YAMAHA Aventage
It will be two channel to start off with but I am thinking I should get one with 5.1 capabilities if I want to upgrade in the future. It will be used about 85% of the time for music. I guess things like Airplay would be cool but would not make or break a receiver for me.
I like Yamaha. They are made in Malaysia, not China. The new Aventage 20 series has Airplay. One year's model back (10 series) has Pandora, Rhapsody, and some Internet Radio capabilities. Room correction is Yamaha's in house YPAO, which is pretty simple to operate. I recently purchased a RX-A3010, which the highest Aventage model, one version back. The new RX-A3020 came out mid-2012. I have a Sonos setup, so Airplay was not a feature that was critically important to me. One neat feature is a free Ipad app which controls the Yamaha functions. If you have an Ipad/iphone, you can download it for free and check out the features it controls.
I am using mine as a pre-pro, and for music the Yamaha has a great sound, is well made, with a three year warranty. Only beef was it came with a CD manual. If you call Yamaha USA, they will send a printed one for free. There are various models of the Aventage AV receiver series so you can go to the Yamaha website, where you can compare features, and prices. I moved into the Yamaha from a non-HDMI Parasound C2 controller. There are some good price breaks on the older model, up to several hundred dollars at the high end.
I am very happy with my purchase so far. Good luck in your search.
