I am leaning towards buying a new Yamaha Aventage Receiver. It carries 2022 technology and Yamaha seems to be doing well with the promised firmware updates. At this point, the only things pending to deliver just impact gamers and I am not one.
I am replacing my now obsolete (then flagship), nearly 20 yr old Onkyo TX-NR1000 7.2 AVR which used to power both my indoor and outdoor HT plus my gym stereo zone. My indoor home theater measures 14' w x 16.5' l x 11.5' h. My 5.1 speakers are also discontinued but still in great shape: Polk LSi9 front, LSiC center channel, and LSiFX surround (Dipole setting) and a Polk PSW1000 subwoofer. These Polk speakers are rated 4ohms. They sound great but they are power hungry. My outdoor HT has 5 DAS DS-108 speakers.
I noticed that the A8A has a few premium build components beyond the two additional amps compared to the A6A: Larger block capacitors, premium DAC for all channels (ES9026PRO x2 vs. ES9026PRO x1 ES9007S x1), beefier transformer, larger power supply (600w vs 500w), iron legs.
Do you guys believe those items make a difference in the sound quality or reliability/service life of these units? Is it worth investing the extra money on the A8A over the A6A? Channel utilization wise, I could use either one in various combinations: 5.1 for HT, passively bi-amping my front LF mains, and 1-2 stereo zones.