Ya, sometimes AVR's screw with the signal. I always turn that crap off if I can. The VP in almost any display will be better than those in AVR's.

The Sony was about 5K. There are quite a few models out now that are in the 2500 – 5000 range that are quite good, much better than what you have now. I am a stickler for inky blacks, so I tend to look at the JVC or Sony models. With JVC, you get the best native CR, and with Sony, native is still quite good, but they use a dynamic iris to achieve their dymanic CR. I moved from a JVC RS20 to the Sony and even though the native CR is much higher / better with the JVC than the Sony, I can’t really see a difference. The Sony handles motion much better than the JVC. The JVC however has a more ‘film like’ appearance. There is always a con for every pro it seams……

In regards to calibration, unless you are actually manipulating RGB to set color temp and grey scale from 5 – 100 % IRE, white luminance for Gama, and pulling in colors for both the primary and secondary color gamut, you aren’t really “calibrating” your displays. What you are doing is much better than nothing, or “winging it”, but it is not truly calibrating. You can pay someone to do it for you, at a rate of about $500 per display, or you can buy the tools to do it yourself. Steep learning curve, but not rocket science. I use both Calman and Chromapure. For ease of use, I give the nod to Chromapure. You can get a bundle for under $600. With projectors, you need to readdress grey scale as the bulb ages. I recalibrate mine about every 200 hours. http://www.chromapure.com/products-d3pro.asp

I always try to move folks towards calibration before buying new stuff. Sometimes a display just needs a little bit of love… And, if you get the tools to calibrate, they are yours for life and can be used over and over again. Money well spent.