Originally Posted by torana355

I recon the Yamaha RX-V1071 is better then both of them

hahaha a little biased maybe
The 2 amps that i'm looking at would be more on par with the Yamaha RX-A3010 or the RX-V3071
I had a look at the RX-A3010 but unfortunately it doesn't have Airplay

Originally Posted by torana355

So you going to spend more then $1500 now

bumped the budget up a little, have quotes on the 2 i'm looking at for a little over 2k

Originally Posted by torana355

Just be sure to test each amp with the speakers you are matching it too, for example, pairing bright sounding speakers to a amp like the pioneer will sound awful, but pairing the Pioneer with speakers that produce a warmer sound will match perfectly.

Good advice, i'm going to go listen to both these amps on the wkend, they are a Paradigm dealer so hopefully they have a set of SE's setup.

I've bought a new Marantz SR5006 and am extremely happy with the result. Normally I'd always suggest that a good shop will do their best to provide a listening environment for you that mimics as close as to what you have at home before you buy, unfortunately Cairns is just too small a town to provide that service, so I had to buy on reputation and experience (I upgraded from another Marantz).

Good luck with your choice. The one thing I found when I lived in Melbourne (and had money!) was that there is no right or wrong choice. We all hear differently, we all experience sound differently, so what you like isn't necessarily going to be what I like.