Basically everything

none that I know of

This receiver is awesome. It produces fantatsic sound and it is just a joy to own. I think 2 channel music sounds amazing with this as it produces a huge 3D soundstage. DD 5.1 and DTS sound great and you can crank up the volume and still get super clear & clean sound. The remote is great and it is a true universal remote. It is easy to program and use. The SR-18 also looks great and the gyro-tune knob is a neat feature. I really can't find anything wrong with this unit and I easily recommend it to anyone who wants a great sounding receiver.

Oh and it is sad that someone write areview that has nothing to do with the receiver. If you wish to express why you got the Denon 4800 then go do it in the fourms, not on a review page for a MARANTZ.

Very good build

Falling behind

No doubt, the Marantz is back! However, after careful consideration, I bought the Denon AVR-4800.Why? Well the Marantz has a nicer Remote and heat sinks, this is true. The Denon on the other hand has all the Marantz has minus 15 little watts plus is EX ready and ES ready..The Denon is 800 cheaper and Sounds fantastic!! I learned from the Yamaha purchase that obselescence is horible. Pay 2800 now, and next year its not worth 1000!. So, I went with the "Future Proof" solution. The Yamaha DSP-A1 originally sold for 2700, now it cant be given away for 1400. The Denon 5600 and 5700 now can be had for under 1900 and The Marantz will follow...This is not to say its not a great machine, it is, but only until it is replaced by the new model. I wanted seperates to avoid this hassle, but this receiver, the Denon 4800 solved the problem for alot less than the Sunfire is was considering...

Similar Products Used:

Marantz 2210 2265 Yamaha RXV-870

stereo sound , presentation

a slight lack of transparency ;-)

I have own for some time the denon ( in fact the AVC-A1D wich code name is in the us 5800 ) but I was not pleased with the stereo result ( too warm , bass not really taugh , narrow image , not really transparent : the common defaults of quite all the homecinema receivers )
And a friend just purchased the marantz ... so we tested them in parallel on my Confluence speakers ( french high-fidelity speakers ) cantilene+mediane+muse and REL strata2 subwoofer ; source was a Micromega ( french too )

And the result was without the slightest doubt
MARANTZ IS FAR SUPERIOR IN ALL ASPECTS !!!

nearly flat response ( quite no warmth )
very taugh and impressive bass
very good stereo image
more transparent

quite as good in fact as my Cairn stereo amplifier

and in 5.1 the presence of the marantz is far more impressive than the denon's , you are overwhelmed in sound.

and for the knock down

the Marantz is a beauty !!!

Similar Products Used:

denon AVR5800

audiophile product, even its an a/v receiver (yes so called
hi-end critics, just listen to it !!!) and build like a sherman tank

nope.......uhm..just one, multi room i hate when that
happends but thats my fauld. personel thing i gues

i have read all the reviews below and wonder i am the first
european owner of the marantz sr-14 who's reviewing this ??
second wonder; whats the difference between sr-14 and 18
CAN SOMEBODY HELP ME WITH THIS !!!!
anyway this receiver is in holland only available in the 'gold'
version and it comes with the rc 5000 remote in 'gold' too
the sr-18 doesn't excist here.
normally i listen only music but the last months i become
a real dvd collector thats the reason i sold my latest amp
marantz pm-14 (or pm 18 in the us ?)
when you listen in source direct mode ( analog input ) there
is no big difference between them, the pm-14 is just a bit
more tight in the upper bass while the sr-14 gives you
more lower bass and sweeter hights, in other words the
sr-14 sounds easy and musical
i work in a hi fi store and its easy loaning some stuff to try
at home and believe me i' ve take this opportunity for
3 years already but this reciever is simply the best of both
worlds when you like music and movies ,there are lots of
expensive so called hi-end integraded and separaded amps
but this baby sounds as it should be !!
including best dd and dts decoding i've ever heard, bonus
are also the 24bit /96 khz dacs. connect your cd player's
digital coax output to the digital input of your sr-14, select
cd source direct and switch with the buton digital/analog
on the remote to compare the 24bit/96 khz dac and your
cd players 16bit /44.1 khz dac. is there anybody out there
who has experimented this ? please let me know.

speakers: infinity kappa 8.2i cd player: marantz cd 16 l.e.
exclusive cables: mit terminator series2 mh 750 biiwire and
mi 330 interconnect powerconditioners: seec audio systems
surrounds: mirage omr-2 center: using the tv speakers

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everything at this price and higher mmmmmmuch higher !!

