home theatre receiver under $1,000

Ckorody: Excellent post!

Jroutensowhat: Spend a few more $$$ and go for the Onkyo-876 or, better yet, the 906.

I've been using the 876 ($1200 @ Amazon) for a few months now and am very happy.

Now if we can just talk Victor at BAT into making an AV receiver...

buy a denon 101 system, i own one and for watching movies and listening to music video it is great, simple set up ,good looks and does the job..i know it doesn;t cost enough. you can get one, the entire system for 600.00 incl.speakers, dvd,cd and subwoofer....check it out..dwhitt

(I just posted something similar on another HT thread)
The Denon 2809CI can be picked up at Sixth Ave Electronics (6ave.com) for $900 shipped. Its listed at $1199 but this coupon code gives you 25% off: AFLAUD25. I don't know why but it works for current model receivers including Denon and Yamaha.

6th Ave is an authorized reseller and listed on Denon's site as such.

I did a bit of research and narrowed my choice down to the 2809CI for these reasons:
7.1 (or 5.1 with a 2nd zone)
4 HDMI 1.3a inputs
Audyssey MultEQ XT for room calibration
115 wpc
1080p upscaling (but only for analog inputs, not HDMI)

The Onkyo's looked like a better value on paper but I didn't like some of the reviews I read (sorry, I don't remember which ones so I can't cite the sources).

Also, I'm upgrading from a Denon 3802 which has performed flawlessly but doesn't have HDMI inputs or the latest codecs.

I admire the NAD style but do they support the newest digital high def surround formats?

I just picked up a Marantz 7001 for 500 bucks and it will do absolutely everything you are looking for. For my 2 cents, I wouldn't get a receiver that supports hdmi1.3 - you should get one that does hdmi 1.2. Not only are they cheaper, they do nearly everything a 1.3 receiver will and you can get an amazing product for very cheap. If I were to get the "1.3" marantz, I would have had to spend over a grand for essentially the same reciever.

This goes the same for the Denon 4807's (or one of their older models w/ 1.2, I don't remember off hand). Or some of the older Integras, or whatever your poison is. In most cases, 1.2 will be enough for anyone.

The only drawback of HDMI 1.2 is if you have one of the new TV's with 120hz processing. Hdmi 1.2 will NOT handle that. But if you just have a good 1080p tv, you will be fine with 1.2