I have to agree with the previous posts. I Love my 1400, If I had any complaints, I found the initial set-up pretty complex, but maybe thats cause I have been out of the Audio loop for some time, now I am diving in head first, Hell I want to sell my house so I can design my HT room from scratch. You will have plenty of power in the Yamaha, And I agree with the bright/warm debate, you will have clean/powerful music, and movies, and the brightness will be dictated by the room enviroment, and the speakers, not the receiver, Ironic that the reviews on the 1400 stated it to be laid-back, and warm, just the oposite of what you are concerned about, but again I feel the receiver (any receiver) has lttle effect on that issue. I liked the idea of the optimizer (YMPO) but did not like the settings it delivered, more fluff then practical benefit, try it, it's all automated, nice in theory, but did little for me. Be prepared to do some tweaking and DON"T LOSE THE MANUAL and you will be rewarded in your choice, I assure you it's a great receiver, the features, and input/outputs are almost unlimited. Jon
