A few thing to clarify first..
1. I'm from Israel, and prices for electronics here are much higher than in the US, as well as in the second hand market, and the variety isn't as big.
2. I listen to Vinyl records quite a lot, and I need a receiver that has a phono stage (the Yamaha is doing a great job with my turntable).
3. I just bought this Yamaha recently fairly cheap, thinking I would be getting a much cheaper and a higher quality product rather than buying a fancy receiver with a poor quality amp. That was before I knew about this DD+ issue of course (stupid me!
),In retrospect I'd put more money into it to get the DD+.
Here are a few model I saw, don't think i'll buy anything in near future unless it's a very solid bargain
1. Denon AVR-X2500 - 550 usd
2. Pioneer vsx-823-k 550 usd
3. Onkyo tx-sr606 400 usd
4. Yamaha rx-v733 - 370 usd
5. Yamaha rxv-671/677 - 500 usd
6. Pioneer vsx-821 - 230 usd.
7. Onkyo tx sr-607 - 170 usd
8. Yamaha rx-a1010 - 550 usd - this one looks like a proper receiver considering the other options... not sure if still relevant thought