I am not bothering to read the rest of the thread so sorry if I offend.
I tried Yamaha, Pioneer, Onkyo, Marantz and found all of them gave me more of a meh sound that could not wave a stick towards the sound I got from a really old Nakamichi AV1. I tried plugging in different levels of external amps, and that also didn't make any difference.
I eventually gave up and went with the advice of someone here (name alludes me) who is in BC I think. He bought an Anthem and loved it. So I sad F!-it, and just shelled out the cash. I wish I would have done it long ago and saved myself the agro of all the other experiments and time, driving, buying and selling to get no gain.