I have the following...Defintive speakers-Two 8B towers,PF12Sub,centerC1, 2rears BP1X, also a new Panasonic - TH-50PX60U Plasma. My question is what reciver would be best to get the most out of this equipment. I would like to keep it around $1000 to $1500. I have been looking at Denon and Yamaha.
You can listen to receivers in stores till you're blue in the face and still not know. Buy both of them and take back the one you didn't like. Personally I've owned Denon and Yamaha. I've also owned Onkyo. I now have a Yamaha and my stuff hasn't sounded better.
I'm not conversant on the Yamahas so can't help you there. On the Denons, look at the '08 models from the AVR2808 upward since these incorporate the new uncompressed Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio codecs and so are future proofed (there aren't any new codecs on the horizon).
Another brand to look at is Onkyo. All their new AV receivers have the uncompressed codecs built-in from the TX-SR605 upward. The value for money model in their range is the TX-SR705 since it has the chipsets from the 8-05 and 875 above it. If you need power then consider the higher models.