Best Receiver $1600 or under? Whats your opinion?

[The Guardian]

Wow this thread kinda went off on a tangent.

Anyway I have personally managed to convince three people to go for the 8002 over the 7002. The power - not that big a difference. But the toroidial transformer makes quite a difference in the sound, which most people notice and like.

And ignore everyone who tells you speakers first. As long as your speakers are decent with no major flaws, the source matters more. I once saw a blind test with speakers behind a screen and people were asked to guess their value. They sounded incredible. Many people were guessing in the thousands.

They pulled the screen back, and they were $200/pair PSB Alphas, powered by a $20,000 CD/Pre/Amp setup. So you could do this at a smaller scale - the Marantz 8002 will get the most out of your existing speakers compared to any of the other options listed so far.