kertong,
It is possible that the Marantz unit was made with a bit of a bass boost to it. Such a thought should not be surprising either. If ppl tend to prefer the 'feel' sound of music, then in having receiver in a store that adds to this, even subtly, could help sell their unit.
I believe this idea to be akin to the motherboard makers and their clock speeds. Sure you can setup an Athlon cpu at a 133 mhz bus (just throwing out numbers here) on any motherboard, but when comparing two brands head to head, BrandX clocks in at 133.9 mhz while BrandY comes in exactly at 133.0mhz. Once you toss in a multiplier, let's say 12x, who's motherboard will post higher benchmarks and hence get the better reviews and sell more boards yet still be marketed as a simple 133 mhz bus board?
It is just a thought.
