Opinions on a good HT/Music AVR

Joe, the only AVR's that sound good for both music and movies that I know of would be NAD. The T765 or &775 would fit the bill.

The Arcam receivers are very good for music and theater.
I know a couple of sound engineers who use them in their home theater rooms.
And they are resonably priced

Forget all-in-one receivers. For 3 Large you can buy a Butler TDB-5150 5-channel tube/MOSFET amp and an Emotiva UMC-1 preprocessor. This combo will lay waste to most any receiver of equal value...

-RW-

I have owned a couple of NAD's the I have many problems with, they were terrible.

I have seen and heard the Emotive stuff recently, and thought you were getting what you paid for.

I would suggest that with your setup and your excellent speakers you buy a used Parasound Halo C2 and try to find a Parasound 2205a amp. Since you don't need 7.1, I would just go analog from your disc player to the PrePro, and since you don't have long runs, just use HDMI cables from your gear to your TV. You will still get all of the newer surround modes from your disc player through the analog connetions, and you will get a great sounding piece of gear, and the power you need to make your speakers shine.

For $3G, do not buy a new AVR Receiver of any brand that will be worth about $300 in 3 years. You are just throwing away money. Value drop of AVR is 60% 1 year, 75% 2 years, 90% three years.

Get a Krell Pre/Pro and a 5-channel krell amp for $3G, used of course. Musicwise it will best any AVR that I have heard. If you are not crazy about Krell, then pick another brand that makes real audio equipment. Parasound (as mentioned above), Cary, and the list can go on.

Personally, I would avoid Arcam, NAD and Rotel as I have found they deliver about the same as a Dennon AVR but at a higher price. But that is just my experience, use your ears and visit some of the many HT shops around.