Receiver

Well, thank you sirs...(tvad  and ps) 

Happy New Years to all!

It depends on what one wants a Surround Sound system to do.  Many people use a two channel system for music and use their HT systems primarily for Video.
Then if their tastes in Video run to action movies with lots of explosions, etc. they will have different requirements from their system than, say, myself.
  I listen to music primarily in my 2 channel system.  One of my HT systems (living room) is primarily my wife’s domain, and we watch shows there.  We don’t do action films as a rule but I enjoy the enhanced ability to appreciate dialogue and ambience.  My other HT system in the basement I originally cobbled together for millennials that were living there, but now that they’re gone for years I have been steadily upgrading and there are certain recordings that simply sound better in multichannel.  I listen to Classical, and there are many SACDs and Blu Rays that are tastefully done.  The rears provide ambience, and many of the recordings from labels such as Pentatone and BIS do a wonderful job of simulating the reflections that one would get from the rear walls of a Concert Hall.  For example, try the Brahms Symphony Cycle on Pentatone with Marek Janowski conducting the Pittsburgh SO.  The superb sense of atmosphere elevates it from just being a very good Brahms Cycle (in two channel)  to top of the class in MC.  I’ve been listening to and watching my Blu Ray of the Nutcracker, Rudolph Nureyev choreographed, from the Vienna Staatoper, and the surrounds enhance the sounds of the dancers and the audience applause.  Both my HTs are 5.1, btw; the architecture of my house won’t accommodate Atmos.
  

Have you asked this question over on the AVS forum?  You might get answers more to your liking.

Good afternoon and  Happy New year to all, 1st I want to thank you all for ur input, like I said I am not very well versed in this stuff and I definitely don’t know all the technical aspects of these components, I had never heard of NAD or anthem until I posted in this forum, looks like there are a few Anthem fans, and after doing a little checking, I really like the fact that the company is in Canada and  tech support is English speaking, HUGE plus for me, to answer some of the questions, I would say I watch way more movies than listen to music and as much as I would like to have the best of both worlds, I’m not willing to spend the money, sooo if I can stay at the 5K or so I would be happy, I misspoke in my initial comment, I actually have the Vienna acoustics that I mentioned I also have (2) Martin Logan tower speakers with a Martin Logan sub @raysmb1, I’m good with the same 20 guys in the nursing home arguing :) over the same basic concepts over 20,000 opinions! Now I just have to decide on which AVR to go with but think I am leaning towards the anthem so I’m going to find a local dealer and check out their stuff!  Thank you all again!!

I forget to mention, this setup is in a great room setting the listening area is about 18X20 and I have 16foot ceiling, not necessarily the prefect theater room!