Which AV Receiver?

The guys in the Amp forum recommended an AV Receiver but I don’t know anything about AV Receivers.

Here's everything you need to know about AV receivers: they are crap! Pure, unadulterated, crap. Here's why.

In audio we always face this choice: quality, or quantity. Quality costs big money. Quantity, not so much. This applies to every single bit of it right down to the transformers, caps and resistors in the box. Every single one of which can either sound good (quality) or measure good (quantity). 

So into your receiver box for $399 they have to somehow stuff enough parts for seven channels- seven amps, seven power supplies, seven sets of terminals, plus a dac or processor and God only knows how many inputs. All crammed right in close to each other, in defiance of the fact every one of these things puts out noise that pollutes and ruins the sound of the others. No wonder AV receivers are such crap!

Not to mention, you go the AV receiver/Home Theater route, now you are stuck somehow buying four or five or seven or whatever number the marketers have cooked up this week speakers. So no wonder all the HT speakers sound like crap! They are all being made for and sold to people who care more about quantity than quality.

You can try all this, compare, and this more than anything else is what I recommend: go and listen. If you do then I can guarantee this is what you will find-

ANY two channel integrated amp you can find in your $300-1000 price range will blow away THE BEST AV receiver you can find at any price. Will not even be close. You will hear the difference immediately.

At that point then either you will say stuff it I don't need all those extra channels, they are only gonna force me to listen to crap, or you will say gosh yeah this sounds just mesmerizingly intoxicatingly better but I'd rather have seven channels of crap and a crappy sub to go with cuz won't all my friends and the noobs on the interweb forums be impressed?

Your call. Choose wisely. 

@millercarbon - dude, get off your soap box already!   The guy has a budget of $300-1000 and he wants to add a center channel eventually (which is critical for proper directional sound in movie viewing).  A push to 2-channel integrated is not going to give him what he needs (and yeah, I understand 2-channel integrated is going to sound better for stereo).

And, he listens to music. So stereo. And, he does have a low budget- which as I pointed out you get a lot more for your money buying stereo vs multichannel. Also the center channel is only "critical" for people sitting way off axis. Which as roberjerman also pointed out is not even necessary and will even degrade the sound. So he goes even further than me.

Soap box? Honestly auxinput I have to wonder if you even bothered to read my post. Was there one single FACT in it you are able to find fault with? Is one word of it factually untrue? Of course not.

The ONE recommendation I make that stands out loud and clear is not buy this or buy that, but GO AND LISTEN! In other words, here’s a lot of solid info NOW GO MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND!

Something you should understand. Having made up yours to the point you never even bother reading any more.

millercarbon thanks for your input and for tipping the scales the other way and getting me thinking. To be fair to auxinput he helped me setup at my parents place and convinced me to go the integrated preamp/DAC option over AV receiver for my Yamaha studio monitors which are being used for similar scenario as what I’m after now for my own house. 
You made a lot of sense with the quality vs quantity. I am definitely only concerned with quality. If I have to ditch rears and center than so be it. I already have the sub though. Having good sound for movies will benefit my wife and I but having quality sound for music is what I really want (personally). 
So taking into consideration my budget, are you able to recommend some preamp and amp models which I can look into that will bring out the absolute best of my speakers (for my budget)?
Over here in the U.K. where I am it’s difficult finding somewhere which stocks a lot of kit in store for me to listen to so would appreciate the recommendations here. 

Here is a Rotel A12 integrated amp with DAC. 120 wpc. £700 + shipping. Available from UK eBay seller "emlu17-4". Located in Halifax, W.Yorkshire. NEW IN BOX - never used! Silver finish!