Integra Research's latest information on firewire for RDC-7

[Burke Strickland]

I recently sent a question to Integra Research Customer Service

When will the long-promised IEEE1394 ("Firewire") hardware update [for the RDC-7] be offered and at what cost to your long-term customers? (HDMI compatible with SACD and DVD-Audio would be an acceptable alternative.)

and got the following answer today from Onkyo USA Product Support.

At the moment we do not have any information on this. Please check back as future updates are posted on our site.

Again, thank you for contacting Onkyo USA Product Support,
if you need further Assistance feel free to call us at 800-xxx-xxxx.

Since it has been about a year since they've posted anything new on their site, I'm guessing that's their way of saying "forget about it".

Burke

[Razvan]

I don't think that IR will ever upgrade the RDC-7 to firewire. IR did have a RDC-7 -> RDC-7.1 trade-in program but the trade-in offer expired on December 31 2005. The trade-in offer - $2000 for the RDC-7 - was fair considering that used RDC-7's now sell for ~ $1300.

R

[Burke Strickland]

The trade in may have been "fair", but they sure treated it like a secret. They didn't announce the program on their site (when asked, they kept saying "watch for information on our site" but I didn't see anything about it there) and I know of at least one registered user who asked them about it several times whom they never notified (me).

I hope those who found out about the offer and took advantage of it are enjoying their RDC-7.1 pre/pros. However, since I really ike the sound of my RDC-7, have never had issues with it and can accomodate HDMI switching outside my pre/pro, I would probably not have spent another $3,000+ just to get a modular backplane. If they had given me details of the program, I would have posted the information here, which I mentioned at one point, but they didn't even respond to that inquiry, leading me to believe they didn't want the details of the program to be widely known.

[allmodcons]

I think it is unfortunate that Integra has taken this approach on the RDC 7, it will certainly influence my future purchasing decisions when it comes to this company. I love the sound of the unit but I purchased the product as much for that as its supposed future upgradability. To be left out in the cold on a $5K purchase is beyond the pale.