Price Paid:  $500.00 from Fry's Electronics

Summary:
I purchased this at a time when they were going online for a about a $150 to $200 more than the $500 I paid. It MSRP was $1000 by the way. New models were just coming out that upconvert all of the video inputs and output through the HDMI. This one will upconvert composite video and s-video to the component video outputs but no to the HDMI. Having everything pass through a single HDMI cable to your display is tidy but for me it wasn't really an issue. My 1080P HD TV converts all inputs anyway and I don't like to use the AV receiver every time I want to watch TV. In fact I use the receiver exclusively for audio because much of my viewing is done through a media extender and consists of technical programming and news feeds that don't really merit the big speakers. All that aside this receiver does a fine job with sound. It isn't too difficult to set up. The sound is clean and there are
a plethora of surround modes to play with. The included mic helps the initial setup
considerably and will probably do for many users, others will want to rely on their own ears to fine tune the setup. Thankfully the display can be dimmed, I find overly bright LEDs and displays to be annoying and often resort to putting a bit of tape over them to soften the impact.

I am also enjoy music listening on this pup. I have a separate system for listening
to music and was surprised when this receiver did such a decent job and stood
up quite well to my dedicated system. Speaker choice is of course critical and subjective and probably more important than the receiver itself. There is a "Pure Sound" music mode that bypasses any tonal monkeying and eliminates that artificial loudness sound you get otherwise.

All in all a nice unit with more going on than the average user is likely to need.

Strengths:
Clean sound.
Preamp outputs to external amps for all speakers except Zone 2
Lots of assignable inputs.
Zone 2 capable

Weaknesses:
Could use more HDMI inputs. As noted I don't use them, but most will, and as time goes
by the 2 inputs offered by most of these receivers will prove to be few.

Similar Products Used:
Panasonic AV Receiver
HK AV Receiver
Pioneer AV Receiver