A few months ago I decided it was time to upgrade my Nakamichi
AV-10 receiver. Since the new stuff seemed so cheap in the Circut City etc. ads I went shopping. Two days later after several "auditions" of the mass-market stuff I compared $1500 Marantz to $2000 Rotel. I really wanted to like the Rotel as it looks neat/modern but really did not want to spend what, for me, is real money. The Marantz for me had a better musicality in 2 channel so I went for the Marantz. Long story shorter, I sold Marantz even though it did a good job on 5.1 stuff, was really no better on voice or music than my $1200 1998 Nakamichi......soooo.....If you feel it really-really needs to be upgraded (and your speakers deserve better amplification), I suggest by-passing Denon/Rotel etc. and look into better pre-pro, or my choice if I had it all over to do again, one of the High-end things from Sunfire or????--need some more help here from the guys on other Arcam avr300????I noted that Upscale Audio has some pretty good things on sale or used??good luck, mike.
AV-10 receiver. Since the new stuff seemed so cheap in the Circut City etc. ads I went shopping. Two days later after several "auditions" of the mass-market stuff I compared $1500 Marantz to $2000 Rotel. I really wanted to like the Rotel as it looks neat/modern but really did not want to spend what, for me, is real money. The Marantz for me had a better musicality in 2 channel so I went for the Marantz. Long story shorter, I sold Marantz even though it did a good job on 5.1 stuff, was really no better on voice or music than my $1200 1998 Nakamichi......soooo.....If you feel it really-really needs to be upgraded (and your speakers deserve better amplification), I suggest by-passing Denon/Rotel etc. and look into better pre-pro, or my choice if I had it all over to do again, one of the High-end things from Sunfire or????--need some more help here from the guys on other Arcam avr300????I noted that Upscale Audio has some pretty good things on sale or used??good luck, mike.