I doubt you'll have any problems selling that unit.

I may have missed it, but how do you have your audio sources connected? Analog or digital? I've found the direct modes on receivers don't do much for the digital inputs...begs the question how valuable the setting really is - guess it can't hurt.

If the amp has changed for the worse that's a real shame - Pioneer's been the golden child for best value for a few years now at that level and feature set.

Try running the eq a few times - I've said it before, those things are so sensitive to even the surface their mounted on that it's a very iterative process to achieve accuracy.

Your room does sound like it would be very conducive to higher frequencies leading to harshness.