In that price range I normally recommend the Onkyo TX-SR502 (~$300) or the TX-SR602 (~$400 with a little luck). The former is 6.1, so you'd have an unused channel. The latter is 7.1, so two unused channels which may be used to power a seperate stereo "zone". The only big downside to those two in my opinion is the lack of most pre-outs (obviously, there is the sub pre-out). For the extra money for the TX-SR602 you also (besides the extra channel) get an extra 10W, up conversion to S-Video (not to component), an on screen display (which is only really useful when you're setting the thing up, in practice), and a learning remote (which, in my experience at least, is a little quirky when trying to make it learn).
If the wattage offered by those two is too low, but you want to stick to the same price range, you might want to look at the comparable Yamaha offerings. I don't have their line memorized like I do with Onkyo though
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