Well, I've given up on deciding on a receiver for now. Who knows, the 1014 may come down in price by $50-$100 by June (the earliest I could possibly order all of this), in which case there will be absolutely nothing stopping me from simply going for it.
Where do you see a price of $150 for the 502? The lowest I'm finding is $190. I've taken a bunch of advice, both from here and the axiom forums, and my updated system now consists of: Fronts: Axiom M3Ti's (it was pointed out to me that for TV and pop music, the slightly softer midrange...
In my plans for a very small-space home theater, I had originally listed a Pioneer 1014 receiver as my choice. It was pointed out to me, however, that I had no need for that much power, or 7 channels for that matter, to power a small 5.1 (but possibly someday 6.1!) setup in a tiny NYC apartment...
Hmm. Maybe I have no real justification for the 1014, now that you mention it. I do like the expansionality of it - I might move to house in Jersey or something someday, after all - and the MPACC thing seems really nice. Plus, I really like the idea of the receiver doing video upconversion...
Sometime in the next few months I will graduate college and move to a tiny apartment in New York City. If all goes according to plan, I will have a fellowship that would save my parents many thousands of dollars in education expenses, a savings I hope to parlay into about $2000-$2500 to spend on...