Best Receiver?

You can't go wrong with any of the McIntosh receivers, old or new.  That being said I had my Pioneer SX-828 restored to factory specs for my 2 channel listening pleasure and I couldn't be happier.  I bought it new in 1974 and it's been in continuous use since then, great tuner and decent phono input.

Another vote for the already mentioned McIntosh 4100.  The 1700 is excellent, as well.  Luxman R-1070 or R-1120 are great, too, but so is the R-115 or R-114.  The last two aren’t classy looking, but sound wonderful.  I listen to a good deal of FM, to the point that I spent a couple thousand putting up a serious tower and antenna with signal amplifier and rotator.  With it, I can listen to stations almost 140 miles away.  I’ve used all of those receivers except for the Luxman R-1120.  On the hunt for it now.

Pioneer SX-1080. Neutral but Nice.

Interesting no mention of Arcam here.  I did a lot of listening to AV and stereo receivers about ten years ago and for my taste, Arcam AVR's were clearly better into both two and multiple channels.  That may have changed, but I listened to the latest generation Arcam AVR 31 recently, and it sounded pretty darn good with decent KEF speakers.  You can probably pick up one of the older Arcam models used for under a grand.

kn