The January issue of Sound & Vision has a review of the new Marantz 5400 receiver. Very good review and outstanding test results for power and noise. Output at clipping with 1 channel driven at 8 ohms is 171 watts and 5 channel is 103. Great ratings for a unit billed as 90x6. This is the kind of honest ratings we should all come to expect from everyone. The reviewer also has some interesting things to say about dsp modes and their usefulness or lack thereof. Interesting reading.
curious...i have had others tell me the power in marantz was suspect. i'm looking at the 4400 and the 5400 anyway as i'm not as impressed with the yamaha or denon that was suggested instead, and wondering if you know what the differences between them are and if they are significant. thanks in advance.
The power supplies in the Marantz x200 series were rather poor but starting with the x300 series that has been corrected. I don't know what model Denon or Yamaha you are thinking of but in general the Marantz receivers are much mellow and smoother sounding while IMO the Denon and Yamaha's are on the bright side. I had a Denon 3803 and it was the brightest receiver I have ever owned, maybe ever heard. The vocal sibilance was overwhelming and drove me nuts. Before that I had a Denon 2802 and it didn't have the sibilance problem at all. Marantz and Denon are both built very well and have good multichannel power specs while that's the one area that Yamaha's are very poor on. The most important thing to me is to match your speakers and receiver properly. A bright receiver with bright speakers is a bad way to go just as a mellow receiver and speakers can also be less than ideal.[although not as bad as too bright]. Let your ears be your guide as we all hear differently.