Great Sounding 2-Channel Reciever Under $400


Helping friend assemble a decent system, already has Emotiva CD player, I'll match speakers, Vandersteen 2C, Energy C series, Sound Dynamics, PSB, Paradigm.

Only 2 high quality channel watts with good current.

Can be new or clean used Receiver, narrow down this list to one or two:

Marantz, Rotel, Sansui, Yamaha, Denon, Harmon Kardon, Onkyo, Kenwood, Outlaw, Sherwood, Pioneer, Sony or?
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Will this be a forever buy ?
If not try one of the older receivers as long as it sounds good and everything works properly . Go for it and save some coins for an upgrade down the road . Have some fun !

The older Pioneer , Marantz , Sansui and Yamaha's are going for less than half of his budget around here and guarantied for one year after being checked by the seller who only deals with 60's & 70's stuff . These units were pretty good sounding , came with a decent phono built in and an FM/AM radio as a bonus ! I don't mean the mega watt units . These older units only have 20 - 30 watts output and they are heavier than today's stuff ! Guess why .

I am going down this road for a budding audiophile , my teenage granddaughter . For less than $400 I am assembling a sound system , with turntable , that is easy to operate , not finicky and will provide a decent taste of what can be achieved .

Gotta start some place !
Thanks Rich, I'll get him to run the Emotiva ERC-3 into an Outlaw RR 2150 to a pair of NHT 2.5's, hell, I'd probably be happy with that myself.