Very true.  The Onkyo had been dropped, as the box and stryrofoam was damaged.  I rolled with it since it seemd to work ok..  My folks had an Onkyo for many years and it always sounded great.  Initially I thought some of the sound issues were just tight speakers.  It did improve with some playing time, but after hooking up the Denon, there was obviously and issue with the Onkyo.  I suspect that the surround output issue and the sound quality were related to the drop.