • Decodes Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby Digital Plus, and DSD (SACD) • Audyssey MultEQ auto-setup/equalization with supplied mike • Network audio streaming via wired-Ethernet or USB • HD Radio/FM/AM tuner with 60 presets • XM/Sirius satellite-radio-ready • (2) IR inputs; IR output; (3) 12-volt triggers; RS-232 serial port • 17 1/8 x 7 5/8 x 17 7/8 in; 53 5/8 lb

The ongoing evolution of the HDMI interconnect standard has caused practically every A/V company to regularly retool its receiver lineup over the past few years. This can't have been pleasant for the manufacturers' bean counters, but companies that wish to keep their brands up with the Joneses have had little choice but to bite down hard on the HDMI bullet as it progressed from Version 1.1 to the current 1.3.

Integra might have chipped a tooth in the process, but the result has been worth it. The new DTR-8.8 A/V receiver combines HDMI 1.3 switching with a solid set of power and processing abilities that make it an attractive "high-end on a budget" choice.

HDMI 1.3 brings to the table three features that are only beginning to be taken advantage of and that most people aren't even aware of. The first is the ability to carry bitstreams of the two next-gen multichannel audio formats, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, from a Blu-ray Disc player to the receiver for decoding (thus eliminating the need for in-player decoding, and for sloppy 6-channel analog-audio hookups). The second feature, Deep Color, which extends video's potential color depth to 36-bit (theoretically, even 48-bit), offers perhaps the greatest potential benefit but has yet to be encoded into any available movies or TV programs. And the same goes for the third main enhancement, automatic lip-sync-delay compensation.

SETUP

Like many other A/V receivers today, the Integra is equipped with Audyssey MultEQ automatic calibration and room-equalization processing. As usual, I plugged in the supplied microphone, ran the setup program through a half-dozen mike locations, and was rewarded by quite accurate settings for channel level and distance, and with reasonable crossover frequencies. I didn't have to make any effort beyond keeping the dog out of the room (he makes too much noise) and repositioning the mike. MultEQ also dials up room-correcting EQ, which as displayed by the Equalizer Settings page of the Integra's onscreen menu agreed pretty closely with results I've seen from other Audyssey-equipped units.

The DTR-8.8 also permits the usual HDMI and digital audio (multichannel analog audio, too) input assignments during setup. There's also a network-setup section (and a rear-panel Ethernet jack) for the unit's Internet/USB audio functions. This found my router's DHCP (automatic IP-address assignment) without fuss.

MUSIC & MOVIE PERFORMANCE

Since the Integra can decode audio bitstreams of just about any known variety that arrive by way of HDMI, I first cued up some suitable Blu-ray Discs using a Pioneer BDP-95FD player. The DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on The Day After Tomorrow served admirably for starters, and the DTR-8.8 dutifully delivered pristine, extended-resolution sound. (At any rate, the "DTS-HD Master Audio" logo lit up on its front-panel display; it's reassuring to know that this HDMI 1.3 feature worked as advertised.) Same deal for Dolby TrueHD: I Am Legend called up the equivalent Dolby-flavor display. Both sounded great.

The news was equally good with SACDs, which the Integra also decoded directly. With an SACD bitstream arriving over HDMI, the DTR-8.8 sparked up a DSD Direct front-panel display and sent forth the superb multichannel sonics I expect from my SACD collection.

The Integra produced truly ample power for all of the howling winds and other preposterous effects in The Day After Tomorrow. The dynamics on the superbly recorded CD, the David Hazeltine Trio's The Jobim Songbook in New York, as demonstrated by dramatic drum-kit attacks and vivid brass transients, sounded truly impressive. Nothing about the size or the pristine quality of the Integra's sound made my ears think "receiver," rather than "separates."

Audyssey MultEQ room correction is by now an old friend, and when I engaged it in my setup, I heard the expected results: slightly tighter midbass, clearer and more realistically defined male vocals, and a faintly smoother yet simultaneously more open-sounding top end. I also heard a difficult-to-define increase in something — spatial purity, for lack of a better term — that was subtle but no less welcome.

Integra's Internet/USB streaming-media features worked as promised. Since a careful look at the manual showed that these should function with any Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) or DLNA-compatible media server, I ran a familiar multi-platform example (TwonkyMedia) under Mac OSX, and it worked perfectly. Browsing onscreen menus via the Integra was leisurely but bearable, and sound quality was of course limited only by the bit rate of the source files.

The Integra's upscaling video performance relies on a Silicon Optix HQV/Reon video DSP engine. Unlike some other receivers, the Integra will accept 480i-format video over HDMI (which my Oppo player obligingly supplies), so I was able to judge its performance unadorned by any in-player processing. The DTR-8.8's deinterlacing and upscaling proved outstanding, delivering concrete improvements to most standard-def TV and DVDs I watched on my Samsung 1080p LCD TV.