The Remote is excellent, I havent programmed it to run the rest of my equipment, but I am working on it. I am still fine tuning it, but so far it amazes me more and more every day. I have only had this piece for less than a week.

The manual is hard to follow.
When you listen to the stereo, you will only hear the front channel. It would be nice to hear all speakers.

This receiver is amazing! I have only had it for a week, but it amazes me more and more everyday.
I have it paired up with some B&W 603's and some fair center and rear channel speakers. I plan to upgrade my surround speakers as soon as possible.
I bought the MIT terminal speaker wires and they are still breaking in.
The store I bought the equipment from (Century Stereo)
was a little pricey, but i ended up getting good service from Gary the store manager.
I bought the unit for 2527.00 and I absolutely love it. I will love it much more when i can program the remote to run all of my equipment. If you have the money, i highly recommend this product. I will own this and love it for a long time to come.
This forum gave me some great advice as to the equipment i purchased.
I looked at the Yamaha DSP-A1 and the Dennon
thanks!

Similar Products Used:

This was my first High End Purchase

Outstanding sound quality. Clear and rich sound. More defined than the Yamaha and smoother than the Denon. The remote puts it into a class of its own by comparison. I am constantly amazed at how good it does sound, as better software becomes avaliable the equipment just shows further strengths.

The Australian model doesnt get bananna plugs on the rear speaker terminals. The Denon does have a better 5 speaker stereo mode, but the Marantz sounds better in stereo. just the sound isnt eminating from all speakers in stereo like the Denon can. But, as I say the Denon just doesnt have the clarity and definition.

As mentioned in many reviews the remote is a monster. But , once programmed you cant do without it. The remote is brilliant and certainly a strength of this product as far as showing the quality of the overall package. The SR-18 has all the stuff, DTS (pretty useless in oz), DD etc. Saving Private Ryan (US DTS version) thru this equip is something to behold. The opening scene with the waves crashing on the Omaha beach sounds better than actually being there, a sense of realism that I have not experienced with any home theatre to date. I am using 4 mirage 1295is, an OM-C2 and a shitty Jensen sub. The Mirages work great with the Marantz. DVD is by way of a Denon DVD 5000 (another story). Hope this information helps.

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Pioneer and Denon

Excellent sound, clean look, room for growth, high quality power supply, great tuner and the best programmable remote to date!

Try getting the caps off the speaker posts to plug in banana plugs! Bent a knife trying to pry them off! Arrrgh! Leanring how to program the remote is tough, but once you figure it out it's a piece of cake. Heavy to move, but that's because of all the high quality parts.

The Marantz SR-18 THX certified receiver is the best surround sound receiver on the market today! The industry standard.

I owned the Onkyo TX-DS575 for about three months when I upgraded from my Carver 900, because I wanted a surround sound system to get the full potential for my JVC 501BK DVD player. Wow! The quality of the sound between the Onkyo and the Marantz SR-18 was like night and day. The SR-18 was so much better sounding! (I also compared it with Denon, Yamaha, Harmon Kardon, Sony, Kenwood and NAD receivers.)

How? Cleaner, more definition, everything. That's because Marantz put a lot of thought into designing the piece and didn't skimp with the parts. Even the tuner is awesome and it's very easy to get up and down the dial with its silky smooth channel adjuster.

The SR-18 is very heavy at 56 lbs., but that's because the power supply and heat sinks are high quality. (Make sure you have help moving this if you're not buffed.) 140 watts per channel is delivered clean with no distortion even at high volumes. Turn the amp all the way up with no audio source and you don't hear anything, which is what should happen. If you heard buzzing from the amp then that means you're likely to hear the interference when music is played.

This baby has everything a person could want with THX, DTS & Dolby Digital surround, tons of inputs and outputs for a lot of different components too. I would have liked to see an extra digital coaxial input & output, because I plan to have four digital sources and digital coaxial cable is much better than optical, but you can't have eveything.

The remote was tough to figure out and I had to go back to where I bought it from to have them show me how to program it, but after that it was a snap. You can even change the names and the functions around with the remore with its digital displays. Set-up and calibration of the receiver is easy with an on-screen display that you use with a TV or monitor.

Be sure to have the store where you buy the unit from remove the caps off the speaker connector posts, as I bent a knife tip trying to pry the dang caps off. Other than that the unit sounds better and has a superior remote to the Yamaha DSP-1 and Denon AVR-5600, and has a three year warranty to boot. Five stars! Check it out.

