Price Paid:  $3900.00 from A & B Sound

Summary:
Indeed I would love to have two separate systems. One dedicated soley to music, the other for home theatre and less serious music listening. However, that being financially impossible for me, I need to focus on a system that did both successfully. Over the past 7 years I have auditioned dozens of digital A/V receivers and owned three (Yamaha RXV 2095, Yamaha DSP A1, Marantz SR 9200) My focus always is on the reproduction of 2 channel music. I find nearly all the recei
vers in the $2500-$4500 range will do the DVD thing just fine. As long as they've got good bass management capabilities your movies will sound great on every one. It is in the music department where, I feel, alot of them fall short.
I have owned my Marantz SR 9200 for well over a year now and I'm still more than satisfied. In fact it keeps sounding better. I believe that if you use decent cables and components, it will sound like it's worth three times the money. The build quality is excellent. The setup menu is among the best I've seen. SPL and bass management calibrations are made quickly and accurately. The remote is nicer and seems a higher quality than some remotes that come with more expensive receivers. The RS232 port on both the SR 9200 and its remote make it possible to customize and upgrade with new software through your PC. For a big home theatre job like the Marantz SR 9200 is, it sure delivers a warm richness and clarity when representing music. Smooth, full bodied and powerful is how I could describe it. I'm sure this would improve if I was able to use higher quality components and speakers than the one's I am currently using. Until I buy a separate music system, the Marantz SR 9200 does the job admirably.
I use:
Receiver: Marantz SR 9200
CD/Recorder: Marantz DR 4050
DVD: Marantz VC 5200
Upsampling DAC: Musical Fidelity A3-24
Main Speakers: JBL S312
Centre: JBL S-Centre
Rear Surr: JBL S38
Centre Back: PSB Alpha AV
Sub: PSB Subsonic 5
Cables: Kimber 8TC (mains) Kimber 4PR (rest). Sub cable: Monster M351. Also using Goertz Purl Silver analog interconnects from the upsampler to the CD transport.

Strengths:
Warm, deep, rich sound. Good build quality. Ample power. Great remote. User friendly setup.

Weaknesses:
Nothing?

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha RXV 2095. Yamaha DSP A1

Price Paid:  $2400.00 from BOFEX

Summary:
Very good AV receiver for all taste. Listen to stereo music or home theater is wonderful and nice.

Strengths:
Lots of power, exelent soundstage and warm like marantz does.

Weaknesses:
None.

Similar Products Used:
None

Price Paid:  $2400.00 from Audio Advisors

Summary:
Having moved on from my older SR880 to the new Marantz 9200, all I can say is WOW! This receiver is amazing. It handles every sound field there is and does so extremeley well. You can set the audio to "auto" and forget it, or you can tweak the crap out of it and have fun. The setup menu is a snap.

The sound out of this unit is perfect. It is clear, crisp and astounding. It handles video with equal applomb.

Best of all, Marantz really knows how to keep things simple. The receiver is not overbearing, nor is annoying by adding a myriad of useless sound fields.

System:
Marantz, 9200
Klipsch Reference surround sound speakers
Mitsubishi PD5010 Plasma Monitor (by the way, I highly recommend this over ANY other Plasma. I've had two so far.)
Toshiba Progressive scan DVD

Strengths:
Ease of use, I can't say it enough!
4 component video inputs, most of any receiver on the market.

Weaknesses:
Remote! It is very annoying. Way too many pages to go through just to go from satellite to DVD.

Similar Products Used:
SR880
Yamaha RXZ1
Denon 5803

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Have had this receiver for 6 months now and I am very pleased with ...Got it hooked upto Infinity Preludes...Using Nordost Flatline speaker wires and Nordost Moonglo2 interconnect. Music is very warm and clear..Great imaging...It does tend to bring out the flaws in CD's...For movies, it has enough power to make my house shake and some....So, I don't think I'll reach the limits without the neighbors wondering what is going on...CS5.1 is great for music too depending on the type of CD played.

Strengths:
Clean sound and imaging. Lots of power. Great for 2 channel music too. All the theatres features I am likely to use.

Weaknesses:
I wish it would go automatically into analog mode if an incompatibility is detected in the digital mode.

Price Paid:  $2200.00 from Sonido Seguro

Summary:
Very good amplifier nothing best to this one so far.

Strengths:
Good for music and better for movies

Weaknesses:
So far nothing bad in this one.

Similar Products Used:
Sony STR-675 and Onkyo TX-DS787