Well rounded. Quality sound at low and high volume. Lots of inputs. Remote actually WILL replace all the rest! Amplifier section is excellent.

Caps covering the Banana plugs! Easy to remove with this trick!
(1) CAREFULLY drill a small hole in the center of each plug
(2) hand tighten a small screw a few treads in and pull!
It took me 20 minutes to get the first one out with a screw driver and I scratched up the post! After I thought of this trick I had the rest off within 5 minutes w/o a single scratch!

Not much to say other that I love it! I have never owned a piece of gear this expensive before and am know seeing what I was missing. Easy to configure. Flexable inputs. Very good remote. Real nice build the exudes quality. full set of preamp loops is great. Gives great flexability for the future. 5 channels of clean amplification that never seem to run out of juice. I have a couple Parasound HCA-1500A amps that are now for sale! The Marantz sounds that good!

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha 2095, auditioned the nice Denon 5700

Build, aesthetics, copper shielding through out, remote 5000i, and for sure the sound.

none yet.

I was fortunate enough to have my local dealer let me take home a SR14EX and compare it with my home system of which I had purchased a few weeks earlier the Denon 5800. Not wanting to have to go and take several minutes to rewire several items I tagged each connection so I can put them in SR14 very quickly. With anticipation I turned the power on, let in warm up and put in a HDCD disk in my ARCAM Alpha9 CD player. I selected pure direct audio because the ring DAC on the Alpha is superb. Just hearing the difference from the Denon which does not have this option sold me on the SR14. The denon in pure direct mode uses its own DAC's which digitizes it again which I don't want want. I cannot describe it well but there is a very audible difference in dynamics. Needless to say I packed up my Denon which is a very nice piece to return it to the dealer. The SR14 is more expensive than the Denon and the Denon has more features but I know I will not use many of them as sound is more important to me. Plus the 5000i remote is much better RC8000 hands down. Listen to the difference and you will know as I was fortunate enough to do.

Similar Products Used:

Denon 5800

Nothing

Suck receiver that I have had before

I do not believe how people gave this receiver 5 stars.
Bad, bad,bad,,,,

Similar Products Used:

None

Full sound image, and versitale theater set-up

Maybe it's just me but learning curve for the remote took some time. Instructions could have been a little better. No phono hook-up. Anyone know of a work-a-round for that?

Big and powerful. Nice speaker hook-ups but hole was a bit small for bi-wiring with large cable. Remote works great after getting used to it. Haven't used the remote "learning" feature yet but should add even more convenience. Tuner is solid and performs very well in a tough area with only a long T-bar. After watching Matrix my wife understood why I wanted 5.1. Purchase from Sound Distributors at a nice savings.

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Harmon Kardon AVR25

Musical pre-amp section, power, looks!

No 5 or 4 channel stereo

I tried out the sr19 and upgraded to the sr18 and noticed the following:
1) Better defined bass that is more controlled not just louder.
2) Quieter.
3) Over all a cleaner presentation with surround
4) Improved soundstage.
5) Better definition and slightly more detail

The sr 19 is an absolutely great unit and for the bang for the buck would beat the sr18 but I wanted that extra little bit and got it with the 18. It is very close to seperates in stereo music and no different with surround. I use cardas bi-wire cables and Studio 100's and feel the power is fine. The sr18 plays my paradigms with great authority. I have never been impressed with Marantz and still am not with the lower end stuff, but the Refference serier (sr 18, sr19 ) are a big step above all mass market products but still slightly below high end. For the $$$ you will not go wrong, depending on your ear and ego, you will be happy with this unit in all respects. One tip, use a high end power cable!! I use the Dragon fly ($200.00) and it helps take away the "digital " sound and smothed things out. This receiver will sound as good as your worse piece or connection so use good stuff and it will shine!!

Similar Products Used:

Marantz sr19

Powerful, tight & controlled LF, warm & natural sounding. Solid built & awesome look.

Big & heavy

Bought it cheap 'cos it's the last display set and with a bit of bargaining.

I had never enjoyed my home theatre system until now. It got everything a good AV receiver should have. It's hi-end sound at a mid-end cost. Definitely a very good value for money piece of machine. You won't regret it.

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Sony 9000ES

Incredible sound quality

I too upgraded from the SR-19 to the SR-18. Last year I purchased the SR-19 after comparing it the Denon 3300, Yamaha 2095 and the Pioneer vsx-27tx. At that time there was no comparison between the Marantz and the competition. But in my quest for greater sound quality I upgraded to the SR-18. All I can say is I'm really glad I made the change. There is just so much more quality in the music. More warmth yet giving incredible detail and depth with no background noise at all. I purchased the Phillips Pronto remote as well which is same as the RC5000 just to complete the package. I really don't think that I would need to upgrade from the SR-18 to improve the quality of sound. There becomes a point of diminishing returns. The SR-18 has set a standard. You know you have a great product when a year or two later it still sells very well and still a raved about product. The cost of this machine is slowly coming down with the new products coming onto the market. If you want EX then buy the SR-14. If you want to save some money and still have incredible sound the SR-18 is the choice. Five stars all around

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Denon,Yamaha,Pioneer

140-watts per channel RMS (high-current, low impedance)
RC-2000 mkII (remote of the gods)
component-video switching
ergonomics and endless number of features

This receiver deserves an absolutely minimum of 4 rating. Anything less is pure injustice. Being a Marantz fan through thick and thin, I have found that the SR-18 is a tremendous product -- component video switching, 140-watts per channel RMS, THX-Ultra certification, state-of-the-art DAC, etc. etc.

