I think in this price segment these two ought to do the trick. Not sure though, educate yourself. These two are just recommendations from a friend.
Onkyo TX-SR608
Pioneer VSX-920
The Onkyo makes your power company happy when in pass-through standby. Supports 7.2 and HDMI 1.4a though. The pioneer has a tiny bit less oomph and features, but comes with limited webstream radio capabilities.
Both offer a pretty good price/performance ratio, or so I'm told.