Anthem AV receiver better than Denon as a preamp

Take a look at Kal Rubinson's reveiew of the MRX 700 in Stereophile if you have not already He even tried it with a Bryston amp. He throught the MRX 700 amps sounded almost as good as the Bryston so the theater match should be good. And he very much liked the 2 channel sound. He is one reviewer I trust.

Paraneer - it sounds like you used both the amp and pre-amp sections of the AVR's you tested. The OP has Bryson amps for his mains, which means he is only using the pre-amp section of the AVR and that might be in a Pure Direct mode for stereo. My experience is that the amps can be as important to the sound as the preamp, depending on how they mate with your speakers.

So my suggestion remains, time for the OP to listen to some options in his own setup.

I think what you are hearing is that the good receivers may be 10% or 20% different, but a lot of that is in the amps, not the preamps. You are probably not going to see a huge difference in the 2 channel pre-amp performance from most of the good ones. What differences you hear will probably be as much personal taste as anyting. Anthem, Arcam, NAD and maybe Marantz are probably the options. The best thing to do is try to get a local trial, if possible. If you can get the Anthem locally at a good price, you should be able to get a trial. If not possible, maybe try the NAD from Spirit Sound with a 30 day return (I think they have a 30 day return). Or some other brand if you can find a 30 day return. That will probably give you an idea of whether you hear enough difference to be worth it. I doubt you are going to get any definitive answer without listening.

Paraneer - Your observations were very useful and appreciated. I was not trying to be critical, just trying to point out the difference between you auditions and the OP's setup.