The Marantz SR770 is a great piece of equipment for the person who would like to build a great home theater. There is not a whole lot you can't do with it. It is AC-3 ready, it has multi-room function, and is able to been hooked up to an equalizer. It is rare for a home audio receiver to have this ability and my SR770 came with the RC-2000 so it is a great buy. I plan to keep it and use it as the backbone of my entire system. No matter how much how much I want to grow, the SR770 is ready.Five stars because it is very versatile and is a steal and $650, including the RC-2000.

The SR770 has plenty of power for home theatre or listening to music.It has plenty of inputs and outputs for all your components, plus it
is Dolby Digital Ready. The only problems are the tiny buttons on the
remote, and the lack of S-video connections for home theatre.

The Marantz SR770 is an AV receiver rated at 80W x 3, and 30W for rears. I've had it now for a month and it has been adequate though non-inspiring. For music, it had a CD and tapes 1&2 inputs. It lacks a digital input (i.e no DAC converter). The music that it produces is strong and smooth but lacking clarity with noise is quite audible. Bass is not as full bodied as in the Sony AV receivers (i.e STR GA8ES).
FOr AV equipment it has inputs for VCR1/2, LD and TV. It lacks S Video and a direct AC3 input although it has 6 channel inputs for use with an AC-3 decoder should you wish to go Dolby digital. It is a fairly good unit for movies on Prologic VCR and bass can be improved vastly by adding an active subwoofer through the output jack.

It has speaker terminals for front (not biwirable), centre(x1), surrounds; and preouts for the above plus for a subwoofer.

The on screen display is adequate though not spectacular and is available only via whilst the TV is on VCR input. It has a nice toggable function of power on in response to the TV being turned on.


The LCD display can be switched off and the unit has a sleep function. The remote control is comprehensive and is learnable but it has a lot of very small buttons and looks ugly. I found that a few controls for my sony VCR and TV were unable to be learnt (including the frequently used rewind button). It is also impossible to use the remote in the dark as the buttons are numerous, similarly sized and lacking glow properties. It might be well worth getting the Marantz RC2000 universal remote although I haven't yet laid my hands on one.

Overall, this receiver has enough whiz bang to not disappoint but lacks real punch. It is AC3 ungradable. Three stars

If you are looking for a receiver that has great flexibility, the SR770 is it! The power ouput, sound quality and design is excellent. Plus, the unit has the options of adding both multi-room and dobly digital capabilities. For the cost of $699, you can not go wrong. The option that I wished was on the unit would be the ability to drive two sets of speakers without multi-room active. But overall, the value far outweighs this function. Great unit!