Lee, I've been pondering your quest for simplicity, but haven't come up with anything remarkable. As you've found from your research, all modern HT receivers(certainly including the Marantz 5007)are relatively complex and making full use of their capabilities isn't "plug 'n play" by any means. Substituting the complexities of programming a universal remote avoids use of multiple remotes but isn't a solution to the basic complexity issue.

I'm tempted to reach back to my football coaching days and give you a pep talk along the lines of the confidence we have in you to be able to defeat the AVR enemy(Fight!). Really though, if you set up in steps, for example just use the M80s and sub first in basic stereo mode, it should be manageable. These receivers have "default" settings in place which give reasonably good results without making individual adjustments. For example, the Onkyo 709 default setting is sub on and an 80Hz crossover. Connecting the M80s and sub, turning the receiver on and selecting the basic stereo mode(it can be found)gives good basic stereo results which can be expanded upon as you get more familiar with the unit.

So, I don't make suggestions significantly different than those I've made recently. For an $800 budget my pick is the factory refurbished Onkyo 818 for about $780 from Accessories4less. This is probably more than you need though, and more cost-effective would be the 709 from them for about $450. Or even, for a less fully-featured unit, but still with all the power capacity needed(and power shouldn't be a major concern with any of these that you're considering), look at the 360 for about $250.


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Enjoy the music, not the equipment.