The AVR 520 retails for about $900 so I would say the price is good. Cheapest I've seen it elsewhere is slightly under $600. I've had the AVR 320 for about a year and haven't had a complaint yet. Tons of inputs and outputs, 2nd room output, pretty nice remote, lots of features and modes, DTS and Dolby, 8 channel direct input. For $300 more then the 320 the 520 has a little more power, HDCD decoding, pre amp out/main amp in loops for 5 amplifier channels and video 4 input can be changed to an output. Harmon Kardon uses realistic power ratings, RMS, which means the ratings show it's abilities with real signals for extended periods of time. Most places use a peak power, which means they use a unrealistic signal over a very short period of time, usually fractions of a second. So you can drive your harmon kardon at the specs and it will work fine. Basically it means that its 85 watts will sound like competitors 120 watt units. As far as being a year old, I don't think there has been much in the way of breakthrough receiver technology that will make this obselete any time soon. Basically it comes down to is the place going to hassle the hell out of you if you need support, returns, etc. I usually buy from crutchfield and pricematch to one of these places since crutchfield has really high prices but excellent customer service.