Receiver competition!! You comment

[musicguy04]

I'm interested to hear what people have to say about the following receivers. These are all in different price ranges. Three categories that I'm interested in are (in order of importance)

1) Processor/pre-amp quality. (Audiophile or at least close to audiophile components, best DACs for PCM and bitstream and good preamp analog output section. Looking for 24-bit 192kHz DACs that'll deliver comparable quality to standalone $500ish CD player or better. Want excellent DD, DTS processing as well.)

2) Amp quality. (Decent current (for receivers), ability to drive lower loads, very detailed, accurate, neutral true-to-life sound, NOT the following: bright, sibilant, overly warm, muddy, rolled off, veiled.)

3) Everything else. (Should have variable crossover, at least 2 SPDIF inputs, decent connectivity. HDCD decoding, THX would be nice, but not required.)

Range is $2k-$3k in price.

Here are the candidates:

Arcam AVR-300
Denon AVR-4802R
Marantz SR-8400
Marantz SR-9300
NAD T773
Rotel RSX-1067

Please comment on this. Which has the best DACs, preamp section, and multichannel processing. I respect everyone's opinion; however, if your opinion is "they're all the same, get a Yamaha 2400 or 1400", I respect that, but it doesn't help me any for what I'm trying to do.

Also, I should mention that this is to drive B&W nautilus speakers. They will have an external amp in a little while, but I need something to tide me over. That's why DAC/preamp/processing is the most important quality I'm looking for. It'll have to serve as a pre-amp/processor for the next 3-5 years. I don't care about room eq. It's a nice extra, but I prefer quality parts, construction, things like that.