Marantz versus Denon

If your after all the toy's, get the Denon. As far as one box solutions go they are hard to beat.

The Marantz 8001 is a great receiver also and if you spend more time listening to music then you do watching movies, it may be worth a look. The best thing to do if at all possible is to try them both.

My best suggestion would be to spend a little more and get the Arcam AVR350 and even the older AVR300. Not as many bells and whistles as the two mentioned above but both of the Arcam's are in a different class all together. I had the Denon 4306 and now have the AVR350 and the differences as far as HT processing and audio in general are not subtle!

I had the Maranzt SR 7000 and enjoyed it thouroughly. I went to seperates and decided to go back to one box. I ended up w a Underwood Modified Denon 3806 for around $2000. The feature set on the 3806 was perfect for what I needed and the sonics, after the mod, are surprisingly good. I used this reciever for my two channel pre for a couple of years and was compleltely happy. I had a Mac stereo amp for the left and right fronts and the amps in the reciever for the center and the two backs. I zoned the remaining amps to the outdoor speakers on my back porch and to inwall speakers in the kitchen.
Sonically I think both are pretty close w the Marantz maybe a touch warmer and the Denon a little more dynamic. That's a generalization so take that w a grain of salt (I haven't heard the specific models you mentioned).

Blockerbrothers wrote: I had the Denon 4306 and now have the AVR350 and the differences as far as HT processing and audio in general are not subtle!

Could you describe the differences. I doubt you could compare any 2 AVRs and *NOT* have a difference.

/Lokie/ did describe the differences, though briefly, but sufficient for me.

I have a new 4306 and am very content. I know there are other options, though I am just curious what the perceptions are. The speaker pairing is also important if the amp is being judged on sonics. to put my comments in context, I have a very neutral set of tetras on my 4306. I mostly listen to music in 2.1 (though) have a 5.1 set up.