How about the one that sounds better with your speakers?
Do all receivers sound the same?
Just wondering.
For the most part receivers do sound the same. For one to say Yamaha forward and bright and Denon is more laid back and warm is pretty much a load of bull. I have said this so many times I should put it in my signature, any well designed/built transistor amplifier should sound transparent within its design limits. Which means, so long as the amplifier is not clipping audibly there should be no difference between Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo or other mass production receivers.
Everyone is so concerned with power ratings?
Not sure exactly what you are asking here, but there is reason to be concerned with power, just not to the point that some people make it out to be. The difference between 85 watts and 90 watts should be not even noticeable. Say you have a set of speakers that achieve 89 dB with 1 watt. In order to achieve 3 more dB you need to double the wattage. So for 92 dB you need 2 watts. 4 watts gets you 95 dB, 8 watts/98 dB, 16 watts/101 dB, 32 watts/104 dB, 64 watts/107 dB. So when you reach 85-90 you are going to get only about 1-1.5 more dB anyway, which is really hard to detect with human hearing.
At the lower price points is yamaha not tough to beat?
Yamaha and Onkyo are probably the most competitive in this price range. Sony would also be a competitor, but not to many folks here like their stuff because they have quality control issues and user interface issues.
