Hi Erik
About 5 or so years ago I stumbled across the Sherwood RX-4105 receiver and was amazed at how well it tuned. With a few very simple tweaks it beat up on some serious big buck amps, or at least equaled. Since that time I've been thinking about tuning one of their AV units. I've been looking at the R-507.
I think there are some super low mass and small receivers that have got to be in thinking camps of some of the more mass production companies. I also think the new breed of audiophiles are going to be all over that market. We will see. In the meantime I'm going to check out one of these units from Sherwood to see if the same sound can be had in their simple 5.1 designs.
It's exciting to watch the new designs make their way into high ends territory. Takes a little mental adjustment for many, but it was always a matter of time.
mg