Marantz AV Receivers & Preamps

They are closer than the debate suggests — same parent company, overlapping model ladders, and much of the same underlying platform.

Where Marantz genuinely differs is build: higher-tier components and heavier construction through the range, which is most of what you are paying the difference for. Some listeners describe Marantz as the more musical of the two, and there is something to that, but the difference is subtle and it is not what we would choose on. Feature sets differ in small ways in both directions, so compare the two specific models you are deciding between rather than the brands.

Beyond that it is mostly preference — how they look, how they feel to use, and which one you would rather live with. We sell both and have no reason to push you either way.

See the Denon range for the equivalent models.

A little, and less than the reputation implies.

Marantz uses its own HDAM discrete amplifier modules rather than off-the-shelf op-amps, and voices its products deliberately — the house description is warmer and more musical, and plenty of owners hear exactly that. It is a real design philosophy, not marketing.

But set against everything else in the chain it is a small effect. Your speakers, your room, and whether room correction has been set up properly will each change the sound far more than the choice between two receivers from the same parent company. We would not steer you to Marantz for the sound signature alone, and we would not steer you away from it either.

If you like how it looks, how it is built and how it is to use, that is a perfectly good reason to buy one.

We carry the whole range, so the answer is whichever one meets your requirements — not the most expensive one that fits the budget.

Two things decide it in almost every case: how many channels you need, and which features matter. Channel count follows the speaker layout you are building, including height channels, and it is worth counting the layout you want in three years rather than the one you are wiring this month. Features are where the range really separates — processing options, subwoofer outputs, and which room correction tiers are available.

One of those weighs more than the others for us. Dirac Live Bass Control and Active Room Treatment need four independent subwoofer outputs, so they are only offered from the mid-range upward. The entry model now supports basic Dirac Live Room Correction for the first time, which is a genuine step, but it stops there. Where the room and the budget justify it, above that line is where we would try to get you.

The CINEMA models are receivers: processing and amplification in one box. The AV models are processors — the same class of processing with no amplifier stages, intended to be paired with separate power amplifiers.

Separates are not a cheaper route. A processor on its own frequently costs more than a complete receiver before you have bought a single channel of amplification, and it is a higher tier of equipment altogether. Nobody moves to separates to save money.

What they change is what a future upgrade costs. New formats and features almost always land in the processing rather than the amplification, so you replace the processor and keep the power amps, which do not go out of date. An amplifier that drove your speakers well ten years ago still drives them well.

For most rooms a good receiver is the right answer and will be genuinely excellent. Where the speakers are difficult loads, the channel count is high, or you want the system to keep pace as formats move, a processor earns its place — at a higher starting point, not a lower total.

Yes, and it works well more often than people expect.

Two numbers matter here and they are not the same. Amplified channels are what the receiver drives on its own; processing channels are how many it can handle altogether, and that figure is usually higher. The surplus comes out of the pre-outs, ready for an outboard amplifier — so the amplified count is not a hard ceiling on your layout, provided the model has pre-outs for the channels you want to add.

Usually the ones worth moving off the receiver are the front left and right, which work hardest and are most often the demanding speakers, or the height channels where a layout needs more than the receiver amplifies. It takes the heaviest load off the receiver at a fraction of the cost of full separates, and keeps the processing and features you chose the receiver for.

It is also a sensible staging point: add the amplification now, and if you later move to a processor, the amplifier carries straight over. The genuine ceiling is the processing count — going beyond that means a different unit, whatever amplification you bolt on.

Every Marantz ships with Audyssey, and it is genuinely good. Dirac Live is a separate, more capable system, licensed per unit and sold in tiers.

Room Correction is the base: finer control over the correction target and a wider working range. Bass Control adds handling of multiple subwoofers as one system rather than individually. Active Room Treatment sits above both and goes further again — rather than filtering the signal, it drives the subwoofers together so they actively cancel the room's own behavior, achieving in software a good part of what would otherwise need physical bass trapping.

ART is the tier we would recommend where the model and the budget allow, and the reason we point people at models with four independent subwoofer outputs. Support is tied to that hardware rather than to a model year, so check the exact model against Dirac's own supported devices list.

We sell the licenses and provide activation codes, so you do not need to work out which tier applies. More on what each tier does on the Dirac Live page. It is not a substitute for good subwoofer placement — start with the subwoofer placement calculator — but it does a great deal with what placement leaves behind.

Configuration and optimization are included with every installation. That means the signal chain set up properly, the speaker configuration entered correctly, and room correction actually run — on the best version the unit supports, with sensible targets and settings rather than whatever the wizard defaults to.

That last part matters more than it sounds. Room correction run carelessly can leave a system sounding worse than no correction at all, and a surprising number of receivers in the wild have never had it run properly, or had it run once from a single microphone position years ago.

Full instrumented calibration — measured, iterative, done with reference equipment — is a separate service, priced by scope. It is worth it on a serious room and unnecessary on many systems, and we will tell you honestly which side of that line yours falls.