I have had the SC-1522 for the past year or so, its somewhat similar. I like it quite a bit. I tend to stick with Pioneer receivers because of MCACC. It may not be as accurate as Audessy, but its far more flexible. You can get in there and mess around with the EQ after its done calibrating. Honestly I think MCACC does a pretty poor job when it comes to the higher frequencies, I always have to go in there and mess around with it to make it sound right(or at least what I think of as right). I tried the Onkyo 818 and I wasn't a fan of Audessy, it sounded too bright and there wasn't much I could do about it. Back to the actual receiver, the only "problem" I've had with it is that sometimes I randomly reboots. It hasn't happened at an inconvenient time yet and it happens pretty rarely. I haven't had any experience with Yamaha receivers or YPAO. My friend just got one and doesn't have any complaints but he is pretty inexperienced when it comes to audio.
