I wanted to replace my dolby receiver (which was 11 years old) with a digital model. So I told my wife to pick me up a home theater receiver for christmas. (She was willing to pay 800 u.s dollars. ) When Christmas came I opened up a sony DA1000 es receiver. I had cut out a copy of a post here for a recommendation of a yamaha that she showed the owner of the shop. He told her she was nuts and did not need to spend that kind of money ($800) for what I wanted and sold her the sony for $500 which he said was just as good. I had a sony for 11 years with absolutely no problems. HOWEVER when i hooked this one up it kept shutting off. He took it back and replaced it. Should i spend the cash for the yamaha? Does it sound better? is it made better? the sony has a 5 year parts warranty which sounds pretty good. Please help cause i can still return it but not for long. Thanks.