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Home Theater Receiver Recommendation -- Under $1500

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Folks:

I'm in the planning stages for a home theater and would appreciate some advice. I'm looking for a receiver in the $1100 to $1500 range. Only five channels (plus subwoofer) are needed, and 75 watts into 8 ohms will be sufficient. The receiver will be paired with a 50" Pioneer Elite monitor, a Blu-Ray DVD player and some mid-range Polk or Soundcraft in-wall speakers in a small room (seating distance is 9' from the screen). The receiver will _not_ be used as part of a music system. I strongly favor sound quality over features and won't need the tuner, phono stage or other bells and whistles that typically come with receivers. I looked at Pioneer Elite, Integra and Rotel, but wasn't wowed by any of them.

I would prefer a new unit, so please don't bother suggesting something used. Because the monitor and DVD player are new technology (at least HDMI 1.2), something comparable in the receiver would be nice. The one feature I would like to have is a receiver with a mic for autosetting for room acoustics (a like to have, not a have to have).

Your recommendations would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Scott

Follow Ups:

I'm considering the Denon AVR-3808ci for myself - 4season 10:47:51 11/03/07 (0)
I won't be able to do any meaningful "audition" prior to buying, but here's why this model interests me:
Plenty of HDMI 1.3 inputs
DTS HD Master Audio
Dolby TrueHD
Manageable weight and bulk
In person, it looks uncluttered, the controls and the front door feel pretty solid.
The sample at Ultimate Electronics didn't have too much ventilation above it, and it was quite warm, as were all the other receivers in the room.
This model has an ethernet jack, can be administered via it's internal web site, and plays streaming audio. I generally would not care, but as I thought about it, I began to like the idea that I might be able to configure the receiver via a web brower rather than some small buttons on the front panel and a tiny display. In fact, it doesn't appear that the receiver needs to be particularly accessible so long as it's within line of sight of the remote control.
Yes it has far more power than I need (15w/ch would be generous for me), and a tuner too, but that seems to be unavoidable with this class of component.
At the moment, neither my Sony PS/3 nor my Toshiba HD-A20 appears able to output the lossless TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio tracks via HDMI, but the components that I get in the future sure will (3rd gen Toshibas do)
To date I've browsed online at offerings from:
Cambridge
Meridian
Naim
Lexicon
Mark Levinson
Halcro
Kenwood
Bang & Olufsen
Linn
NAD
Rotel
* Pioneer Elite
* Sony ES
* Marantz
* Onkyo / Integra
Outlaw
JVC
Panasonic
* = offers HDMI 1.3, TrueHD, DTS HD Master Audio

Edits: 11/03/07
Denon 1908 - Joe in Seattle 09:26:21 11/03/07 (0)
85 wpc, does what you want, lists for $600

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