Wow, for around $500 bucks, you might just look at any good Japanese unit from Yamaha, Sony, Denon or Pioneer. I would go with the one that has the least gimmicky sound effect settings like "club", "disco", "church" etc., and concentrate on one that is more "Just the facts, Madam" In the 1 Kilobuck range, the 950 is just about all there is out there at this point, but I am very sure that this will rapidly change as more manufacturers start using the new chipsets on the market now.