Is there a Musical HT Receiver....?

I have been very happy with my Nakamichi AV10; it sounds quite good to my ears. I auditioned many of the Denon and Marantz receivers in the sub $2K range and this was the hands down winner, at least for me. You should be able to get one new for around $1K (though I have not checked the price recently). Excellent for 2ch and theater (pro-logic, DolbyDigital and DTS). BTW, I have the Paradigm Esprit bipolars as my mains; the AV10 drove them quite nicely (at least before I put a Parasound power amp in the chain). Good luck and happy hunting...

I second Elorian's recommendation on the Nakamichi, Denon, and Marantz; for the sub-$1k range, I would also add the Arcam AVR100 to the audition list.

Good luck and happy listening!

Denon and Nakamichi hurt my ears It's the EAD 1000 that's sweet like tubes.

There are a few Denon 5700s around from time to time right here on Audiogon in the $1200-1500.00 range that will offer reasonable musicality and the other options that you want. I had a 5700 for about six months before a lightning storm took it out. For the money it will offer most everything you could want...decent power, DSP flexibility, enough imputs and outputs to satisfy even the most equipment heavy HT enthusiast. Check it out!!

I recently installed an Adcom GTP-760 pre/pro in my ex-wife's HT system, and I must admit to being very impressed with its sound quality. It retails for $1800, but the unit I bought for my ex-wife was $1300 (plus s/h). The current issue of the Perfect Vision mag (issue #35) gave a very nice review to this model. I also noted a few days ago that Adcom has a new 7.1 channel pre/pro, the GTP-830, which has a MSRP of $1200. Haven't heard the 830, but I can vouch for the 760 being very good.