my exerience over the years from having sold Denon, yamaha, Rotel, Marantz, was that the Denon's used to be the "warm sounding" receivers! The Rotel was somewhere in themiddle between the Denon's warm'ish, slightly rolled off top end, and fat'ish bottom end toned sound, and the Yamaha's cool'ish, slightly hollow mid, and tipped up trebble sound!..that's about right.
However, every years things seem to change a bit.
Last Yamaha and Denon comparison I heard was between the flagship Yamaha RX1 and 5803 Denon. And, to my suprise, it was quite the oposite! The Yam was slightly rolled off, and the Denon was more extended on top!...if more neutral sounding.
still, I believe the latest Yamaha RXV1200/1400/2400, etc, are still that same "coolish" and slightly bright sound that I was used to from them. And, I think the AVR's in the lower price points were warmer than the Yamaha's. But you might ask around at others experiences.
The Marantz's seemed to be between the two, maybe a pinch better than what I heard from the Rotel's lately, but that's my experience.
I heard the HK's at Circuit City the other day, and that sounded a bit like the Marantz's at the lower price points...hummmmmm..
Good luck.
You might look into the Outlaw audio piece, which might be "disco'd" though...not sure. I seem to rember it was a good piece from what I heard.
