I'd like to chime in on the AVR part of the discussion above. I'd have to agree as a person who has a little of everything that given the budget, selling price and design parameters that exist with AVR's you can't really touch esp higher end Int Amps and even more so standalone. Not even close. BUT! Some can sound pretty good. I have the Marantz Cinema 40 and it does a great job of non-top of class decoding. Just my two-cents. Doesn't answer audiocanada's question at all though. lol
