Price Paid:  $400.00

Summary:
I have had this Pre/Pro for less than a month. My previous setup was a Denon 1801 too which I added a Rotel RMB-1066 to power my Fronts/Centre. I looked at Pre/Pro's put the price was just too much for my budget until I came across the Marantz on e-bay.ca. Since my basement isn't setup for 6.1, etc I wasn't too worried about the limitation of upgradability with the Marantz. And with selling the Denon I was able to get the 560 for an extra $80 out of pocket. The unit was new in a sealed box and came with the amazing RC-18SR( Marantz 2000MKII) remote. The alone will takes days to program. Just so much it can do. I got the unit hooked up and recalibrated with a day and all I can say is this is one excellent piece of audio equipment. Like when I hooked my Rotel upto the Denon for the first time, again I am hearing detail that I never heard before. And the remote? What can I say. AMAZING.

Strengths:
Remote, DD/DTS, connections, sound quality, Remote, cinema re-q

Weaknesses:
No upgradability

Similar Products Used:
Denon 1801

Price Paid:  $780.00 from Domani Entertainment

Summary:
Well-priced (price paid was for a floor model), compact size, rather plain but pleasing design (basic black)and has solid build quality. Sound quality is great, remote control is excellent with very easy learning feature, and connections are quite extensive ( DVD, laser disc, VCR, DSS/VCR 2, TV, tape(no tape monitor), CD,Aux) but no phono or headphone jack. Capabilities include Dolby Digital and DTS, ProLogic. Also has cinema re-q. There is a sleep-timer, night mode, and off switch for display.
On front panel there is an S-video input plus composite inputs for audio/video. Multi-room feature is a real plus.
Questionable upgradability for DVD-Audio and SACD. Bass tone control does not give much control over bass especially without subwoofer connected. I still haven't been able to get on-screen display to work. Balance control for stereo is inexplicably complicated.
Overall, this is an inexpensive yet solid unit if you want to replace a receiver and get into separates. unfortunately, it's a little short on features you will find on most higher end receivers. Still, the price makes up for much of those weaknesses.

Strengths:
Remote, price, size, sound quality, connections, build quality, multi-room capability

Weaknesses:
Bass tone control, no 6 channel capability (DVD-Audio, etc.), no headphone jack, on-screen display, no phono input, limited sound fields

Similar Products Used:
none

Price Paid:  $450.00 from Jaimieson

Summary:
Wow! This thing does it all. On screen menu is excellent. Has every imaginable setting for surround.I paired it up with the mm9000 amp and the klipchs rf3 package. It compliments my speakers perfectly. Just pure sound. I was going to go with an intergrated system ie.dennon av3801. I am glad I went with this system.

Strengths:
The remote on this is excellent. It replaced every remote in the house(6) Easy hook up,plenty of svid jacks

Weaknesses:
Takes a while to figure it out. The remote is quite big and takes two hands to operate

Price Paid:  $550.00 from Local HT Store

Summary:
I got a great deal on this and a MM9000 amplifier from the local HT store ($1600 with all the Monster interconnects). I have been looking around for a long time and finally made my choice. I have Used the Sunfire and the Rotel stuff but they just didn't work for me> I have Klipsch speakers and they were just too bright for the Rotel equipment. The Marantz has a more tubelike sound which compensates for the brightness of the speakers. As for the Sunfire, I cannot justify the cost for such a small gain in performance. The remote with comes with this thing is amazing. I had a Sony AV2000 (the big one the the touch screen) and now it is just sitting there doing nothing. The sony was great but this one is better.

Strengths:
DTS, On Screen, menus, awesome remote control, Excellent clarity and detail

Weaknesses:
Finally a product that I cannot say " On;y if it had ---". For 550 smackers there is nothing I can complain about.

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha RX-495, Rotel 976, and Sunfire Grand Cinema I

Summary:
i set my new preamp up in less than 60 minutes, after watching a few movies i easily heard much more information from my dvds. my friends don't understand why i went with seperates, but they watched a few scenes in my room they had to admit my hometheatre sounded much better, especially compared to their low end kenwood and sony systems. build quality is still really great. i've never really liked the extra surround modes, but the dolby digital is truelly awesome. haven't listened to anything in dts yet. i brought this unit home to audition it and then i just called and said that i was going to keep it. i like this preamp much better than my brother's older sony es unit. i can't compete with the higher end units, but for the price it's a good deal, but you can find it for much less than $999 therefore it's a great deal.

Strengths:
universal remote control can actually do all of the functions from my other remote controls. more details are noticed from dolby digital because this has a better bass management system.

Weaknesses:
no component video switching. i could careless for the other sound fields, because they are fairly unnatural sounding. wish it had more digital inputs also. marantz always seems to give some of the worst instruction manuals.

Similar Products Used:
sony, yamaha, marantz, kenwood, denon, onkyo.