[Josuah]

If sound quality is the primary concern, then I think you have to pick the higher quality product. Even if it is older. The difference between an average DAC and an excellent DAC is quite large. Larger than the difference between compressed versus uncompressed digital soundtracks (given there's this big moving picture distracting you from the audio). You'll appreciate the audio quality more when you're listening to 2-channel music.

You don't necessarily need to go into the price range of a Classe SSP-800 to achieve the level of sound found in the SSP-800. $2000 used can get you pretty much there, if you find the right product.

 

[Josuah]

The build quality and measurements of the Integra line is slightly better than the Onkyo line. I haven't heard either, but what I've read online has led me to believe the sound quality is good, but not great. I'm currently using a Marantz AV8003 and the sound quality is excellent IMO. The only caveat is you need a player that will decode to bitstream, because the AV8003 doesn't have enough CPU to both decode DTS-HD or DD-TrueHD and perform room correction.

My previous home theater setups included a Yamaha RX-V1400, then Emotiva DMC-1, and now Marantz AV8003. Each of these was a very significant step up in sound quality from the previous.