When I was first looking I just had to have a receiver that was THX certified, don't put to much into that. Most receivers will meet or exceed THX standards, they just don't pay the fee to have the THX badge glued to the front
The Denon 2805 (985) has two zones, but I'm not sure you can drive 7.1 AND 2 channel music at the same time. I've never tried it on my 2805. You may have to switch from one to the other to accomplish that need.
I was also really big on finding a receiver with the setup mic option. I think your going to find out from feedback from others, and Alan at axiom not to use the EQ part of those setups. At first I did not agree to that with my Denon 2805. But after using it for a few weeks I found that I preferred to turn off the Room EQ part, which is the Parametric Equilizer. I still use the Mic to set my speaker distance, delay, sound levels for all speakers, and polarity check. I found then when you have the EQ part turned on it enhances the midrange freq's and makes the overall sound worse.
Well I can tell you the Denon manual sucks when it comes to explaining and speaking in layman's terms. With time I have figured everything out, but at first it was not fun.
The remote is pretty intuitive and easy to use.
