Warm Sounding Surround Receiver

It depends on your speakers and your room acoustic. I have heard the Pio Elite @ BB and I don't know what people work @ BB did but their PIO Elite SC05 and the Def tech are terriblly HARSH. In my room, the Pio SC05 and the Def Tech SM 450 sound wonderful smooth and detail not a hint of harshness.

The Onkyo 876 with the old Mirage RFX7 system is beautifully warm and the vocal of DK is open and warm. The Onkyo 876 AVR is hard to beat.

If good "wamrish" sound is important - Arcam, Rotel, Cambridge.

Check out these little tube processors

from Grant's Fidelity in Calgary Canada
http://grantfidelity.com/site/catalog/52/tube_processors

bought two one for my fronts and one for centre/sub huge increase in warm sound.

SO much so, that my upgrade addiction has been exorcised
I may never tweak my gear again

Buy an older Tube Receiver and have it serviced. Should be an excellent sounding mid range.

My Boston Acoustics avr7120 is very nice. Based on Outlaw and Sherwood Newcastle platform it is a highly rated yet overlooked beast due to it's short production run. Was only out for a yr or so and then BA pulled out of the 'components' market. The unit has a massive transformer and weighs 70 lbs as is! Recently saw one for 5 bills. Read the archived review via google...sleeper. Quoted as sounding like seperates and listed for 3K new.