Brand consideration
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Brands like Yamaha, Pioneer, etc. have service centers across India, no need to worry about it.
Integrated Amplifier vs AVR
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If you want to setup 2 channel audio system, then Stereo Integrated Amplifier is what you need. No Dolby Digital or DTS like multichannel cinema audio.
If you want to setup 5.1 channel audio system (i.e., Home Theatre) then you need AVR.
I do not think that one should start comparing one brand over another.
Servicing near you - its important
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Every brand makes low, mid and high end equipment's. And make no mistake on considering that every brand equipment's require servicing at some point of time.
Durability depends on your way of usage as well.
If you will search in the forum then you would come to know about problems users had in every brand. For example, one of my friend got HDMI problem in his 2 weeks old Denon X2200.
Active Sub - Almost every AVR supports Active Sub, few support Active as well as Passive both.
Few Considerations - Entry Level AVR's may not have these features
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* Those who have crush on lossless audio, would like to check if front panel USB supports HD audio playback. Its useful to have this feature available.
* Speaker connections should be neat, clean and tight.
** Spring terminals get corrosion soon and cables may come out if wire is stretched...
** banana plugs cannot be used with spring connectors.
** Whereas screw type binding post are good in terms of clean and tight cable connection and different types of speaker cable connectors/plugs can be used.
Hope this would help!
