I'm hardly an audiophile Dave, at least in my opinion. If I understand what your asking, I really don't think your going to notice any difference in sound quality between these receivers, especially at a modest 75dB listening level if everything is apples to apples. You would hear differences if you turn on special DSP modes or tone controls or Audyssey, however, if speaker setup, calibration, etc., is the same, I doubt there would be any audible difference.