My best buddy's parent's receiver, a Pioneer:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pioneer-VSX-.../dp/B00007GZMO

has been misbehaving for quite sometime. It sometimes acts up during play by making rude noises (sudden white noise sounds at pretty high SPL (which scares you ****less, not to mention the speakers suffer)) every once in a while or making the same noise it does when you turn it on (transistor relay?) and hence cutting the sound for a couple seconds. It also tends to make rude noises when you touch or bang the casing. My buddy had noticed the fan doesn't go on either, which could be part of the problem. They've sent it in and are told everything works as specified.. well, obviously not.
I thought it might be a grounding issue or something. The mains cable doesn't have a ground. Any suggestions from you guys?

Now, I've given him some suggestions for a new A/V. He said his budgets limit is around 300 bucks (converted from euros). I told him he could get something decent (sufficient) for around 200$. My suggestions were the Yammi RX-V363 around the 200 mark. Higher, I said he could get a Denon 1509 (nice unit) or a Onkyo TX-SR576 which is now reduced. Also, the Sony STR-DG820. I know you guys aren't fans of the Sonys but it does come highly recommended by What-Hifi mag (UK). Are the auto-calibrationg features in these units good?

Now, I want them to have something somewhat future-proof, i.e HDMI which they all have only some can't decode the sound from HDMI, I'm guessing you have to use the conventional digital inputs in parallel. Standard-def upscaling is nice although I don't think any of them have it. He looked at an H/K around 300$, are they still having quality issues?
Currently, they have an 8 year old plasma, a Pioneer DVD and 5 crap Pioneer speakers + sub. They'll probably get an up to date screen in the near future, and he'll get a PS3
Feel free to shoot me old threads if they are relevant.