You need to provide a little more information in order to determine what would work best.
- What size room
- Are you sticking with 3.1 or are you going to expand
- Yamaha are excellent receivers, I am sure you can find one in your price range
- What type of speakers do you have (how efficient are they, rating)
- Since you stated 3.1 I assume you have a sub
- Are you concerned about 4K content pass through?
Any newer receiver is user friendly IMO