- great sound; both for music and HT - lot's of nice features - build quality is top notch - easy installing; remote works ok - looks nice too

- not very cheap but furthermore no noticable weaknesses. (price in EURO's)

I bought this receiver to accompany my Mordaunt Short 908 floorstanders. At first I wanted to buy a stereo amp, because my main interest is in listening music instead of home theater; but the bi-amp option on the 908s caught my attention (the 908s are quite hungry for power, so to relief the amp of excessive strain due to the side-firing woofers, this option would be nice). I'm a student with a limited budget so buying a stereo and power amp would be a bit too expensive, so I decided to go for an av-receiver. After a few months listening and evaluating different brands the Denon AVR-3805 and Marantz SR-7500 remained. To my ears the 908s are a bit on the bright side so I needed a warm sounding amp. I've been told that the Marantz is very nice in stereomode especially when using the pure-direct mode, which disables all tone control features. Another nice feature is the support for bi-amping: an easy switch on the back converts the surround-back channels into a bi-amping capability for the fronts. About the quality: I found the voice reproduction very natural; as if you're listening to a live performance. It made the intrinsic harschness of the 908's highs turn into clear and crisp sound. With jazz this unit really starts singing, it becomes very musical and alive. It was also obvious that the Marantz had lots of powerreserve. At high volumes the bass stayed tight and controlled and the treble never felt overly bright. The soundstage was very wide and open when I listened to the receiver at the store; this disappointed me at home but it was to be expected because of the size of my room: about 15m2. For the HT-purpose: this receiver has about everything you need (THX select,DTS-ES,DD-EX/PLII,DHP, MRAC:Marantz Room Acoustic Calibration (not yet tried though), SRS Circle Surround II and the list goes on...) The SR-7500 shows quite some authority when it comes to the overwhelmingly explosive scenes in movies as Pearl Harbor, Matrix Triology, Master and Commander etc. and that only in stereo mode. Very impressive. Because it's a 7.1 channel receiver I want to hook up more speakers in the near future to get an nice surround experience for home theater. The Denon was a good performer as well, but I preferred the sound of the SR-7500 in combination with the 908s.