2 Grand AVR budget - 4 choices - Denon/Yamaha/and.. experiences?

[Sonicus]

Hi There,

Can anyone give me some personal experiences on these four AVRs, or equivalents you own that I should consider?

It's one of those years where I'm going to "evolve" my system - this for the coming Hi Def (yay). I have a Denon 3801 which I have really enjoyed for about 5 years. I nearly upgraded to a 3805 a couple of years ago, but I didn't think it sounded as good.

So.. I'm ready to upgrade again and also ready "to consider" switching brands. I'm willing to spend the equivalent of around $2,000 on a new AVR. I've researched a fair bit and am currently looking at the following:

Denon 4306
Denon 4806
Yamaha 2600
Yamaha 4600

The Denon 4806 is more of a stretch, but seems to sound a tad better (?) than 4306. The Yammy 4600 has some good reviews, and has the advantage of 3 HDMI inputs.

Can anyone of you spare some quick insight into your experience with these? If you have something equivalent that you think I should consider, please chime in also

MUCH appreciated.

 

[jcPanny]

New receiver

If you want full compatability with the latest formats, it will take another year or two before HD-DVD and BluRay are readily available and HDMI v1.3 is out. While there are several receivers supporting HDMI 1.1 there are a lot of compatability problems.

For your next upgrade you should consider a combination of the Yamaha 2600 or Denon 3806 with a good 2-5 channel outboard amplifier. You will be able to upgrade the receiver or pre-pro as technology changes and you will have a quality amp for years to come. Another option would be to stick with the 1K receiver and put the remaining funds into a speaker or sub upgrade.

Also FYI, av123.com has the 6/7 channel UL amp that just started shipping this month. It is stable into 4 ohms at over 200 watts and is only $700. Reviews should be out shortly.