Best AV receivers under $500
Cnet rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
The good: The Onkyo TX-NR585 offers a wealth of connection and streaming options without sacrificing sound quality. Music and movies sound great, especially when paired with a balanced-sounding set of speakers.
The bad: The redundant, proprietary FlareConnect system offers mirroring that can be replicated with Play-Fi. Like almost every AV receiver on the market, the Onkyo sounds even better with home theater than music.
The cost: $300 to $350
The bottom line: The Onkyo TX-NR585 offers all of the streaming and decoding capabilities you need for a modern, affordable receiver, and it sounds great doing it.
Cnet rating: 4 stars out of 5
The good: The Denon AVR-S740H offers excellent sound quality, especially for music listeners. The receiver includes Dolby Atmos/DTS:X, plus plenty of HDMI ports with 4K HDR compatibility. Multiroom music is provided through both HEOS and Apple AirPlay 2.
The bad: The lack of built-in Chromecast may put off Google users. The system may need a bit of tweaking to get right — for instance, loudness and dynamic compression controls were set on by default.
The cost: $240 (refurbished) to $429
The bottom line: The Denon AVR-S740H receiver offers excellent sound, a generous set of features and a great price, making it one of our favorite...