Is the New Onkyo worth it?

[Clive]

Is the new Nr1000 with the removable/upgradable card slots the next best thing? Is it worth the investment?

[Burke Strickland]

Is it worth the investment?

While the Onkyo Nr1000 has a rich feature set, great specs, enough size and weight to make you cry "uncle" :>) and has been getting laudatory reviews, whether it is "worth the investment" is a subjective and relative assessment potential investors must make for themselves.

If your aim is to "do it all" in one package at a reasonably high level of completeness and with a fairly high level of quality, then the 1000 is certainly worth considering. Putting together separates of similar quality could easily take you past its $3,500 - $5,000 price tag, and although it is BIG box, it is only ONE box, instead of a rack-full of boxes.

However, even with its card-based design, you will be limited to whatever Onkyo offers in the way of options and upgradeability (unless, of course, you upgrade by moving on to another unit). If you decide at some point to use an external DAC, or tuner or whatever, then a relatively expensive receiver will be of less value to you and if you already have serious external amps, or intend to move in that direction, then a pre/pro would probably be a better choice.

Just some thoughts...

Burke