Sorry, the Integra does not sound "digital". I doubt the person who wrote this comment took one home and lived with it for a while. It is a remarkably smooth pre pro with ripe harmonic richness and extremely fine transparency. It excels in two channel and in 5.1/THX ex. One of the reasons I bought one after auditioning numerous, more expensive pre pro's including the Lexicon MC-1, the Tag, Proceed, Krell HT, was because of how articulate it is with music. With 8 24/192 DACS it carries this same sense of detail to home theater.
If it has any drawback, it is that it can't compete with Lexicon's logic 7 and other proprietary DSP effects. My previous unit was a DC-1 which I still have. Have just tried hooking up both using the Integra for 5.1 and the Lex for the rear 7.1 channels set to logic 7. This also allows for a second subwoofer with different time alignment. Pure decadence.
If it has any drawback, it is that it can't compete with Lexicon's logic 7 and other proprietary DSP effects. My previous unit was a DC-1 which I still have. Have just tried hooking up both using the Integra for 5.1 and the Lex for the rear 7.1 channels set to logic 7. This also allows for a second subwoofer with different time alignment. Pure decadence.