One step up from entry-level?

Well Onkyo if the "Integra" line are a step up. The regular Onkyo's are the commodity/mainstream variety. Onkyo Integra has HT receivers that run up to $3300. like the TX-DS 989. Some Denon's run over $3K. You won't find these at Circuit City. Other "next-ups" in HT are Adcom, Rotel, NAD, Arcam, & B&K. The top of the line Yamaha and Sony ES are also a step-up from Best Buy / Circuit City territory.

It is such a shame that supposed "audiophiles" are willing to judge a system based on "where it is sold" rather than how it sounds. I don't think ANYONE who has actually auditioned the $3800 (msrp) Denon AVR-5800 or the $3200 B&K AV307 would have ANY problem explaining how much better it is than a ROTEL surround processor and RMB-1095 amp, just to name one! These posts are starting to sound more like "My Porshe is better than your Acura NSX" just because it's a Porshe. Even though most of the Porshe line is made up of nothing but Volkswagens with an attitude.

What happend to "Honest, informed opinions" and the willingness to help others learn, rather than "propogating the myth?" Gerry

That was not my intention Mr. Conway. You obviously do not know me very well. If you actually took the a second to read his question (and my responce); you might recognize he asked a very basic general question about brands, not for a specific recommendation. He made assumptions that Onkyo, Denon, etc were only about entry level, so I wanted to clue him in to look deeper. Not everyone coming to this site is an expert looking for that last tweek to nirvana. Your post really does help educate at all; it's the a dirty personal attack of the kind Audiogon wants to get rid of.

Mr. G Conway, I think you may have taken the spirit of Mr. Sugarbre's excellent and informative post to mean something different. Fact is he answered the question. I guess it just depends where you put the focus.The next level is what it is,/ and not found at CC or BB. No snobishness was intended that I saw.