Best home theater receiver for 500

For $500, you should definitely put the Outlaw 1050 near the top of your list. Since Outlaw sells direct, via Internet, you avoid the middle-man markup and thus get a lot more product for your money (such as 6.1 channels, and decent power output). The Outlaw 1050 has gotten very good writeups, and won the 2001 Budget Component "Gold Award" from Stereophile Guide to Home Theater. For more info, here's the link to the Outlaw Web site (click on the "Products" icon on the left side of the page):
http://www.outlawaudio.com/rules.html

The Outlaw is a really nice product. If you want something more mainstream, the Onkyo products are well made.

I have a Denon 70Wx5 receiver, and really like it. I'm using it to drive a home theater with Joseph Audio for my mains and center. These speakers deserve to be driven by much higher end power, but the Denon really holds its own. Another nice feature (which I don't use anymore because my front speakers are way better than the others) is 5 channel stereo, which completely fills a room with sound.

A used Marantz SR-880 or Sr-880II are both a good choice in that price range.

I would avoid Denon, as they have reliability issues. You might want to look for a Marantz, maybe used.

KP

Any thoughts about NAD????

I tried NAD751. Its built-in amp is way better(?) than onkyo797 or denon3802. However I did not like the digital
sount of it. That is cd/dvd sound fed through digital input of the receiver. I tried NAD, Onkyo, Denon, and I liked the Onkyo's digital sound best, although their amp was not as good as NAD. But that is my taste. Not that I bought Onkyo. I'd love to try Marantz, given that I kind of like Philps product.

Ken

Still leaning towards the Onkyo 595. But I really need to look at NAD and Outlaw first. Heard so much good stuff about the Outlaw i have to check it out.