You can pretty much put every brand on a dart board, put on a blind fold, throw it underhand and be happy wherever it lands. They’ve all got pretty good ‘value’ receivers out nowadays.
It really all depends on what features and function that are needed / wanted. Then you need to start getting more picky.
I love my latest AVR, which is the Marantz SR 8001. It’s not all that and a bag of chips without its own problems, but it sure does sound good. I suspect the lower level Marantz receivers sound pretty good too, and they’re cheap.
