Damn sorry I'm late, and Denon is good.
Again, excuse me and you know.from experience I kinda fumble through tryi g to sound accurate with this stuff but, from my limited experience with receivers, I think you'd like to look for the following features:
-5.1 surround with 1100 or greater total wattage output. 800p-850 watt may also be acceptable, but it could also have potential for more upgrade. If the speakers are small, then the quality may be identical, and variamces may only show up if/when adding larger fronts or centers. I believe wattage is a total rating, and it is split between speaker channels (so you don't technically get 1100 watts of power through each speaker). 7.2, as you know, has two extra speakers and an extra sub. Experts will tell you 5.1 is good enough for most rooms. The extra two speakers for 7.2 are rear channel, and are meant for big rooms, situated far behind your viewing area, (so equidistant to the rear of your sitting area as the front speakers are to your sitting area). My couch is against the wall, so there's simply no room to place these speakers to set up the intended sound field. That said, I do like the idea of still having a spare channel for another subwoofer, which an expert may scoff at but exciting to a guy like me. Remember, though, a good sub and setup will blend with your speakers. Yeah, you will know your bass is coming from your sub, and guests may assume it, but you should never really be hearing your sub and determine its location. I paid $600/for "Definitive ProCinema 600," speakers in a box, not savvy on the name, but it also came with a $200 bundle discount at Best Buy. I was over my budget, and I figure I'll just replace the speakers gradually after paying off the financing anyway, giving me plenty of time to research more options and look for sales. Also, as a side note, a lot of speaker and receiver ratings are peak ratings, and how long/often they will stay in this peak with quality is depending on your media and equipment manufacturer, just know that there are still other variables in addition to wattage not listed on boxes, and why two systems or speakers can have a great variance in price or customer ratings despite "looking lime a better deal." Like a Sony TV, I can just trust a Denon receiver. Compare with Onkyo, but I don't do much price/spec comparisons outside of that.
-3D or 4k passthrough. If you plan on getting a 4k/UHD TV, you should make sure the receiver has this on at least one of the inputs. My receiver is a Denon AVR X1100, paid $360 at Best Buy, but also got it for cheaper thanks to taking the open box deal I saved $140 total on the receiver. If you don't have 4k passthrough on the receiver, you will have to run directly to TV for 4k (I guess, depending on the device having that resolution output too, but I think all we can do with current tech is "upscale" 1080p to UHD aka 4k)), then use digital optical out from TV to receiver. This is fine for Dolby but will not achieve "lossless Dolby DTS HD." What this really translates to is that I had been using digital optical, but sometimes when there were some really dynamic sounds in Resident Evil 6, lime gunshots on top of explosions, my speakers would crackle a little, and switching to HDMI fixed the issue. PS3 also doesn't even let me select Dolby DTS HD as an output setting until I switched my 1 HDMI console to TV setup to a 2 HDMI console-to-receiver and receiver-to-tv connection.
-other options: Audyssey optimal audio setup, most Denon come with this feature and mic, but you'll want to be sure you run it after placing speakers to calibrate your sound field properly.
Bluetooth support- a cool preference of mine, so I can just play music from phone, pretty self explanatory. There is often an audio lag when using Bluetooth (maybe a variance between devices, such as Android or tablet or computer), but bottom line, watching a movie on your tab with audio going through Bluetooth is pretty much an impossibility due to the audio lag, so co sider it only for music/radio/podcast option.
-internet/network ready- there's also WiFi and internet Ethernet port on my receiver, and a Spotify sticker on the unit, with an "Internet radio" button on the remote that may be useful or interesting to some, but I have zero interest in this feature, since my phone is my radio and Bluetooth is the wires. Note, on the subject of audio compression, I play mp3s through the phone, which is compressed audio, so just kind of a funny irony that even after all the setup work, sometimes convenience trumps perfect quality.
-other recommends- at least two HDMI 1.4 or v2 rating. I believe I have HDMI version 2 by Rocketfish. They were much cheaper than Monster, however I've had Rocketfish HDMI and Rocketfish laptop power adapters and external hard drive readers simply just "fall apart" after use/heat, so don't be surprised if that happens. These HDMIs were about $30 a piece I believe, and they're rated 18Gbps, 4k/UHD video, 3d, 240 Hz framerate, deep color, and Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD. I think 1.4 rating also supports all the above, but for the most info, check HDMI.org
-subwoofer cable- any old cheapy male-male RCA should do the trick here, I really don't think subwoofer cable matter much at all. It's the sub that's going to have more sensitive high-low ranges and a $13 or $60 sub cable vs generic RCA shouldn't matter. A pro might argue otherwise.
-speaker wire- gauge is the most important factor, and I got a 250' roll pretty cheap from Amazon. I still have some on the spool and I've wired two and a half systems with that roll now. 16 gauge is recommended, I believe, so I went with 14. 12 gauge is probably too thick that you might even lose some quality, but I think it's more of an assumption than a fact, but an electrician or audio specialist could probably clarify this point.
-speaker stands- the last component, after you get everything working and are happy with your speakers, if you have small speakers and satellite rears, you may want to consider getting speaker stands depending on your future plans. The goal (in addition to looking nice) with the stands is to get your fronts and rears in a parallel plane, so that you get a uniform sound field pointed at and pouring directly into your auditory canals.
-extended warrants- up to you, but the extended warranty on my audio stuff was pretty cheap. Bestbuy also told me, "If a pixel goes out on my TV, geeksquad would come to your house to fix it," which I'm not sure the actual process for audio stuff, but still so.ething to consider. I usually scoff at extended warranty but my TV and audio receiver was a must. I've had to take an old Denon in to bestbuy after it mysteriously quit turning on one day. Even with that hiccup, I've been so happy with it, I bought another future generation.
Hope this helps answer some of the questions you had, and maybe some that you will. I'd be happy to attempt to answer others, too, if you have any new ones that i may not have covered. I also have pics on my phone of my setup and even the cable wire boxes if you need or want to see any of that.
