Hello Dallyd31,
For what it's worth, here's my humble opinion... Bear with me.
I compared a 17 yrs old Yamaha receiver (Y's top dog at the time) to Marantz 6006 driving 2 old KEF Reference model, biwired, 4 ohm speakers in a 16x21x8 room early in '12. I noticed a slight difference, I preferred the Marantz just a shade, but not enough to justify the $1100 price tag. I returned it. Both receivers weren't rated for 4 ohms. I felt something was missing. Next...
I'll skip the details... I ended up with running 2-ch USP-1 and XPA-3 from Emotiva with Oppo 95, to this day. I heard a difference and prefer this setup.
Given the brief and limited experience, I believe main stream receivers may not make a big difference on difficult speakers. My 4-ohms, 87 dB KEF's are difficult. I've searched the internet (stereophile, home theater, avsforum, home theater shack, audiogon, etc), I've decided I'll try Anthem and/or NAD the next time I'm looking for receivers or separates. I'll consider Marantz only for the pre/pro AV7005 or newer 7701.
BTW, try hometheatershack forum, I haven't come across nasty comments like on this forum. Keep it nice people.
Good luck.
For what it's worth, here's my humble opinion... Bear with me.
I compared a 17 yrs old Yamaha receiver (Y's top dog at the time) to Marantz 6006 driving 2 old KEF Reference model, biwired, 4 ohm speakers in a 16x21x8 room early in '12. I noticed a slight difference, I preferred the Marantz just a shade, but not enough to justify the $1100 price tag. I returned it. Both receivers weren't rated for 4 ohms. I felt something was missing. Next...
I'll skip the details... I ended up with running 2-ch USP-1 and XPA-3 from Emotiva with Oppo 95, to this day. I heard a difference and prefer this setup.
Given the brief and limited experience, I believe main stream receivers may not make a big difference on difficult speakers. My 4-ohms, 87 dB KEF's are difficult. I've searched the internet (stereophile, home theater, avsforum, home theater shack, audiogon, etc), I've decided I'll try Anthem and/or NAD the next time I'm looking for receivers or separates. I'll consider Marantz only for the pre/pro AV7005 or newer 7701.
BTW, try hometheatershack forum, I haven't come across nasty comments like on this forum. Keep it nice people.
Good luck.