Thank you for both of the replies so far.
The Onkyos do look nice.
One thing I like to do is look at 'what would I get by spending a little more' and feel like it's not worth it to know when I have the right item. Not sure what thatis for those.
I do expect to have a separate CD player - I'd bought a Refurb Denon, and it played, when I opened it after letting it sit after the warranty, for under 2 hours before something went so wrong that the local repair shop said they couldn't fix it at all. So I'm in the market for another, it might not be HDMI but RCA though right?
It is nice to have a little breathing room on HDMI though, never know if I might get a 360.
You're right, the good advice to research the units would probably work but getting the expertise and trusting hobbyists who do that a lot while I don't was why I posted
I noticed there are tradeoffs even in the two listed Onkyos above, gained and removed features, a suspected reduction in power because of the weight in 607, etc.
I guess the most useful reply might be along the lines of 'here are two great sweet spot picks, to pick between them value x or y. Here's a little cheaper model to confirm you don't want to spend less, and here's a little more expensive model to confirm you don't want to spend more.'
The general tips like 'avoid this and this other feature is important' like you posted are useful too.
That's asking a lot but what I try to get from the responses