I agree re Yamaha and Denon. But when you jump to Rotel... I remember when I first bought my first Rotel piece: receiver RX-1052, I listened to it at a demo showroom at my dealer's shop compared with Yamaha stereo receiver (RX 777 I believe, even though not sure for the model, which by the way was my first choice before discovering Rotel). I was able to tell the difference 8 times out of 8 in a blind test with same speakers and cd player using dealer's switch.
Anyway, I think everybody's experiences are unique, all should be able to trust their own ears and get what pleasure them, be it an expensive speaker cable, interconnect, power amp etc. or a consumer market one.
