Upgrade opinion

[Razvan]

I received my upgraded unit this morning. Here are my thoughts:

1. THX Ultra 2: it converts 5.1 sources to 7.1. I could listen to 5.1 sources ( or stereo) in 7.1 on the non-upgraded RDC-7 without THX Ultra 2 and, surprise!, Dolby Digital and DTS both sound better in 7.1 without THX Ultra 2. Is it worth getting THX Ultra 2? No.

2. DTS 96/24. The upgrade comes with a sample DVD that contains one DTS 96/24 track, Queen's The Prophet's Song. Does it sound good? Yes. Does it sound better than other 5.1 music recordings? It sounds about the same to me, no big difference. Is it worth getting DTS 96/24? No, especially considering that there's not much stuff in DTS 96/24 anyway.

3. Crossover. The crossover frequency can be set to 40, 60, 80, 100, or 120 Hz. The settings are global so to me they are useless.

4. Dolby Digital dropouts. From reading other people's reviews it seems that the upgrade fixed the dropout problems on Jurassic Park and Pearl Harbor. Apparently it also took care of the dropouts on HBO. This is to me the only useful thing that came with the upgrade. Ironically this should have been available for free from Onkyo as a warranty service.

Conclusion: the upgrade is useless, except for fixing the dropouts. Spend $300 on something else.

Razvan

[ton1313]

Think about this, if you upgrade now, its $300. If you upgrade later, its $500. If you skip this upgrade, you will still probably have to pay to include it, when the next upgrade comes out. We just paid the price for an upgradeable processor, similar to a computer software maintenance agreement.

[Steve Goff]

Razvanel,

Do you have your speakers set up as suggested by the THX folks for Ultra 2? I've never been a fan of THX processing, but I think I'll try setting up my speakers per the THX suggestions before I dismiss Ultra 2.

I understand your feeling that the upgrade is overpriced, even though I doubt you've had it long enough to give an informed opinion, but the price was no doubt dictated by the need to replace one or more DSPs, which isn't cheap. The old ones were simply running out of processing power, even though they were top shelf when the RDC-7 was designed. Ultra 2 takes considerable processing power, more than was available. The new DSP will likely give Integra Research the ability to upgrade to new formats without additional hardware expense.




Steve Goff

[Razvan]

"Do you have your speakers set up as suggested by the THX folks for Ultra 2? "

Yes!!!

"I've never been a fan of THX processing, but I think I'll try setting up my speakers per the THX suggestions before I dismiss Ultra 2. "

I've been testing the upgraded RDC-7 for several hours now, I don't like THX Ultra 2 at all.

Razvan

[jakermc]

I received my upgraded unit this morning. Here are my thoughts:


3. Crossover. The crossover frequency can be set to 40, 60, 80, 100, or 120 Hz. The settings are global so to me they are useless.

Razvan

When you say the settings are global, do you mean that all the speakers must be crossed over at the same frequency? It would be impossible to cross the front L+R at 40hz and the remainder at 80hz? If this is true, it truly is worthless.

Or, do you mean that the settings are global across all inputs but you can set individual speakers to different x-over points? This wouldn't bother me too much.

[Razvan]

"It would be impossible to cross the front L+R at 40hz and the remainder at 80hz?"

Yes, that would be impossible. And, yes, the upgrade is useless, don't waste your money on it.

Razvan

[Steve Goff]

Having lived with this upgrade for several days now, I agree that its present utility is slight. But I am not at all convinced that it was a bad idea to purchase it, because I think it involved swapping out one or more Crystal DSP chip. The old ones were state of the art when the RDC-7 was designed, but didn't have the processing power needed for THX Ultra 2, and likely won't have the power needed for newer, better stuff. Something to think about.




Steve Goff