Receivers 500 and under?

Nakamichi RE-10 is a great receiver that is being sold at great discounts since Nakamichi just bankrupted. Their older receivers are classics and can blow away any receivers currently made. Check them out on ebay. Look for the TA or SR series. Only drawbacks are their binding posts aren't that great.

I don't think most other manufacturers cept for NAD makes a good two channel receiver since they concentrate their resources on home theater.

Have you considered one of the older McIntosh receivers?
Great tuner - certainly better than all the mass market
brands - and an okay amp section, too. Also, you can take
it to most McIntosh dealers and have it brought up to
factory spec for a nominal amount. And last but not least;
if you don't like the way it matches up with your speakers,
you can turn around and sell it for pretty much what you
paid for it.

Look at "Sherwood" receivers. A few years ago I bought a new Sherwood RV-4050R from Circuit City for the blow-out price of $92.($300+ retail) A very good product. Has many features, has
a good tuner, sleep timer, and the ablity to turn off the
L.E.D. display.(Makes a noticable difference in sound quality.) Check out the prices on Sherwood and the "New Castle line-up. These receivers sound very good. I've listened to NAD 712, Denon 345R, and Yamaha something and
I would choose the Sherwood. One last note, for a couple of
years I used Spendor S 3/5's with this receiver and it had no problem whatever driving those speakers and the system
sounded very good. Good Luck! Bill