I think the new line of Yamaha's look nice and would be a great choice to run a system off of. I however don't feel that going from a 1500 to a 1600 makes a whole lot of sense. I would step up to a 2600 or 4600 if it were me, but that's just my opinion. The new Denon's are looking nice as well as the new Pioneer Elites. I really don't think you can go wrong with any of them as you are getting a hell of a lot of features and processing power for your money. I'm also looking forward to seeing the next batch of Marantz receivers as well as some other brands.