which Brand of Reciever produces the Best Audio?

Audition the NAD 785 if you can.

Marantz av recievers do a good job on both HT and Music. My system is a little dated (2003) but the Marantz sr9300 does wonderful in both venues.

i have a 4 year old Rotel RSX-1056 Reciever in my family room used as sound for my 50" Fujitsu Plasma; it's powering a pair of Dynaudio Audience 52SE speakers. you can see what my reference for sound quality is by clicking on my 'system'. i have a separate 2-channel room as well as a dedicated Home Theatre room with a 10' wide screen.

this Rotel reciever is only rated at 75 watts per channel; but it will drive all 5 channels at the rated power continuously and not get too hot and shut down. when listening to TV thru the Rotel and Dynaudio speakers i am frequently very surprised at the really terrific sound i get......very transparent, lively, and natural.....with lots of slam and pop. very much like what i hear on the 'big rig'.

the Rotel looks like a million bucks, is built like a tank, and is very heavy. very classey for $1199 msrp.

i would very highly recommend any Rotel reciever or amp as one of the very best bang-for-the-buck for high quality sound. in 4 years the reciever has never given me a moments concern.

there is a newer version now (RSX-1057?) with HDMI inputs.

I've been pleased by the sound from my Denon 3808 that I use as a processor only fed into my ML 335 and B&K 7250 amplifiers. Receivers have sonically improved quite a bit in the last 10 years!

Yes, Rotel AVRs are highly musical. I did a side by side comparison last year with Marantz. While I love Marantz products and have a Blu-ray and a CD player (2 pcs) and did have an SR5600 AVR, I found the Rotel RSX-1057 to be more musical. It has more options and functions for music where the Marantz was definetly designed with HT and surround sound for video and home theater in mind. I went in to upgrade to a higher end Marantz AVR but walked out with a Rotel because music is far more important. It does well with HT also. No problem there. I then added an RMB-1075 multi-channel amp (120watts x 5 all channels driven) to the RSX-1057 and now the sound is super fantastic. Love it.