System: JM Lab Electra 915 speakers, Nakamichi BX-300 tape deck, Monster MC500 speaker cable and assorted interconnects, Marantz CD65SE CD player, CDR630 CD recorder, Cambridge Soundworks Center Stage center channel, Cube 10 sub-woofer and II's surround speakers. I plan on getting a YBA Integre' or California Audio CL-15 single CD player when I want to get the best out of a single CD.

Similar Products Used:

Carver 900
Onkyo TX-DS575

Marantz SR-18EX. Sound quality is absolutely unbelievable!! Depth, detail, warmth, presence - it has it all!

Remote is hopelessly complicated (I'll probably never use it). Set up is a pain. Owner's manual could be more clear and helpful.

My multi-month search for an A/V receiver to drive a set of Vienna Acoustics speakers (Bach's + Haydn's + Theatro in a sourround set-up, plus Mozart's in a second room) is over. After trying all of the above receivers, the Marantz SR-18EX is the clear winner.

Forewarning: I'm not an expert, and this is my first A/V system in almost 20 years. I've been painfully picking my way through all the equipment that is out there (things have changed a lot since the early 1980's!), and spending a lot of time listening to various pieces in my home. One of my initial hang-ups was a desire for A/B speaker switching, to run two sets of speakers off of one receiver. The Yamaha RX-V3000 almost did the trick for me. The sound was great, very detailed and sweet, and the unit had plenty of power to drive the 6 ohm loads of the VA's. But, an obsessive drive for just a little more depth drove me to try the SR-18EX, and go with a Niles switchbox and abandon the need for built-in A/B switching. In the interests of simplicity (and cost), I also did not want to start down the road of seperates, and wanted to stay with one integrated A/V receiver.

The SR-18EX is in a class by itself. To my ears, and in my humble opinion, it just blows everything else I tried away. The sound has tremendous presence, depth, warmth but also with great detail and clarity. None of the slight brightness of the highly detailed Yamaha, none of the slight muddiness of the warm Pioneer. Suprisingly, the SR-18EX also sounded significantly better than the SR-19 - I was expecting them to be closer. The SR-19 was OK, but to my ears, a bit disappointing, and inferior to the Yamaha RX-V3000, having less depth, and both less warmth and detail. The SR-18EX seems to be a perfect match for the VA speakers - the reproduction of vocals (especially female voices) is just astonishing. I could not believe that a receiver could make so much difference (20 years ago, it was all about speakers), but my home trials with all of the pieces have taught me otherwise. The SR-18EX seems to be a perfect tonal matched with the VA's. It's more expensive than the other units, but it's clearly apparent in sound quality, and worth it.

Build quality and appearance are also very impressive. Solid, substantial, very "professional" looking. The weight spec is about 53 lbs., but lifting it to my gut felt like more.

Dislikes are few, and have to do with less-than-user friendly set-up. The owner's manual isn't the most clearly written. It took me several rounds of going through the many on-screen menus to finally get everything configured properly. The remote is also (to me) impossibly complicated. It seems to have a great many capabilities, but I doubt I will ever use it. Plastic plugs on the terminals were also a little tough to remove to allow banana plugs. The SR-18EX is also noticeably bigger than the other units I tried, and barely fits into the cabinet I'm using.

Now that it is set up, it is very straightforward and easy to use (actually easier than the runner-up Yamaha RX-V3000). Front panel controls are logical and intuitive. It is not burdened with countless "surround" modes to try and imitate different environments - it has all I need (including 5 channel stereo, which was important to me).

Overall, completely satisfied. I can see myself happily living with this unit for a long time.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha RX-V3000; Denon AVR-3801; Denon AVR-4800; Pioneer Elite VSX-37TX; Marantz SR-19

THX Ultra, musicality, remote

none

If you have made the decision to go with a receiver instead of separates (and there are many reasons to do so other than the price) this is an excellent choice. Furthermore, if you plan to use the receiver for 2 channel music then you have found the receiver that in my opinion performs the best. THX Ultra and component video are icing on the cake. The remote is excellent but requires some work to get it working its best.

Everything. Seriously, this is the best integrated A/V Receiver I have ever heard. Sounds much richer than the Denon. Difficult to describe but you really must hear this receiever to believe it.!

The heat vents on the side of the unit make it dangerous to install in a 'normal' 18" A/V enclosure.
DSP settings... not really a weakness though, with the THX Ultra setting.

Great reciever. (period) Marantz has seriously raised the bar with this thing. You simply must do a side by side comparison with other high end recievers before you buy anything else. In my opinion you won't go wrong with the SR-18.


The low rankings given to this reciever by the 'people' below are a real shame.

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denon 5700
yamaha YH1