I'm very pleased with my denon receiver. In the past if you call the folks at 6ave.com they offer pretty competitive prices, especially for the denon models. Several of us around here got the 3808 for about $1000-$1100 when the MSRP was $1599-$1699 not long after it was released. I'm not too familiar with denons current models but I'd find one that was a little over your budget and ask the folks at 6asve what their best price is.

-David