I'm always a bit worried about future hardware updates to add features - nothing against B&K, but there have been so many times when promises like that have yielded nothing. Personally, though, I'm not terribly hung up on decoding. Get a good player that can decode for you, and it's taken care of.

Something in the Ref70's price range should sound better than an Integra or a 990. If budget permitted, I'd be quite content to try out a Ref70 or an Anthem. Personally, I found the Onkyo 885's sound to be surprisingly comparable to the 990's (the higher list price and inclusion of Audyssey offered potential for more significant improvements than what I got), which combined with a lot of extra bells and whistles and an interface that left something to be desired. My wife actively hates the 885, but I've been able to minimize the factors that contribute to her dislike and it's been useful for testing lately. She's already asking when we can go back to using an Outlaw processor, though...