I guess I'm not understanding the problem. If the sony has the bells and whistles you want, it should be all you need. As John pointed out, all receivers are different for the volume levels/labels. My Denon starts at -80dB and goes to like +20dB or something. My previous JVC pro logic receiver had a different scale starting at 0. The whole point is that listening to something at 90dB's on one receiver is the same 90dB's on another receiver. How loud are you listening to the music anyway?
I think Ken answered your other question above about trying to use both AVR's.
