I have no experience with the Marantz but for a msrp of $1500 the Sony is an absolute steal imo. My most recent players have been Esoterix XO-3 se, bryston bcd-1, simaudio moon eclipse and MF A5.The Sony doesn't quite have the razor sharp imaging of some of these but is more holographic,more real sounding. Also, tonally it is better than any of these imo( atleast in my system).
