After reviewing numerous post on this and other forum sites, some very helpful input from forum members and hours of research, I have narrowed the decision of a receiver down to the above mentioned ones with possibly the option of adding the Pioneer Elite 53tx to the equation. I have already ordered the Axiom 3ti to begin with and will be adding other speakers to create an HT system..the room is rather small about 15' X 15'. The Sony has a 5 yr warranty, where the rest have only a 2 yr. sounds important. The 45tx has a .09% THD where the others have .04% and .05%. Don't know how important that is? Have virtually ruled out the H/K 525 and Denon 2803 as I want more "creature comforts" i.e. better remotes and they do not seem to have the most "bang for the $$". I, like almost everyone else who going through the buying decision wants all they can get for their hard earned $$, but don't want to over extend for their type of listenting. Thanks in advance for all suggestions and comments. Hope you're somewhere around Sushi.

Hmm. Other than the remote, I found that the H/Ks offered tons of bang for the buck. Now mind you, I was buying about 6 months ago when those automatic speaker calibration goodies weren't popping up all over the place, but...

FishIsland,

Regarding the THD specs, please see the post I just made in this thread. One thing I am concerned with the Sony ES receivers is the fact that, according to third-party measurements, Sony receivers consistently fail to deliver the rated power when multiple channels are driven simultaneously. The Elite 45TX performs respectably in this regard, delivering over 140W x 2 channels driven, and 135W x 5 channels driven according to HiFi News (UK) measurements. Not that this immediately makes the Sony receiver mediocre or anything, and its 5-year warranty is certainly a BIG plus... but the power issue is something to note about the Sony ES receivers.

The Yamaha 1400 vs. the Elite 45TX really depends on their price that you can get.

Fish, the automatic equalization Pioneer and now Yamaha makes available should be an important, maybe decisive, factor. Since it's been discontinued you may have trouble finding a new 45TX. There're a few companies advertising factory refurbished 45TXs for around $530. The 53TX is essentially identical except that a couple of rarely used ports(USB,RS-232C)aren't present. On paper the 1400 would appear to have an even better equalization provision, but it's brand new and no reports are available.

On September 25th Sony will be debuting several new ES models. The 1000ES is already out, but there will be several others. The 1000 and 2000 both will upconvert composite to S-Video, the 3000ES I understand will upconvert any signal to component. The 9000 will add DVI output as well. Power ranges from 100 x 7 to 170 x 7. These should all have 5 yr warranties also.