Marantz SR-6400 6.1 Channels Receiver

Marantz has had a rather checkered past. They started out as an American maker of some of the finest hi-fi equipment money could buy. Later they were purchased by Superscope, who became part of Sony. Inevitably, the product was cheapened for more sales and manufacturing shipped to Japan and later to parts unknown. By the 80's, the Marantz name was slapped on cheaply made, questionable equipment that could just have easily been made for Kmart or some other discount store.

In its latest incarnation, Marantz is earning respect again. The name was purchased by the same company that owns Denon, so cheap products aren't in their vocabulary. Although they Marantz and Denon are owned by the same parent, their manufacturing and design are said to be separate, with Marantz being the "higher end" company.

I purchased the SR-6400 a few weeks ago and am impressed. It is definitely made for the few people who want a great sound as compared to bells and whistles. Case in point, the amp weighs a about twice as much as the discount store brands. This indicates that Marantz put some real guts into the chassis. High current transformers and discrete amps tend to weigh more than the cheap stuff. This really pays off when it comes time to put some real power to all the surround channels.

The sound with the digital inputs is superb. The DAC converters are of high quality, and lend themselves to a rich full sound on both Dolby and DTS soundtracks, as can be heard on the Diana Krall live in Paris DVD. Diana's voice, along with the piano, drums and bass sound muddled with many recievers, but sounded wonderful on the Marantz with clearly separated voice and instruments, and the correct "weight" and separation. The bass could have been slightly tighter, but that is probably the amp in the sub.

On SACD and DVD-Audio is where the SR-6400 really shines. Marantz made their name from the 50's through the 70's for having a very clean musical sound and the sR-6400 is in keeping with the tradition. The SR-6400 is incredibly clear. You'll almost feel like your part of the band with incredible staging of the musicians and a very lifelike rendering of the instruments. Bring a copy of Norah Jones or the Eagles on SACD or DVD-Audio, and you'll know that it doesn't get much better than this with out spending several times more on separate amps pre-amps etc.

Since I mention Denon in the first paragraph, let me make a comparison. I have used a Denon AVR-1802 for a few months and was wowed by its life-like sound and easy power. The Marantz is even better, with an even more life-like sound. The resonances of a piano seem more natural, as do voices. Granted comparing a two year old model with a current model may not seem fair, I feel that an analog signal from SACD or DVD-Audio bypasses the DAC's (where it seems the most progress has been made in the last couple of years), thus my comparison seem more valid.

In short, I higly recommend the SR-6400 for anyone who doesn't need or want listening modes beyond Pro-Logice II, DTS Neo-6 and SRS. If you are looking for 41 different listening modes with 29 variations of each mode you are probably better off looking somewhere else (although Marantz did include a handfull). The believability and accuracy of sound is what matters most, and that is where the Marantz is at the top of its class.