My suggestion is to go used at a good discount, so you can afford a better receiver! If you don't need the latest PLIIx and such, you can get some overall better sounding receivers(sound is everything on any amp/pre-pro...period!) by shopping the gon for used, yes.
If you must have new, you'll get sonic compromises for sure.
That said, yeah I'd probably go for a Denon or HK likely, and still cross speakers over as "small" to greatly help dynamics. However, a great deal on a DSPA1/RXV1 and similar yamaha still sound great. On the other hand, rung bellow all these, adding an outboard amp sound even better.
The NAD sounds good but build quality is hit/mis. The lower priced Outlaw audio reciever sounds good for cheep as well.
good luck