Considering upgrading my Panasonic ST50 plasma and the old Onkyo TX SR700 to more current tech. Obviously, almost any receiver will get bring me into the current decade and be a worthwhile upgrade, but I am a little troubled by seeing that my old 29lb receiver which I know suffered controversy for not outputting full rated power to all channels driven when I bought it in like 2002 is a solid 5-7lbs heavier than most of the middle tier receivers on the market today. I get it that they have cut costs with power supplies for the new formats, etc.
The C9 apparently has most of the latest tech ability and I'd like to try to find a receiver that won't kneecap it too much. I haven't yet nailed down everything, but I'm sure I would at least want eARC for example to accommodate streaming formats. It looks like the C9 has pretty advanced refresh rate capability and I"m not exactly sure how a receiver might hamper that. I honestly really have no idea - like a future Xbox Scarlet hitting 120fps possibly idk. I guess you just have to concede that you will have to accept compromises to keep the price reasonable.
I'd like to keep it below $1,000 too. I've been eying the Denon AVR-3600H to see if a Black Friday sale comes along. I've seen that it already has been on sale for $899 since it was released. It had a pretty nice review on the Youtube channel for this website. At least it apparently has potential for being a clean source for an external amp, etc.
I'm only running a 5.1 speaker setup currently. I might actually consider adding Dolby Atmos ceiling speakers in the future though. So, I could make use of the extra channels. I've currently got 5 Ascend CBM-170 bookshelf speakers and an Adire Audio Rava sub.
Any suggestions on what else I should consider? I've seen several really attractive deals on previous year model and older new receivers available, but some are missing eARC for example and they might be a little light compared to what I have currently without the ability to really add external power even if they do have the preamp output. I didn't know there was a problem until I watched that review on here honestly.
Thanks!