Helping a friend pick a receiver

[bajor27]

Hi folks. Recently a friend asked me for advice on picking up a new home theatre. They wanted to keep it on the cheaper side though (around $500 CAD + tax).

I was able to convince them to stay out of the HTiaB territory, but am having a bit of trouble nailing down which receiver they should pickup.

I've narrowed it down to the Pioneer VSX-519 or the Yahama
HTR-6150

Yamaha is 7.1, Pioneer is 5.1 - The friend will probably stick with 5.1 for a long while so this seems like no big deal

Yahama is 90W x 7, Pioneer is 110W x 5 - Guessing both are overstated, and thus fairly close and pretty inconsequentially different in the end

Neither will decode HD audio, but it's my understanding that they'll both accept it via PCM over HDMI (and the friend should be picking up a PS3 in the near future - one step at a time right)

Both have 2 HDMI in, but I think the Yamaha is only 1.2a vs 1.3a in the Pioneer

Both are $299 CAD currently.

Yamaha originally started at a higher MSRP and it uses Burr-Brown DACs which has me leaning towards it providing better sound on paper. Are these 2 similar enough that's it's really just going to come down to personal preference on Yamaha vs Pioneer? They live near a Futureshop (which doesn't stock either model), so they'd have to be listening to similar models. Are there any other receivers that should be considered in the price range?

Oh, and they'll be running 4 Energy C-50 Surrounds with the Energy C-C50 Center. Haven't decided on a sub yet.

Thanks for the input, and yes, I do realize asking if it just comes down to personal preference is always the case really. I guess what I'm really just trying to make sure is that I haven't overlooked anything before giving my final reccomendation.