For most stuff i release, x265 objectively (vmaf and other metrics) and subjectively looks better than av1, especially for grainy stuff and older anime. I have had success only with some action movies.

Opus on the other hand… it’s great

There are a handful of groups putting out what I would consider decent AV1 encodes. A couple PTs allow them, and there are groups on 1337x. Just grab a couple from each tag you can find and see if they meet your needs. Generally speaking, look for groups which note their source, which encoder they are using, and ideally what settings they used in general.

AV1 has come a long way fast, but in my experience a good x265 encode is still better for live action.

I don’t mind if my server is going to have to transcode for most clients

I mean AV1 is very well supported on most clients/new devices these days. While I do not know any good groups that only encodes in AV1, I personally download high quality BD rips and re-encode them to SVT-AV1 without any visual quality loss (for my personal taste and perspective).

I’m not an audiophile or videophile and do not have the necessary devices to decode high end 1080p nor 4k video streams.

About AV1 I think only iOS devices do not have a native software/hardware AV1 decoder (I migh be wrong here).

As for your question, I wish there were more encoders that do AV1 :/

I too am interested in the answer to this question