Price Paid:  $1000.00 from Advanced Audio

Summary:
When I purchased the Marantz 870 I was really interested in the Home theater aspects. It rocked the house and with the multi room funtion we crank up the niles speakers outside. The Marantz is a little flat in the music end and I just purchased a Yamaha RX-V3200 with a little more power 120 per channel and better rangel of listening modes. The Yamaha sounds so much better, but I miss the RC-2000 remote.

Strengths:
Very good Dolby Pro Logic mvie listening and excellant remote control. The on screen displays are excellant.

Weaknesses:
The music portion is very weak. The highs are not crisp and midrange is weak.

Similar Products Used:
Currently have a Yamaha RX-V3200 and I am very satisfied with the replacement of an old friend.

Price Paid:  $899.00 from Local Marantz Dealer

Summary:
I've recently retired this receiver after over 4 years of faithful service. I've been extremely happy with this unit. It's performed flawlessly and the quality of this particular line of Marantz receivers is quite high. Manufactured in Japan, this receiver is a beast, built like a tank with huge internal components and more than enough power for anything I threw at it. I found the sound warm and inviting and the onscreen screens easy and useful. I also especially liked the ability to provide two video signals from each hookup, for example, I could hook up svhs and composite video outs to different components at the same time. The new Marantz midrange line (5200 - 7200) will not do this which I found a bit disappointing since not all my vcrs are svhs. The remote is the original RC2000 which is one of the best remotes built in the last several years. Buttons beat touch screens anyday!

Overall, a great value and excellent performance from a quality name that stands above most competitors. Let's hope the Denon merger doesn't screw things up!

Strengths:
Superb construction. Warm, natural sound. 110 watts to each of the front channels. Direct 6 channel inputs for Dolby Digital.

Weaknesses:
Only 75W per channel in the rear could be considered a weakness by today's standards. I found the surrounds to have ample power for any surround effects.

Price Paid:  $350.00 from The Top HiFi Shop - NZ

Summary:
Bought this reciever to upgrade my rather old pro logic sony and have used it as a base to start an upgrade of my home theatre:

Toshiba DVD SDK-320
Polk Audoi RT8's + Polk C220 centre
Cannon Dome speakers for the rears (yeah - who's heard of these ?)
Marantz CC-3000 CD
LFD Spiro III interconnect
QED Qudos cables

I really have no complaints and compared to my mates $5000 Naim system I VERY happy with the sound I have achieved for the dollars spent. The Polks are a little too rich in the Bass but it seems clean enough. Have difficulty relating to the 2 very poor reviews posted for this reciever - and can only assume that is is being compared to something vastly out of it's range, which is not really that fair. Lets compare apples with apples and not a VW Beetle to an Audi TT.

Strengths:
Ease of use

Summary:
I bought this as an audio/HT compromise and have been extremely satisfied.

For music, I would recommend using the 6-Channel direct mode which by-passes the tone controls. The sound is much cleaner.

For HT, it is DD ready and has excellent sound and features in Pro-Logic.

If you're DVD player has a built in decoder or you have an outboard decoder, and you want a step up from Yamaha and other mass market junk, check it out.

Strengths:
Clean power, great remote

Weaknesses:
Remote sucks batteries

Summary:
This replaced Adcom separates and was my first surround-sound receiver. The sound quality is great. Very "laid back" which makes it an excellent match for my fairly bright Klipsch KG4 front speakers.

Strengths:
Fantastic Sound, easy to use, very powerful.

Weaknesses:
Came with Marantz MKI remote. Remote is great except that if you program it to work all of your other components, it can no longer work the SR-870. Surround power is lower than it really should be.