I have considered HDMI switching. At least, my yet-to-be-built media room will have conduit in place to accept cabling. The new Anthem AVM-30 (soon to be released) will support HDMI (as well as an increased price tag). That is my ideal but at $4000 Cdn, it is too pricey.
I had purchased one of Yamaha's top of the line receivers once (Prologic model) and was disappointed with the sound (having come from an Adcom 535II). It is my understanding that Yamaha has come a long way with their processing and they are not dull and lifeless as they used to be. Unfortunately Ihave not had a chance to audition one of their new offerings (a little gun-shy perhaps after my first experience).
I have been hearing some good things about the Outlaw amps. I am not sure if my GR-60s will like being paired up with one but the value is definitely there.
That brings to mind another point of my own experience. Having demoed some equipment at my local "audiophile" shop, I listened once to the Anthem AVM-30, PVA-5 and the Paradigm reference speaker system. I was blown away. To me, that was what home theater should sound like. I brought my wife in a couple of weeks later to listen to the same set up however they replaced the Paradigm reference with Monitor Audio Silver series speakers. I was not as impressed. I had come to the conclusion that the only offerings from Monitor Audio that I do like are the Gold series. However, the point was to impress on my wife the difference and impact that really nice equipment can have on the home theater experience. She was impressed but I don't think she approved of the price tag - followed up with a quick, "that's nice dear, can we go now?").
The sales rep even mentioned how one customer had replaced his amplifier with an Adcom and his wife (who did not normally care about home theater) noticed and did not like the difference. When he immediately replaced it with the Anthem amp, she loved the sound.
In my past experience, the Adcom 535-II was a VERY nice amp (I think it was only 55W per channel). In stepping up to the 545 or 555 amps, they were a little more "harsh" (Danger Will Robinson - opinion alert) sounding. I stuck with the lower power and nicer sound.
