Thoughts on Marantz SR4600?

[BOSTON-HD]

Hi All: Kind new to the AVS boards. I'm on the hunt for a new semi-budget A/V receiver. My older Yamaha RXV-793 (DD but no DTS,PLII etc.) is getting long in the tooth, but @ the time paid $700.00 in 1998. Also, it has only one coax & one optical input that are not assignable.

Anyway...I was looking to spend $300-$400.00 max. At first...I was looking @ an Onkyo TX-SR503 that's on sale for a paltry $239.00 @ CC. has plenty of bells for me. Then I started poking around looking @ the Marantz line. The entry-level SR4600 can be had for $329.00 from State Street Discount in Portsmouth, NH. as a special order (2-3 weeks)

Do you think the sheer "weight" of a receiver is an indicator of it's quality? If so....The Onkyo weight is 20.7 lbs. vs. the Marantz @ 26.5 lbs. I do like that the Onkyo has 3 opticall/1 coax vs. 2-optical/2 coax for the Marantz.

Also..The Marantz gives a 3-year warranty vs. Onkyo's 2 years. I guess I'm leaning towards the Marantz for $100.00 more. Spec wise they are very similar. I have never owned a Marantz product, but I have a 15-year Onkyo CD player & 6-year Onkyo CD Recorder that has never given me a lick of problems.

Geez....The price of receivers has come down so much since I last purchased. Any insight from the A/V experts out there? BTW........

My speaker 5.1 set up is:

Klipsch KB1.1 x4 (small 2-Way 5 1/4" woofer 2" Horn) Fronts & Rears
Klipsch KSC-C1 Center Channel
Boston Acoustics VR-500 Sub (10" 100 watt)


Any & all insight would be appreciated!

Regards,

Alex

[aeromorris]

Check out Ebay or Audiogon and look for the Marantz 5300,5400,or the newer 5500. You may even find a 2yr old 6200 in your price range. I believe the 4600 has a plastic face plate and/or case. I can't remember which. I can't say that the plastic affects the sound at all but plastic generally isn't a mark of quality.

I have the 5400 and love it. It's only 6.1 but 7.1 wasn't available when I bought it. I'll probably upgrade it with something better once the new Dolby and DTS surround schemes are set for BD and HD-DVD. For now it's more than enough for me. The best part is that the amp section is excellent for the price. Check out the following link:

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/340ratevsac.htm?200551/

You also may want to listen to some of the Denon receivers in your price range. I'm not sure about the particular speaker models that you listed but in general, Klipsch speakers tend to be pretty efficient so don't get caught up in the watts per channel specs.
-Jeremy

[JohnnyG]

I'd much rather they put the quality on the inside of the thing, rather than on the outside! Especially in this price range.

In my opinion, bells and whistles are nice and all, but it's likely that you'll check them out once or twice, then never touch them again. So, when I'm looking at gear, I'll look for something with the minimum feature set I think I'm going to need, and then concentrate on sound quality. In this respect Marantz is a strong contender.

[lpm]

Marantz is pretty good musically and no slouch in home theatre. Probably best to hear it with your speakers to be certain but I've had a SR5200 for 3 years now. It was a huge improvement over what I had before, has been totally reliable and it sounded even better once I had unloaded it by adding in an active sub. I prefer Marantz for music but Denon and Yamaha are fine receivers as well.

If you can stretch a little further like aeromorris suggested, also look at the 5600 for a little more power. Note that the 4500 and 5500 have just been superceded by the 46/5600 so there may be some cheaper options out there and the 4500/5500 are pretty much up to date with 7 channel amps and latest surround processing.

[ChrisCollins]

[QUOTE=BOSTON-HD]Hi All: Kind new to the AVS boards. I'm on the hunt for a new semi-budget A/V receiver. My older Yamaha RXV-793 (DD but no DTS,PLII etc.) is getting long in the tooth, but @ the time paid $700.00 in 1998. Also, it has only one coax & one optical input that are not assignable.

