I was weighing an anthem avm 70 too against Sony’s new 5000, and after trying both, surround and dialogue clarity was better with the Sony. Both were better than my previous Marantz. Yes, the Sony is a receiver, but I use it as a processor.
obviously, surround and dialogue clarity depends a ton on your speakers and room, but this is my anecdote, and I save 1.5k too as the Sony is 2.1k vs the 3.7k.