the room is terrible. it is an open floor plan which ends up meaning i have a vaulted ceiling, a half wall behind where the speakers are pointed and then open space to the next 2 rooms. Also speakers for surround are currently on sides and not in same placement as room wont allow it. So I know i wont be getting any help from the room but will be moving in about 6 month to a home with better acoustics, so want the system to grow with me when i get to a room where i can have a better setup. The Denon kept failing in the setup when it tried to check the speakers. I checked everything and it was set up perfect but kept saying it could not hear my left front speaker (or a different speaker when doing calibration) when i heard it fine and finally pissed me off after blasting a speaker at crazy volume for the millionth time, so i packed it up and bought another Pioneer as that had been the easiest to use thus far.
As to budget I would prefer not to go over about 1200 (marantz on sale for 1k, current pioneer was 700) as I am trying my wife's patience now with all this but at the same time if the difference is noticeable i could take that to 2k if i was going to get more bang for my buck.
most of the time the volume is fairly low as i have 2 little kids and just need it loud enough to hear voices. However at least once a week I listen to music fairly loud or a movie and at that time i do like to make sure its an experience though i would not say i am pushing my system to its max ever.
