I have a 525 that works fine, and using it after for a while I'm interested in getting the 2nd zone going. I've read the documentation, yet I can't get sound out of the 2nd zone. I've turned on the 2nd zone and assigned it to my dvd player (to play cd's), and gone into advance options to assign the speakers to multi-room, yet nothing. I know the connections work b/c I can set it back to 7.1 and get sound out of the same speakers.
Did you ever get your zone 2 working? I've got a similar 'problem' with my Marantz SR5500 and the 'B' speakers. I don't know if our two situations are similar enough or not. I can get the 'B' speakers to work if I set the source as the tuner, but as soon as I set the source to DVD -- nothing. I contacted Marantz and they sent the following:
"The multi-speaker B is part of the multi-room capabilities. In other words, it is not a standard B speakers system. The input source must be analog and may be selected (including source) totally separately from the main room."
I am thinking my 'problem' has to do with the analog input. Could it be the same for you? Being a newbie to the world of 5-, 6-, 7-channels, analog/digital input, and all the cabling, I don't quite understand what I need to do. I need to take time to go back to my dealer where I got my 5500 and show him the email from Marantz to get this resolved. But $3.30/gal gas and stations running low kept me from driving much this weekend her in North Carolina. I'll post if I get an answer from the dealer.