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PICK ONE... ONKYO 805 or MARANTZ 8001

I'm trying to decide on a new (to me anyways) receiver.

I've narrowed it down to these two:
MARANTZ - SR 8001
ONKYO - TX SR 805

About the only big deal I see bwtween them in their feature set is the 805 has better video flexibility & the HDMI 1.3 thingy. THEIR POWER RATING IS ABOUT EQUAL AND ALL i WOULD NEED.

The HDMI 1.3 does seem attractive for multi ch. high res audio playback via a single wire bundle, BUT not having heard anything through one, I'm skeptical on it's performance level and would think the Marantz the more musical of the pair... albeit the need for RCA cables for SACD.

The onkyo is also cheaper.

Any other thoughts or experiences here on support or performance, would be super and greatly appreciated.
blindjim

Showing 2 responses by moorefield

moorefield
9 posts
 
i'll go against the grain a bit. I used to own a Denon 2801 powering a HT 5.1 system that ran a $4500 retail speaker set (Revels). I bought a dedicated 2 channel amp (NAD 218THX) and powered my mains....well, it didn't work. Sounded terrible to my ears. I replaced it with a Rotel amp that was less than half the price and...well, it was awesome!

What i'm saying...as much as you'd like to read reviews and guess, the real test is to 'hear' your options...period.

i know a separate amp should make a AVR sound better, but this you do not know. Be careful and go listen for yourself.
moorefield
9 posts
 
hahaa...good post... the "buy & try" shuffle is exactly what i plan to do... at least for some time.

Heck, i'm 3 Cape Cods into this post and will roll with it. The Revels were spot on in the demo room 2000) with Theta amps pushing them. When i had them home and let loose with...ohhh, a $1000 AVR they still sounded 3x better than the Polk RT3000p speakers.

At this point, as my income increases...i'm upgrading my audio gear. Not much for video my man!
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