New guy that would like and opinion. I currently have an Onkyo 805 that I use as a processor and an Outlaw 750 for power.This is a 5.1 system. Paradigm LCR 450's for front three, Paradigm PDR12 sub, Polk iX30 rears, Mogami IC's. My question: the PR-SC886 uses BURR Brown DACS and so does the 805, thus I'm trying to understand what the advantage would be to use the PR-SC886 or 990 or???.

A few thoughts come to mind.

First, Burr Brown DAC's do not instantly translate into better sound. They are but one piece of the puzzle, and there are a number of other companies around that make equally good or even better DAC chips. When comparing the Onkyo 885 to the Model 990, I found that the 885's Burr Browns didn't give it an audio performance advantage over the Model 990 (even with Audyssey in the equation).

Second, there's more involved than just DAC's. The 886 has a better video processing section than the 805, both due to the chipset used (Reon vs. Faroudja) and the control available (ability to bypass the Reon for some inputs while applying it to others).

Both the 886 and 990 should run cooler than the 805 because they don't have amps in the chassis. Even though you aren't using those amps, the receiver will tend to put off more heat.

If you are talking just about sound quality, I wouldn't expect either unit to be a really big upgrade over the 805.

I have both, and have interchanged them in my system several times with the same amp and speakers. I cannot tell any difference between the two except the 886 menu is much easier to use because it goes directly to the display. The 886 has more connectability but it doesn't have an advantage sonically. I do like the way Audyssey set up my speakers better than the 880 but the settings came out pretty much the same.

Gonk,
I was more concerned with sound quality than video. Thank you for your reply.

Xenonman,
Thank you for your reply also.

I looked around this site before posting and it seemed to me that you two were pretty knowledgeable. Again thank you both for your replies, you saved me some money.

To throw confusion into the mix, I have both as well. I give the 886 (actually I have an 885) slightly better marks as far as DAC duties (not a huge difference, but noticeable). On the other hand, its 5.1 direct input seems lacking, whereas the 990's seems completely clean.