The receiver is absolutely worth the money. Previously I had a Pioneer VSX-915 and was also not bad. But the little Onkyo can do everything a little better. My room is about 17 square meters in size and there one should rather not turn up so hot. The resolution and distribution of tones is much better than the Pioneer. With my big Nubert boxes he comes also cope much better than the Pioneer. Klas clear and very beautiful sound now also possible in DTS-HD from my PS3 via HDMI.
A strong buy recommendation, if you can do without a good scaler. But buy absolutely excellent cases saved, otherwise it does a 0815 device.
For larger rooms and good up-scaling down rather recommends some 800 model.