Having looked over the options in terms of price, sound quality, functionality, availability and even asthetics I am nearing the decsion to get a Marantz 7500. Some of you have recomended the HK645 and the Denon 3806 and having tested them they sure are all great receivers.
In the case of the 3806 it (in its discounted form) is another $1000 AUD more than what I can get the Marantz 7500, and I am not sure my Mission M3s 5.1 set up will do the Higher end Denon amp justice. In the case of HK I am not quite sold on the asthetics of the HK (Poor reason I know but I am the one living with it and beuty is in the eye of the beholder).
In Australia there has been a hold up in getting the Denon 2807 on the shelves and when it does get here it will cost about 700AUD more than the Marantz SR7500 which is on sale at the moment around the $1300 mark. That alone has me leaning towards the Marantz.
The only reservation I have is wrapped up in the 4 letters HDMI. I plan on hanging onto the AVR for at least 5 years. I currently have a fairly recent Sony CRT Hi Def Ready Digital TV but with no HDMI inputs, and my DVD has no HDMI outputs. Over the course of the next 5 years I could see myself getting a TV not quite so bulky (DPI, Plasma, LCD). Will I find myself with a redundant piece of technology in the Marantz or will I be able to work around it in a satisfatory way?
The only other question I have about the Marantz SR-7500 is about its Multi-Room / Multi-Source for audio and video with OSD and Speaker A/B. Does this mean I can run a movie in one room and a CD in the other out of the same AVR and at the same time or is it one or the other, or can I do both but require an additional amp in the "other" room?
Finally before I leap is there anything more I should be thinking of or taking into consideration?
I have also seen mention of stand-alone HDMI switching devices that you can add on later. Yes, one more piece of gear, and and you lose the relative centralization of sending everything through your receiver, but it might be an alternative.
Trazom, if I am in your boots, I would not worry a whit about HDMI. In a few years the whole schpiel will change again with a miriad of options, including a switchbox, like Stof says. And in 5 years we will be debating the merits of quality and cost of various HDMI switchboxes.
Stof, Hammers and Nuck thanks for your comments about HDMI and multi zone.
can rest a little easier and head out and buy the Marantz.
I look forward to discussing with you the various merits of HDMI switchboxes in the future.
Interesting side point and I dont know how accutely people are feeling this but it appears there are a few compatibility problems with the Denon HDMI solution and some of the other pieces of aparatus around. No doubt they will get on top of it but I think I will play it safe this time around.
Once the standard has gained traction with manufacturer's and content provider, they won't adopt a DRM that doesn't conform to the standard. It'd be suicide. Nobody will buy it.
Well, I would say if u have a high def tv, u should have a DVI input which can be used with a HDMI adapter. This will save u the hassle of upgrading rite off the bat. But if Bluray and HD-DVD have it there way, u might need a new tv altogether down the road. But it depends on the resulting war about to begin when Bluray hits the stores. As for Denon, I am a big fan. I own a Denon 3803. Lots of nice features, but no HDMI. No biggy, I wanna upgrade again in the next couple yrs. BUt check ur tv, if it has DVI, ur set isnt junk yet.
I suppose I can't really disagree. Anything is possible from the likes of Sony that have their feet in both electronics and media content and are letting the media arm push the electronics guys around. I'm just suggesting that it will be suicide for these guys to actually implement a digital DRM that isn't compabible with HDMI. What with all the problems they already have on their hand with the confusion between HD-DVD and Blue Ray. Who is going to buy their DVD's if they can't play it on their recently purchased hi-def player and the gargantuan LCD TV?