This is an amp with two personalities. When it it running it is great - excellent sound quality, good features, easy to use and powerful. The problem is that it has been slowly dying since shortly after I bought it. sometimes one channel doesn't work, other times the low end disappears, then surround stopped working and finally the sound went all together.
This is disappointing for a brand that is meant to be high-mid range - it should run flawlessly for 20 years.
It was expensive - I was upsold from the model down, and paid more to get the brand relative to what else i'd compared.
I'd add that my matching DVD player died after a very short time and was superseded by one that cost 1/6th the amount and produces a much better result.
I wont buy Marantz again.

Sounds very good until the volume control goes on you - then it's useless. Quiet, nice midrange and highs, but lacks guts. Tuner is junk. Manual is confusing and menus are a pain. OK for HT, but unreliable and underpowered. Relatively inexpensive.

It simply sounds GREAT

Wish it had a lit remote, No bass management

This is actually a review for the SR 4400, but since they didn’t have a place to put a review for it I thought I would slide it in here. I was looking for a decent receiver for my bedroom since my old JVC RX 888 broke down on me. I am now happy that it did. This receiver is a fantastic deal. I have it hooked up to a single pair of Paradigm Mini-monitors and I have to say that the difference between this and the JVC are like night and day. I have a Rotel RSX 1055 in my main listening room and this Marantz is not a far cry from that (at about 1/4th the price). I haven’t listened to it in the surround modes so I don’t have much to say about that, but the music sounds detailed and accurate. In this price range you can’t expect all of the bells and whistles that come at an expense to sound or your pocket. As such, the SR 4400 does not have Component Video inputs. This is not a big deal for me and shouldn’t be for most people since most don’t have more than one or two devices that outputs the component (so they just hook it up directly to the TV). Also, there is no bass management. The crossover is permanently set at (from what I have read) 100 MHZ. This may cause problems for those with super small speakers and a sub (as they would probably want to have it set to 120). The 100 makes me scratch my head a bit since the most common setting is 80, but none of this a problem for me since I don’t use a subwoofer. There is no on screen set up, but the set-up is really pretty straightforward on the receiver so this again is not a problem. The one thing that I wish it did have was a lit remote since I use it in the bedroom. Maybe once I get used to it I won’t need the lights but I do for now. The remote is otherwise pretty good and runs the satellite receiver, the TV, VCR and CD player with no problems. When compared to a lot of other receivers out there this one does not have a lot of options that are becoming standard, but what this does have it has in spades – good sound. I would recommend it to anyone that can live with its limitations.

Similar Products Used:

JVC RX 888, Rotel RSX 1055

more power than you need for most average room sizes. transparency. not fussy when matching other components.

lack auto setup, which might hinder some people. no real weaknesses at this price.

At the price? (in USD) Fantastic.. not just a bargain, but a performer as well. I was choosing between the marantz and a harman kardon, forgot the model, but it was slightly pricier. The marantz wins hands down. great with movies, as well as music. Transparent, and smooth. Should listen to it on Dolby ES6.1, amazing stuff, stereo separation is unlike anything i've ever heard before for movies. for those of you who mention about the lack of bass.. you should hook up a subwoofer.. ;) i only run bookshelf speakers, 4 of them, and 1 centre.. and a rather small mordaunt short subwoofer, which cost me USD 170. Thats the best way to get the max out of DTS, and dolby movies. the way its designed to be ;) IMHO

Excellent Home Theater Sound Excellent Price Low noise crystal clear sound Looks great (I only wish I had the gold model)

Not up to par for hard hitting music Speaker Connects can be a pain if your not using banana plugs

The first thing I noticed when I set this amp up is the lack of bass. I am used to using older 70's amps and the sound that they have so keep that in mind. My 15watt per channel Sansui amp had a very rich sound with huge amounts of bass and was great for music. This amp does have a lot going for it though. The sound is very clear and concise, it is amazing for home theater and is good for music. I don't have a subwoofer yet and I'm a little disappointed with the lack of punch out of my Dahlquist speakers which are capable of 35hz on the bottom end. The bass and treble settings are only -6db to 6db so adjustment isn't much of an option. The features on this receiver are good and are more than enough for my needs, it lacks in features compared to other brands but definetely makes up in quality. The menu's are simple to navigate and the remote is decent but isn't completly intuitive. The top reason's I bought this receiver were: -The looks (It looks great, I love the big knobs and the symetrical layout, it's also built like a tank) -The Brand (I prefer non mainstream brands since non audio people have never heard of them and they are usually a higher quality product) -The Price (It was on sale $150 off and I couldn't pass it up especially since it was 6.1 and nicer than anything else in the price range)

Similar Products Used:

This is my first A/V Receiver. Sansui AU101 Amp Teac Receiver (forget the model)

Value!, Quality build, Marantz quality and warranty.

