Just bougt this combo at an amazing prize of 345 euro's so is that value for money or not! Looking at the new marantz line I must say, they look even smoother but a little on the light and tiny side, I am more a fan of heavy equipment with big trafo's on board for thats what a receiver sould do first..deliver loads of current to the speakers in a split second without clipping. So these new generation receivers do not appeal to me in that sense. My other 2 receivers being Harman Kardon AVR 7000's, this is to me a nice compact receiver with enough power to add rich sound to my movies or music. The alu front is vey well designed and gives it a sophisticated look, the 2 big knobs for input select and volume add to that, no plastic here. The installing was more of a hassle then I had hoped, concerning the ativation of the rear surround speakers, the terminals may also be used for multi room operation of a second set of stereo speakers. In comparison to the 15 y old Onkyo STR 515L receiver, where you can instantly arrange all levels and settings with a few knobs on the remote, this is a real whiskid menu that marantz has cooked up for us. After half an hour I finally found out that the rear surround speakers can only be activated when the side surrounds-which I dont have and don't dream of installing in the small bedroom where it is used-are activated. The enourmous manual didn't mention that. You can't program the thing intuitively, I really took the manual this time (it's a first,wow!) and used the scemes of the menu to get the job done. Well, once running with Infinity ref. 50 front and Infinity ref 100 center and rear speakers, the sound is fine and detailed. Nevertheless the amount of power available doesn't seem to match that of the STR 515L tough on paper it's only 3x70 + 2x25 W RMS 8ohms. I am way in the + 0 region where the Onkyo gives more thrust with the volume knob at 12:00. For me a confirmation that many oldies are in fact way better then the new stuff, hence I recently bought a 15 y old Yamaha AX 900U (2x 214 W RMS)  to drive my Kappa 7's instead of some sleek stylish new amp with hdmi,I pod and other for me superfluous stuff on board. Turn the AX 900's volume knob to twelve o'clock and the Kappa's components nearly break out, LOL!But, as I stated in the beginning, I got both units for a rediculous cheap prize, so eh, no harm done here! I'd go for an older Harman if the prize was steeper! Loads and loads of effortless power there!

Bram

Stamford, CT

I bought this system not knowing anything about it except that it said Marantz. The features and availbility to expand this unit are amazing. Easy to work and easy to set up it will accomodate anything from your basic analog system to your HDTV digital or fiber inputs. Multi function selections allow you to listen to different music in different rooms. The only downside is that speaker B can only accept digital or analog whereas the other selections can accept both and auto detect the input.

rick081963

Cumming, GA