Though B&K, Yamaha, Pioneer Elite, and Denon companies all make highly comparable receivers (their respective flagship models), I bought the SR-18 because it sounded phenomenal with my Polk HT stet-up (RT-2000p). Most retailers give a 30-day trial period to test out higher end products, so take advantage of the policy and TAKE YOUR TIME to test out the very best on the market.

I chose the SR-18 and am 100% satisfied.

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Most of the "flagship" receivers out on the market

Loaded with Features, Clean Stereo Performance.

Heavy/Bulky, Needs good ventilation to keep cool.

The Marantz is a beautiful machine... and heavy too! Everything about this receiver oozes quality. Even the folding door on the front panel is a thick, heavy, cold piece of steel.
I won't go into the features as you can find those on the Marantz website. Let's just say it's loaded. THX, DD, DTS, component video switching, RF Demodulator for Laserdisc, RC2000MkII remote control, etc...

The first thing I did after hooking it up (relatively painless process) was go through the straight-forward setup menus. Speaker size, assigning digital inputs to specific sources etc... then I balanced the system with the internal test tone and my trusty Radio Shack sound meter.

Although I got into audio for home theater, I am becoming more of a two-channel fanatic everyday. The SR-18 has a two-channel direct mode that bypasses all surround and tone controls (I'm not sure if it works for analog sources). All my stereo listening is done in "Direct". One of my favourite recordings is the Verve Remaster of Oscar Peterson Trio's We Get Requests (the whole album is excellent, particularly if you're not a huge jazz fan, this stuff is accessible). Track 6 opens with Ray Brown bowing his bass fiddle instead of plucking it. Most people who listen to this recording on my Mirage OM-6's ask what is buzzing/rattling when this track starts. The sound of the bowed bass is very cool and unique. It has never sounded more natural or real than through the SR-18. And I could hear details I never heard with the Rotel. After he finishes bowing for a few bars, I could hear him put his bow down and then he begins to pluck. I could now hear him humming along as he plucked away. These details were either new or much clearer through the SR-18 than they were through the Rotel 965. I always thought I was lacking something with the Rotel. Not because it was a bad receiver, but it was a bad match for my Mirages. Both are on the forgiving/musical side of the spectrum and together they produced music with a lack of detail.

Next I listened to Jennifer Warnes Bird on a Wire from her Leonard Cohen Famous Blue Raincoat album. Previously, I had to listen very carefully to hear Leonard humming along in his baritone/bass voice, or whatever it is, sorry I never took music :) Through the SR-18 it is very easy to hear his voice. This receiver is very quiet and detailed in stereo and I couldn't be happier with its performance.

In surround, I have listened to a variety of scenes from Matrix, Titanic, Independence Day (LD)... all in Dolby Digital. I am not as critical a listener in surround as in stereo, but these all sounded fantastic through the OM-6, OM-C2, OM-R2 system in my room. Bass sounds tighter than it did through the Rotel, even though the OM-6's have their own bass amps... is that possible?!? I also watched the Shadow DVD in DTS. This sounds much better on the SR-18 than it did on the 965 but that is at least partly because the 965 doesn't do bass management in DTS mode (it's biggest shortcoming from my point of view). Ever since DD and DTS hit the mainstream, I have questioned the utility of THX... and it was not at all a factor in my purchase. However, I will now watch all my movies with THX engaged. Whether it's the THX processing or simply superior DD/DTS decoders in the Marantz, the soundfield in my room has never been so coherent. Sounds pan through the room without jumping about and the rear channel has more ambience and is more ‘surrounding'. Perhaps this is due to the decorrelation processing, I'm not sure.

The remote was very intimidating at first. But after a quick read of the manual, I programmed it with the major functions of 5 other remotes. And there is still plenty of room/buttons to add more functions later. This all took less than ten minutes after I got started.

In case you hadn't guessed, I love this receiver and I am very pleased with my purchase.

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Rotel RSX-965

Sound QUALITY!!

Caps on the speaker terminals were diffcult to remove for banana-plug connectors.

I have auditioned many top-line AV amplifiers over the years, looking for one which would do equal justice to both movie and music reproduction. Most readers of this website will no doubt agree that all the latest top-of-the-line Japanese AV amplifiers/receivers (Denon AVC-A1SE, Yamaha DSP-AX1, Onkyo TX-DS989, Pioneer Elite, Marantz SR14/SR18) are excellent when used for movie playback. They are all superbly constructed, decked-out with features, easy to use and setup, powerful enough for most applications and reliable as hell!!
However, I found that the Marantz SR-18 was superior to the rest (to varying degrees) when used in "CD-direct" mode for music listening. CD-playback via the SR-18 had a "vitality" and "bounce" that was lacking in the other AV amplifiers. The natural way in which the SR-18 reproduced vocals was also most welcome when listening to movie dialogue. Surround capabilities (smooth panning, height, depth and width resolution) was excellent, easily on par with the rest of its cohort.
The new SR14EX promises better HDAM modules and more surround processing modes. I am not that concerned with the surround EX capabilities (since I am not able to place two additional side speakers in my listening room) but I would like to listen to this new AV receiver to see if the latest HDAM modules are better.
By the way, do experiment with power cords (since the SR-18 has a detachable power cord). I tried an Audiotruth power cord with the SR-18 and it did wonders to the highs and lows.

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Denon AVR-3600.
Auditioned: Denon AVC-A1SE, Yamaha DSP-AX1, Onkyo TX-DS989, Pioneer Elite