Price Paid:  $165.00 from e-bay

Summary:
Bought from e-bay from a home theater installer that used this as a demo for approx 6 months. Have been slowly upgrading my system from an all-in the box sony piece of crap. Purchased a pair of klipsch RB 75 for $400 and bought a subwoofer and rear surrounds from velodyne. My center is an older paradigm that was bought at a garage sale for $25. With the hodgepodge of speakers the sony really sounded like crap and was really weak.(rated at 60 watts per channel but sounded like 40) So i sort of bit the bullet and purchased a new pioneer surround a/v reciever that was like $199 on sale at bestbuy. It was rated for 100 watts per channel and it did help but the sound was rather harsh and bright. So an audiophile friend recommended i buy either a Denon or Marantz. I had been searching on e-bay for a decent buy but on a limited budget couldn't really find what i wanted. until this model popped up and went for so little money i bought it. Its rate dfor 70 watts per channel but boy does it blow away the pioneer. The surround modes are excellent and the warmth and detail in movies is almost astonsing compared to the pioneer. I couldn't be happeir and will continue to slowly upgrade to a better marantz in the future. 2 channel stereo just using the klipsch was also a joy. Amazing how much louder and still kept the detail. An audiophile told me that the better klipsch speakers handle low wattage recievers better than most but i have to say i was pleased.

Strengths:
For a relative newbie into home theater and high-end audiophile equipment, this is a great starter a/v receiver. Has all the decoding you need and is relativley inexpensive.( i think like $350 brand new.) Much more power than basic brand names. Easy to set up and enjoy.

Weaknesses:
Remote is kind of week but who cares at this price.

Similar Products Used:
sony, pioneer.