Onkyo's £1300 TX-NR1009 multichannel receiver is the first in the world equipped with DTS Neo: X, a new surround sound system engineered to enhance standard 5.1 soundtracks with additional front-height, front-wide and surround-back channels.
It's also the fourth model in the Onkyo range to be Spotify-enabled, is THX Select 2 Plus certified, has 9.2 channels of amplification and 32-bit processing.
You get Dolby Pro-Logic IIz and Audyssey DSX processing too, plus eight HDMI inputs and twin HDMI outputs for hooking up dual displays.
Naturally the HDMI connections support 3D and an audio return channel, as well as lossless audio and other high-resolution formats.
Hook up the TX-NR1009 via an ethernet connection and you can access Spotify, Napster and Last.fm, as well as internet radio via vTuner and audio streaming from a PC or media server.
There's support for MP3, WMA, WMA Lossless, FLAC, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, and LPCM files.
In addition, the receiver is compatible with the Windows 7 platform, including the DLNA 1.5-specified 'Play To' media-streaming feature. Wireless operation can be achieved by adding an optional Onkyo UWF-1 wireless USB adapter.
On-board video processing is handled by two technologies: HQV Vida VHD1900 and Qdeo technology by Marvell. Vida offers upscaling of all 480i/p, 576p, and 720p video sources to high-resolution 1080p. Qdeo, meanwhile, performs full 4K (3840 x 2160) upscaling of 1080p sources.
Burr-Brown DACs (digital-to-analogue converters) handle the sound, and a front-panel USB socket allows a direct digital connection of a USB flash drive or iPod/iPhone.
Audyssey room acoustic correction and equalisation technology is included, along with powered zone 2 and 3 outputs.
The Onkyo TX-NR1009 will be on sale in the UK from late June.
