Price Paid:  $130.00 from AC4L.com

Summary:
I needed a cheap AV receiver, and I was impressed by the 3 reviews you see below, & Accessories for Less is located in my home town, Orlando, less than 20 minutes from my house. Since AC4L seemed to be the only one who carried this receiver (albiet refurb) anymore, the choice was exceedingly simple.

Foremost with this receiver is value, you get Marantz quality, and sound, for a very low price (if you can still find it). Hooked up to my Axiom Audio M3 Ti's, the Marantz really seems to shine, the sound is simple incredible for the total cost I put into this system. The imaging is absolutly amazing, the sound stage is clearly laid out, the speakers disappear into the field of sound. Suffice it to say the sound is excellent...now to features.

I don't expect too many features from a receiver that origanlly cost $350, and I got for the bargain price of little over a $100. There are very good controls for adjusting speaker balance, for every speaker that can be connected to the receiver. The tuner is very good, though I still recommend an amplified antenna to anyone who asks. More inputs than you could ever want, plenty of options for output, powered center, unpowered center, subwoofer, plus the usual pair of fronts and rears. Currently, I'm using it in Stereo mode, simply because, I don't have a source that provides 5.1 output, to input into the SR-3000. This leads to the biggest downside, no Dolby Digital decoding. But this simply means you have to buy a little better DVD player that provides 5.1 output, and some good interconnects. Note: the SR-3K doesn't have digital input, hence this semi-awkward work around.
Other nice features, a universal remote that controls pretty much everything under the sun...Very good power, the receiver drives my 93db rated speakers (more like 89db I'm told) with plenty of room to spare. Only at extremely high volumes, i.e. max, and without audio being fed, is there any hum in the amplification. This is probably due to my cheap-arse interconnects, and generica speaker wire. Despite these shortcomings, the overall performance is fantastic. In the future, yes, I will upgrade my inconnects and speaker wire, but I feel I have lots of room to grow with this receiver.

Feel free to mail me with any questions...If you see one on Ebay, or wherever grab it, I don't know where else you can still find one.

I have to give the SR-3000 4 stars though, simply bc it doesn't have digital input, and thus Dolby digital decoding. Still, a STEAL of a value.

Strengths:
Sound, Build Quality, Name, 5.1 Input.

Weaknesses:
No Dolby DTS...ummm....err...only the front RCA connectors are Gold plated.

Similar Products Used:
Lets just say plenty.

Price Paid:  $180.00 from Hifi.com

Summary:
You want to enter the realm of Dolby Digital cheap--here you are! It's light--really light, but for some reason it just doesn't heat up--must be all heatsink. Slighty underpowered, but still reasonable.
If you have a Dolby Digital Decoder built into your DVD Player or another external decoder, this is actually a pretty nice home theater receiver. Don't let the lower power ratings to the rear speakers scare you--surround sound is still excellent. I had the HK AVR-20II, which had great stereo sound and power, but never bothered with the rear speakers at all as you couldn't even here them they were so underpowered. This Marantz is much better.
The 3000 is a far better buy then spending $250 or $300 or a Pioneer or Sony. I liked this little guy, but as all my stereo stuff does, it had it's time and had to go. Recommend a decent sub if you want to pound, but aside from that this is a nice unit.

Strengths:
Inexpensive, doesn't get hot, sounds good, 5.1 inputs!!!

Weaknesses:
Cheaply built (it's light), lack of features (hence the inexpensive price--see strenghts).

Similar Products Used:
Marantz, Yamaha, Harman Kardon, Pioneer, Technics, etc...

Price Paid:  $180.00 from Worten

Summary:
It's a bardgain the sound amazed me it's great in movies a farly good on sound.
i got my american beauty dvd and a heard sounds that i didn't know where there.
If you have already a dvd with built in decoder and want a bargain deal this is an great choice the only thing that may make think twice is the speakers connections.

Strengths:
Very good sound for the price no overheating problems 6 ch input and strong built

Weaknesses:
only the dam speakers connection

Similar Products Used:
Technics

Price Paid:  $199.00 from HiFi.com

Summary:
I had been half-assing my home theater for a while (shuttling my tube amps down to the basement when watching movies and then schlepping them back upstairs to listen to music). I already had the excellent Technics SH-AC500D (that I had picked up for a song), which was hot-rodded through the tube amps, and a Robertson 4010. However, I could only use the home theater components to watch DVDs as the AC500 was designed strictly as a Dolby Digital/DTS processor.

On a whim, I checked out HiFi.com to see if they had any products they were discontinuing or discounting and found the Marantz SR-3000. This fit the bill nicely...6 channel input for an outboard processor, Dolby Pro Logic, 40WPC for the fronts and 25WPC for the rears (since my speakers are rather efficient, more power wasn't needed), and, of course, the Marantz reputation for quality. Anyone who made reference-quality tube gear can't be all bad.

I received the SR-3000 about a week after ordering and hooked it into the home theater. The first thing I noticed is that the speaker jacks sucked! I had a hell of a time getting them to accept the Tara Labs speaker wire I was using in the basement. After about half an hour of trying various methods, I finally got the wire to stay in the jacks by bending it into a hook shape and then inserting it into the jacks. So far the Marantz wasn't looking too good. Everything else hooked up with no major traumas. I grabbed Men In Black, fired up the Mitsubishi Platinum 16:9 rear-projection TV and associated home theater equipment and got down to playing with the new toy.

The first thing I noticed was that the bass was really loud! (WHAT?) I SAID THE BASS WAS REALLY LOUD!! Evidently, both channels of the 60W Robertson (with 60,000mf of capacitance) was more than enough for the subwoofer. Luckily, you can drop the subwoofer output by 10dB increments, so at -20dB, everything was peachy. The sound was good, but not great on MIB...wait...oh yeah, switch the DVD from its default of Dolby 2.0, dumbass. Now that's more like it. Great spread of sound, balance is smooth across the front channels, the effects track nicely to the rears.

Very tasty.

Out went MIB and in went Dances With Wolves. Gotta love the THX Marquee at the beginning. Holy cow! The ambient sounds in the opening battlefield scene are all over the place! This is way better than the prior setup. Even my wife thinks it sounds a lot better than before. Switching to VHS and Pro-Logic reveals details I had been missing on my old videos for many years. The quality is still lousy compared to DVD, but the tapes have redeemed themselves somewhat. By the same token, Dolby broadcasts sound much better than when they were being piped through the Mitsubishi’s speakers. Now I’m itching to get HDTV so I can really try out the system.

As I have a dedicated stereo system, I won’t really be using the receiver for music, but a casual test of CD quality indicates that the Marantz is remarkably musical for an AV receiver—far more than other, more expensive brands and models. All in all, the Marantz acquits itself nicely.

So what’s the final verdict? While I hate the speaker connectors (Even Radio Shack, for God’s sake, does a better job with these! Marantz should know better!), the overall sound quality, features, build quality, and price makes the SR-3000 a best buy…provided you have an external decoder (or a DVD player with Dolby Digital & DTS decoding built in).

Strengths:
Smoothness, musicality, punch (especially on action movies), general Marantz overkill build quality. Didn't overheat (unlike other receivers that will remain nameless) under punishing loads.

Weaknesses:
Manual a bit sparse (but not any worse than other mass-fi manufacturers), crappy speaker connections.

Similar Products Used:
Sunfire, Yamaha