What is the best receiver to use with the A90J? Budget up to $2k

millercarbon posts the same exact message on every single home theater thread, so you can pretty much ignore because he is on a crusade to kill anything "multi-channel". 

That being said, stand-alone 2-channel gear is mostly going to be a step above multi-channel (not to say multi-channel is bad).  However, at your level with speakers that are under $400 a pair, you're budget is not going to be in the "2-channel area".

The Marantz receivers are good in the fact that they are the only AV Receivers that use a discrete analog output stage.  That being said, they are voiced on the warm side and the high frequencies are softened and rolled-off.  If that's what you want, then Marantz is a good choice.

The other direction is likely going to be very close to the sound of your Pioneer.  Many will recommend Anthem AV Receivers.  They are extremely high quality and have excellent sound, but on some systems the highs can have a bright edge.  You can get a new MRX 540 for $1600.   Alternatively, you can get a new/used MRX 720 for under $2k.  The MRX 720 is the previous model and will not have all the newest features (such as Dolby Vision, etc.), but it will have a larger power supply than the 540 and provide better sound.

So in other words he agrees, I am right- he just wants to have it both ways, talking out both sides of his mouth: it is a step above, but "not to say the step below is bad". What a freaking joke!

Wow, this is the first time millercarbon has gotten really personal and insulting.  I generally try to help with the questions people ask here instead of slamming down and destroying any multi channel approach.

If you really want to listen to millercarbon, go ahead.  In the end, if all you are doing is 2 speakers than buy the best 2-channel rig you can.  If you want your center channel and surrounds, then you have to go AV Receiver or processor/amps.  Millercarbon is going to argue against this all day long with the statement that this scenario is ALWAYS bad and always sucks.  The truth is that many low to mid level multi-channel systems can sound good.  Millercarbon just has a prejeduice against this.

You do not see this kind of argument in other sections/threads where somebody asks "what kind of good preamp can I get for less than $1,000".

So there's this huge argument that says "2-channel audio is the way to go".  If you look at spending $2,000 and have a choice between a 2-channel integrated amp and an AV Receiver, it is very likely that the 2-channel integrated amp is going to sound superior.  That is the entire premise for millercarbon's argument.  If you are going to use this system for 70% or more "music only" listening, this could be the way you want to go.

However, there are problems with the "2-channel only" approach if you are heavy into watching movies.  Whatever source components you have, the entire 5/7 channel source has to be down-mixed into only 2 channels.  This presents problems.

This is a VERY EASY experiment to make. 

1. Pick an action movie that you are very familiar with and watch a 10 minute progression where there is a lot of sound going on.
2.  Go into your Pioneer receiver configuration menu and disable the surround speakers.
3. Re-watch the same 10 minute progression.
4. Go into Pioneer configuration and now disable the center channel.
5. Watch the same progression.

This will show the type of sound you will get when playing movies through a 2-channel only system.  If you are okay with this type of sound, then by all means go with a 2-channel only audio rig.  The compromises are basically the following:

no center channel - Basically you lose a lot of clarity and solidness in the dialogue and anything coming.  Millercarbon's argument that you don't need a center channel is all based on absolutely perfect room acoustics and sitting your butt down EXACTLY at the center point between the left/right speakers.  However, just move to the side 5" and you're whole center channel image is completely lost.  You can try this experiment in your own situation.  This is compounding by the fact that the center channel dialogue is cut by 50% and then sent to each left/right speaker, so if you are off center, that "center channel dialogue" will be quieter and actually harder to hear.

no surround channel - I have had problems on 3-channel systems that do not have actual surround. If you down-mix the surround channels to your left/right speakers, what happens is that the left/right become increased in volume and will have an "echo" type of effect.  The second problem that occurs is that your center channel dialogue becomes extremely difficult to hear/understand because the overall volume of the left/right speaker totally overbears any sound coming out of the center.  You can fix this if you use an HT processor just by enabling the surround speakers (even if nothing is connected).  You will obviously not hear the surround effects, but it gets rid of this problem.  However, the surround speakers actually make the entire sound stage much bigger.  If you disconnect the surround speakers and listen, the whole soundstage becomes smaller since your soundstage is only the front of the room (almost like converting a stereo music song to be played as "mono").