I'm an audiofile used to seperates. I have proceed 250 watt amps and an integra 9.8 processor. Together new they are valued at $10,000 for the amps and $2000 for the processor. Since I moved and rented my house, I needed to replace my expensive gear in the theatre with more reasonably priced gear for the rental. I replaced a $14,000 7.1 speaker set-up with a $4,500 speaker set-up. Last thing I needed to replace was the electronics. I really wanted to save money here and I knew receivers have come along way since the addition of Dolby hd and hd master audio. But there were so many options to choose from. At this pricepoint, from talking to folks in higher end stores and reading reviews, I discounted brands like Dennon and Sony, and settled on either integra/onkyo or marantz. This is because at any pricepoint under $2500, they seemed to best their rivals in sound quality and features. I
I was going to go with one of the integra's because it's what I know. The Marantz's touted sound quality peaked my interest though. As well I wanted areciever with more than 100 watts per channel. The more the better because I'm used to high end amps with 250 watts per channel and I wanted to shake the theatre when necessary and fill the room with sound without distortion. The marantz had that extra bit of wattage. And since the price at amazon was lowered to $699, I pulled the trigger.
Now I haven't had much time to listen and play because I set-it up for the rental and left a week later, but I'll start by saying im very impressed. My comparison to my $12000 seperates is already stacked against the marantz because I had already replaced great speakers with only good ones. So now you know where I'm coming from I'll start my review:
Sound quality is what impressed me most. It had ample power and slam to fill the room. The surround field effects were better than my seperates. I don't know if this is because they are seperates as opposed to an all in one or it's the meant processing that bests the integra. But it was better. When a bunch of planes fly from behind to the front around me in Pearl Harbour, it more acuratly placed their positions as they flew by. In transformers when the autobots transform close to the screen, i could place the pieces transforming from left to right as well as inside the theatre rather than always near the screen. On top of that I heard new sounds I haven't heard before. So I have to assume the room calibration worked as good or netter than the integra processor.
Where it did not beat the expensive seperates was most obvious in the base quality. It just didn't have the clarity and power of slam the seperates had. It had enough ear splitting power, just not the shear distinctive realism and raw base slam. More muffled. Not to say it was a terrible muffled sound. It wasn't. It was justore obvious it was a reciever in it's pricepoint compared to seperates over 10 times the price and twice the wattage. It just didn't compare at a high end level. The highs and midrange I would say did not match the level of sound quality. But remember I also replaced the speakers and I know the highs and midrange on the better speakers were more refined. I was just impressed that there wasn't as much of a difference as I was expecting.
(there is a paragraph below that I can't navigate below so I'll conclude here.) for the money I would look no further at this time. This is an excellent receiver. My comparison is somewhat rediculous and out of it's league. But my point is it did a surprisingly good job of replacement for 10 times less the money. So much so that I've been looking to get a good price on the marantz processed that competes with the integra. I want the better surround field, new sounds I've never heard and what I believe wl be a less thin and more full or richer all around sound. I hope marantz comes through again for me.
Also I found the menu to be less pleasing to navigate around. User wise and visually. I thought they were fairly equal in their difficulty to learn level. Which I think would be high to a novice.
Get more detail about Marantz SR6003 Audio Video Receiver.
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