'Old School' menu, No options to program tv / dvd audio in's to anything but what they are factory assigned (tv- composit / dvd - componant)

I was DEFINATLY the first guy in town that bought this receiver. That’s good and bad. I bought it sight unseen, but have been happy with the performance. It has all the standard features and a few that usually don’t come in the 400 price. It of course has limited in/out puts. It is 80w x6 channel, which is ok, but you may want more then 80w. (I do) The set-up menu is primitive and doesn’t have anything that can display on my TV, only on the receiver face. It has good detail in the sound level controls. It was consistent from level to level on my Sound level meter. I had a Harman Kardon before and like this allot more. Besides you would need to go 2x the price to get the same level of performance.

Similar Products Used:

Harman Kardon 125, 3xx, 5xx, Top of the line Sony

6.1inputs and preouts good looks nice sound cheap

-treble and bass settings are very limited -no connections on the frontside

Adter some research I found that this one was the best bang for the buck (or for the euro in my case) for only 300 euro I couldnt think of a better receiver. Can't say much about the sound except that I'm satisfied. The receiver has a lot of feautures; 6.1, 6.1input, 6.1 pre-outs so its ready for the future. Menu is very easy to setup, and you can swith between sources very easily. DD5.1 over the headphone is really awesome done.

pre-outs! Sourround modes sounds good

stereo sound tuner quality

I bought the AV receiver at RAF, a Dutch audio company at a bargain price. I have added the receiver to my Rotel (980 pre and power) amp via the front pre-out connections of the Marantz receiver. It works well! I put the volume of the Rotel pre-amp at 12 o'clock, have adjusted the sound levels of all speakers at the listening position and there it goes!. DVD's sound very good. Music is poor (compared to the Rotel amps). I do not use a subwoofer, the main speakers (B&W Matrix 803S2) have bass enough for my room. Since I listen most of the time to music (classic music, organ, choir) a Rotel AV-pre-amp was too expensive for me. I had also to invest in extra power amps. Looking at the price (€299)the Marantz SR 4300 was the best set-up I could purchase.

Similar Products Used:

liestend to Rotel AV pre-amp (better, but much more expensive)

hifi quality amp, no frills appearance,reasonably priced.

FM tuner could be better, no phono audio input, poor remote which takes ages to switch anything on the reciever (better check batts. Remote also unable to replace other handsets ie TV, VCR controls.

I've only been using this reciever 2 days. It replaces an 1997 Yamaha RX 580 surround reciever. Clearly this unit is more sophisticated in this fast moving technology, however as always i find hifi equipment adopts new ideas then forgets the old ones. The point i'm getting at is I don't now have anywhere to plug my excellent dual turntable into. The SR4300 does have 7 audio inputs but none are for phono! I understand Phono jacks have a different power rating than is the case with other inputs (CD, tape player etc). All sounds very nice, though I find the FM tuner is not particularly sensitive. Certainly not as good as the one in the 8 year old.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha RX-580

Looks, 6.1, audio formats, price !

speaker connectors , pre-out quality

I have owned this unit for about 2 weeks now and my impressions are good. This receiver has everything you need when you read the specs. I wanted my homecinema sytem to be transparent for my hifi system. Therefore I was planning on using the 6.1 pre-out of the Marantz to feed directly my Atoll power amp for the front speakers. One would think that this setup goes in favor of overall qound quality and leaves more power for the other channels. Until now, I was not able to get this set up working with decent quality. Futhermore, it is uneasy to reach the same sound level on all speakers. I will investigate the issue and post an update if I find the fix. Except for this problem, I am quite satisfied with the receiver. The sound is clear with color in bottom medium. The DAC in stereo is decent and requires as always good cable. In fact shielding might be the reason for my problem here...

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo 787