I agree that the Onkyo's offer some serious bang this year, but as you said, too many issues. Now if your patient, you may wanna give a 805 a try and cross your fingers and hope you got a good unit.

You could probably go with any decent name unit in your price range and be happy. You could even get away with a older unit. No need for HDMI 1.3. Just make sure you get something with mc preouts so you can add an external amp later on if needed. The 605 doesn't have this....I think you would have to step up to the 705.