@afterlife2: Thanks for that site! Actually, the 818 is what I had decided on about 3 weeks ago but in the interest of saving money, I did more research to weed out specs/features that might be overkill for my application. While my research also says this one is better, I had to ask myself is it enough better based on what features I'm going to actually use to be worth the extra money. That brought me to the 727 vs 626, however, the 818 had still not been weeded out of my consideration lineup. Now, since you gave me that site, it's back to the top of my list at that price! Thanks for the second opinion.
@j_garcia: Thanks. I've never heard that; I always thought you should choose a receiver with the features/specs you need/want and then find speakers that sound good with it. I'll start looking at speakers now also. Thanks for that insight and for pointing out a couple differences that I missed. I'm never going to use an external amp, second sub, nor second zone for this application. So the preamp outs (unless there's a different use for them that I'm not familiar with), the .2 vs .1, and the zoning specs don't matter. I'm also not very familiar with Marantz. Per your suggestion, I did a little reading up on it. The look really nice! Looking in my preferred price range, I came across the NR1604 and the SR6007. I know they seem to be two different classes of devices, but they seem to have the features I want. What are your opinions on them vs the Onkyos mentioned as far as sound quality, features, interface, and reliability go? What comparable Denon models would you suggest I look at?
