Hi, Seth:
No that is about it.
I appreciate your comments. I have always been a Yamaha fan, but I am willing to switch.
Well the Yamaha RX-V661 doesn't have on-board DTS-HD or Dolby Digital TrueHD decoding on board. It can take a decoded stream from a capable HD DVD/Blu-ray player in the form of high resolution Multichannel LPCM up to 5.1 though. Note that future Blu-ray and HD DVD players will typically exclude on-board decoding for the high resolution formats.
The Yamaha RX-V661 also does not transcode all inputs to one HDMI output, however the Onkyo TX-SR605 does.
To get those features you would need to get the Yamaha RX-V1800, and it is a nice receiver and if you want to spend more to get a receiver that will be more flexible in the future in the case that you upgrade your speakers.
The only thing that makes me partial to Onkyo is the prices they have. They have the best bang for buck at the moment throughout their entire line IMO. I have owned Yamaha(3), Onkyo(3), Pioneer(1standard/1Elite), Denon(2), Sony(1), JVC(3), Sherwood(1), Kenwood(2), and a few other receivers and can say for the most part they all sound pretty good so long as they aren't pressed beyond their fidelity firewall. Cheap Kenwood and Sony receivers don't cut it, Onkyo, Yamaha, Denon, Pioneer Elite, and Sherwood Newcastle all have good receivers out right now with the HDMI 1.3 spec and Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD decoding with a ton of features. You really can't go wrong.