ERGONOMICS

Usually, Integra's (and Onkyo's) user-interface designs strike me as more than usually straightforward, and the DTR-8.8's was no exception. The main onscreen display is graphically simple, and although it outputs only in 480i-format video (with the consequence of a substantial pause while my high-def TV re-synced to the lower-rez signal), it works well. The supplied eight-component system remote might be a little long in the tooth; versions of this handset have graced Integra and Onkyo designs for some 4 years now. But it's a simple and effective preprogrammed/learning design that provides adequate control with minimal confusion.

BOTTOM LINE

The Integra DTR-8.8 is all about performance and value, so regular readers won't be surprised that it gets a big thumbs-up from me. And its noteworthy test-bench performance didn't hurt. For nearly half the price of some other flagship A/V receivers, the DTR-8.8 does it all, and does it extremely well.

TEST BENCH

DOLBY DIGITAL PERFORMANCE

All data were obtained from various test DVDs using 16-bit dithered test signals, which set limits on measured distortion and noise performance. Reference input level is -20 dBFS, and reference output is 1 watt into 8 ohms. Volume setting for reference level was -8. All level trims at zero, except for subwoofer-related tests, all speakers were set to "large," subwoofer on. All are worst-case figures where applicable.

Output at clipping (1 kHz into 8/4 ohms)
1 channel driven: 162/254 W (22.1/24 dBW)
5 channels driven (8 ohms): 121 W (20.8 dBW)
7 channels driven (8 ohms): 109 W (20.4 dBW)
Distortion at 1 watt (THD+N, 1 kHz)
8/4 ohms: 0.03/0.04%
Noise level (A-wtd): -76.0 dB
Excess noise (with sine tone)
16-bit (EN16): 0.3 dB
Frequency response: 20 Hz to 20 kHz +0, -0.3 dB

MULTICHANNEL PERFORMANCE, ANALOG INPUT

Reference input and output level is 200 mV; volume setting for reference output level was -4.
Distortion (THD+N, 1 kHz, 8 ohms): 0.004%
Noise level (A-wtd.): -93.1
Frequency response: < 10 Hz to 166 kHz +0, -3 dB

STEREO PERFORMANCE, DIGITAL INPUT

Reference level is -20 dBFS; all level trims at zero. Volume setting for reference level was -4.
Output at clipping (1 kHz, 8/4 ohms, both channels driven): 140/216 W (21.5/23.3 dBW)
Distortion at reference level: 0.02%
Linearity error (at -90 dBFS): 0.1 dB
Noise level (A-wtd): -75.6 dB
with 96-kHz/24-bit signals: -88.8 dB
Excess noise (with/without sine tone)
16-bit (EN16): 0.1/0.0 dB
quasi-20-bit (EN20): 7.2/6.4 dB
Noise modulation: 0 dB
Frequency response: < 10 Hz to 20 kHz +0, -0.3 dB
with 96-kHz/24-bit signals: < 10 Hz to 45 kHz +0, -1.5 dB<

BASS-MANAGEMENT PERFORMANCE

Measured results obtained with Dolby Digital test signals.
Subwoofer-output frequency response (crossover set to 80 Hz): 24 dB/octave (approx.) above -6-dB rolloff point of 80 Hz
High-pass-filter frequency response (crossover set to 80 Hz): 12 dB/octave below -3-dB rolloff point of 80 Hz
Maximum unclipped subwoofer output (trim at 0): 7.9v
Subwoofer distortion (from 6-channel, 30-Hz, 0-dBFS signal; subwoofer trim set to 0): 0.03%
Crossover consistency: bass crossover frequency and slope were consistent for all sources and formats
Signal-format consistency: consistent for all applicable formats
Speaker size selection: all channels can be set to "small"
Speaker-distance compensation: available for all main channels.

Integra's new line-topping DTR8.8 receiver produced power numbers that handily matched its specifications, including spot-on 140w stereo power and output that fell by a scant 0.3 dB (121 watts) with 5 channels driven (and just another 0.4 dB with all 7 channels working). The preceding reflect performance with the unit's software-setup switch set to the "6 ohm" position; with the switch set for 4 ohms, power was restricted to about 60 watts under all conditions, presumably by intentional current limiting. Like most such designs the receiver protected itself by cutting drive in half when confronted with extended, multichannel clipping, but I would hardly expect this to occur under actual program conditions (and protection quickly switched out when signal levels were decreased).

In every other regard the DTR8.8's test-bench behavior was exemplary. Indeed, I believe this to be in sum the best such set of numbers I've seen from an AV receiver. On our real-world dithered-tone trials, signal-to-noise in all tests was essentially at the theoretical minimum (and analog-domain S/N was just as impressive), while linearity, noise-modulation, and excess-noise measurements were all virtually perfect. Well done, Integra!