Anyway...I was looking to spend $300-$400.00 max. At first...I was looking @ an Onkyo TX-SR503 that's on sale for a paltry $239.00 @ CC. has plenty of bells for me. Then I started poking around looking @ the Marantz line. The entry-level SR4600 can be had for $329.00 from State Street Discount in Portsmouth, NH. as a special order (2-3 weeks)

Do you think the sheer "weight" of a receiver is an indicator of it's quality? If so....The Onkyo weight is 20.7 lbs. vs. the Marantz @ 26.5 lbs. I do like that the Onkyo has 3 opticall/1 coax vs. 2-optical/2 coax for the Marantz.

Also..The Marantz gives a 3-year warranty vs. Onkyo's 2 years. I guess I'm leaning towards the Marantz for $100.00 more. Spec wise they are very similar. I have never owned a Marantz product, but I have a 15-year Onkyo CD player & 6-year Onkyo CD Recorder that has never given me a lick of problems.

Geez....The price of receivers has come down so much since I last purchased. Any insight from the A/V experts out there? BTW........

My speaker 5.1 set up is:

Klipsch KB1.1 x4 (small 2-Way 5 1/4" woofer 2" Horn) Fronts & Rears
Klipsch KSC-C1 Center Channel
Boston Acoustics VR-500 Sub (10" 100 watt)


Any & all insight would be appreciated!

Regards,

Alex[/QUOTE]

Alex,
I sent you a PM

[fastbike]

[QUOTE=lpm]Marantz is pretty good musically and no slouch in home theatre. Probably best to hear it with your speakers to be certain but I've had a SR5200 for 3 years now. It was a huge improvement over what I had before, has been totally reliable and it sounded even better once I had unloaded it by adding in an active sub. I prefer Marantz for music but Denon and Yamaha are fine receivers as well.

If you can stretch a little further like aeromorris suggested, also look at the 5600 for a little more power. Note that the 4500 and 5500 have just been superceded by the 46/5600 so there may be some cheaper options out there and the 4500/5500 are pretty much up to date with 7 channel amps and latest surround processing.[/QUOTE]

accessories4less.com is an authorized Marantz refurb dealer. Some good deals on the items mentioned above.

[J.H.]

Just a quick somewhat off the topic question. Does Marantz make HT processors anymore? I couldn't find any on thier website? Thanks J.H.

[mattburk]

The nobs are plastic, not the case-the same as the others.
ditto on the above accessories4less recommendation. You can pick up the 5500 in that price range. I have it and it is great. The 5600 is out now too, not much of a difference between the 5500 and 5600. The 5600 has a removable power cord and hdcd.

[BOSTON-HD]

Guys....Many Thanks for your replies! I appreciate it. I ended up ordring the SR4600 for $329.99 yesterday. I think it appears to be a solid value for the coin. Also...for an extra $100.00 vs. the Onkyo SR503, it appears the Marantz is a little more solid.

Just a quick note, I only use my A/V receiver for Home Theather, not listening to music. In that realm...I'm the classic two-channel guy (i.e. Tubes aka..Rogue Audio/JM Lab Speakers)

Aeromorris....The older SR4320 has a plastic flaceplate but the SR4600 is all Aluminum. I did noticed that Ubid & accessories4less.com has a fair amount of refurb. units, but I usually want to start fom scratch with new.

JohnnyG....I'm with you! I really don't need a ton of bells & whistles. I have a fairly simple 5.1 set up & I really just needed more optical & coax inputs & wanted a nice sounding receiver. I'm hoping the SR4600 will fit that bill.

It appears that there is a pretty good Marantz fan-base here, so I'm feeling good about my purchase. I won't have me receiver for a couple of weeks (special order) from my local Marantz dealer, but I'll post back & let everyone know my findings.

Again...Thanks for all of the replies! This is a great place & I'm glad I discovered it.

Regards,

Alex

[mattburk]

The 4320 does not have a plastic face plate, none of the marantz do. I owned the 4320 for years.