Best sounding processor

Anthem AV is the sweet spot of affordable, feature rich, good soundding and great room correction.  I really dislike the Marantz and Onkyo offerings.

On the high end is Datasat and Theta, but I always think Theta is on the brink of vanishing.

What the hell are you talking about?

Which model of Anthem AV are you talking about. Because I also bought Anthem MRZ 540 from amazon last month. But as an absolute disaster and I had to immediately return it. Thanks to Amazon return policy I had no issue in returning. I don't know how was your experience but I would definitely not recommend it. But Anthem MRX 740 is slightly better. You can try.

  I have 2 Anthem 540s in my mid fi systems.  They have worked great.

I have the 740.  Best sounding receiver I have heard.  ARC might have a lot to do with it.