help decide what av receiver under $1k to choose

In your budget range you can’t go wrong with NAD,Marantz,Cambridge Audio,Outlaw Audio & Harman Kardon...

@allinone1989 to get any advice you need specific feature you want like if you want 4k, latest HDMI and what decoding feature do you need, how many speakers need to be powered and what power amplifier output you are looking for, phono stage, latest apps integration, wifi , bluetooth etc etc etc.

@geek101 it’s so complex. Do you have any basic guides? I promise to read that and will back smarter and ready to answer all questions.

Well, a first step is to identify how many channels you need.  That could be 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, etc. and if you want to include ATMOS.  Is your budget just for audio or does it also need to cover a display?

@allinone1989 Zero in on your speakers first and then you can look at what they need. If you want to spend less money then make sure to get efficient speakers i.e speakers that are 8 Ohm minimum and are 96 dB or more efficient.