Believe it or not, but I had to go through 3 AV receivers before I found the perfect one...the first was the Sony STR-DG600...it had a good sound, and cool features, but I had to crank the amp all the way, very close to max, to get a decent sound from my 10x12 room...
From there I returned the Sony receiver for an Onkyo...I thought I was going to get better and man...I was wrong...after hooking up the wires and setting up the menus, I started examining the sound by playing a bunch of cds...the sound was way not too clear, and it was very nasally..its hard to explain, but the sound to me was not clear at all!....so then I returned it to Circuit City, "accidently" bumped into the manager, and explained to her the problem, she said 2 of her kids used Onkyo for 5 years, and they never had a problem with it, and they are very happy...I also told her that everytime I would spin the rotary volume I would hear a cracking sound, she didn't know if it was normal or not, so I found an Onkyo on display, and started twisting the volume knob...the display was working fine...she was very nice and told me to just look around and if I find anything let somebody know...so I looked around, I felt kinda sad that I have been going through amp after amp returning, and there really wasn't any more amps that were in my price range but one...Pioneer VSX-816-K/S...I hooked it up, and MAN was I amazed by the sound quality! My cd's never sounded more alive, and all the sounds were crystal clear and I heard things alot clearer than I ever did...
It had alot of the cool features like the Sony STR-DG600, and at a volume of -30dB I got a LOUD sound!
So I am definately happy with this one, and I am amazed that it was SO cheap and better sounding than the Sony and the Onkyo...but at last finally I found something that I am happy with!
Thank you all for helping with my decisions in purchasing a receiver...especially since the last receiver I had was an HK AVR-65 that only had Dolby Digital, DTS, and the original Pro Logic...
I'm just surprise that Pioneer sounded so damn clear!
One thing though...I'm not sure if the Pioneer receiver is high-current or low current, when I called Pioneer, the guy though since I was using 8ohms speakers, it was high-current..but he wasn't too sure...needless to say, I still love the sound, but it would be cool to find out if its really high or low current...still sound great by the way!
