JTD: Anyways....... I'm worried this demo will confuse me more. In most respects the pioneer is what I want (I dont want heigh channels or a second remote) and it will match up well with my kit. Likewise I am thinking the Pioneer might rob my speakers of bass and character, or is this completely dependant on how I tweak the Pioneer? If the Yamaha sounds better I will be confused even more as I hate the orange display.....
I replaced my Arcam AVR600 a few weeks ago for a Yamaha Z7. I was fed up with the AVR600 keep locking up and bought the Z7 thinking I'd get a stereo amp as well if needed.
Now that I've got it tweaked how I like it and it's run in, I'm finding the Z7 to be an excellent purchase at £1500. One of my concerns was the orange light and the fact that you can't turn it off except in Pure Direct mode, but I have to say on it's dimmed setting it's far less obtrusive than other lighting I've had on hifi. I can't compare it to the new Pioneer, but I can to the AVR600. For me the surround processing is far superior, it set my 5.1 speakers up perfectly and movie surround effects are definately more dynamic than the AVR600. That follows with surround music, in particular SACD as the Z7 can decode DSD via HDMI. The downside, it doesn't match the AVR600 for stereo music, but I'm surprised how close it's come now it's run in.
When you consider the Z7 is available for half the price (or less) of the AVR600, the Z7 is an excellent buy. Hope you enjoy your demo!