Hard choice between the five mentioned honestly. Of course, anyone who's been around me long enough will say that I voted for the Yamaha.
Wrong.
I had to go with the Sony. I think that people in the market today, wanting a $500 receiver, have certain expectations about integrated features and connectivity. For me, the newer options include wireless internet connectivity, apps, and Bluetooth. The fact that the Sony natively handles a majority of wireless connectivity options is a bonus, meaning the customer won't have to purchase the "accessories" later on down the road, potentially taking up more space, and placing other small strange boxes near the receiver.
Video connectivity is another big thing. Most people looking at these, are more than likely looking to connect at least a cable/satellite box, a Blu-Ray player, a gaming console, Roku or similar video streaming device (if their BDP doesn't have their streaming app on it), and the occasional computer or HD camcorder. That sounds like a reasonable list of connectable video options, and while the Sony does lack one less port than the others, it seems to make up for that shortcoming by having the best supported (at least on paper) HDMI specifications available, meaning that you should be slightly more future proof (but it seems like the technology for this changes fairly rapidly, and it could be completely out of date in six months, but that's just babble now). Still, knowing that you have the best compatibility from the get-go is a confidence builder. You have the ability to change parts of your home theater later on down the road without (hopefully) worrying too much about what new device you can connect. Mind you, it's all subject to change anymore, but for the now, it makes sense.
What baffles me is the lack of component on this particular unit, and then decided composite is good enough for you. Yes, if your looking at a unit like this today, the manufacturers are assuming you have a bit of a restrained budget, but you have some very new high definition components to connect to it. If you want more legacy connections, they will be happy to sell you a unit costing at least $300 more, that has more I/O. At least it has sensible connections for digital inputs (two optical and one coaxial), and most people looking at equipment like this will more than likely have a CD player or another device that has a optical out instead of coax.
The auto calibration is a bit of a pitfall for some on the mainstream consumer level, but I feel that this affects a small number of people honestly. People that don't know this is not as good other calibration systems found on other units won't likely ever notice, and a true audiophile will usually work at the basics before tackling something like auto calibration. It should still have enough going for it to sound well, when set up correctly.
The only thing that hasn't been gone over, at least that I've seen, is the layout of the OSD. I don't know if any of these have an OSD, but some receiver menus can be trickier than others to navigate and set up the receiver the way you want. From recent experience, most of Sony's OSDs follow a pretty unified pattern between devices, whether it be their gaming consoles, Blu-Ray players, or televisions. So, it would seem if this unit has an OSD, it would be very similar, and should prove to be pretty straight forward and intuitive. But, I have no first hand experience with this, so your mileage will probably vary.
All in all, it's splitting hairs, and the best receiver is the one that will do what you want it to do. For someone that doesn't, I think the Sony has the ever so slight edge. The fact that the price listed in the matrix is right at the $500 mark, instead of $50 over, also makes it a bit more true and honest for comparison of $500 dollar receivers, although it never hurts to see what you could get for $50 more dollars. The prices should also come down after a few months, think Black Friday deals, and other sales that online distributors frequently have.
