Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Marantz or Yamaha

What a shame, Mike. I'm so sorry you had to go through that. Try to look on the bright side. You get to indulge one's natural propensity to upgrade by getting a nice new receiver. . Of course, there is that nice big hole your wallet.................

Hope the bad smell is the only damage to your home. Hang in.

It IS unfortunate, because I've been a big advocate of Marantz for a while now. The first time this happened, I was willing to think it was an anomaly. It was repaired under warranty, and at the time, my natural assumption (uh-oh...) was that Marantz would upgrade/repair any problems that may have been endemic to this particular model. Now (and understand that my opinion is deeply clouded at the moment) my tendency is to believe that their products are just junk. They're well-reviewed, they sound great, but the quality control is apparently lousy. I live in an apartment. I'm not hitting 100db and rattling the walls. The @#$% unit did its impression of a Vietnamese Buddhist monk while I was watching TV. And it really, really pisses me off.

Of course, the next natural concern should be, what about Denon? The 3805 is awfully appealing. Ian recommends them, and I know there are plenty of Denon owners on this board. But Denon and Marantz DID recently merge, and the 3805 hasn't been out long enough to have much of an established track record in terms of QC. Any thoughts? Any 3802 or 3803 owners have any horror stories to tell? Yamaha is the runner-up candidate now.

I'm sorry to read that, Mike. I've read many horror stories like this and it makes one wonder about the QC across the spectrum with electronic equipment. I'm running a Yamaha now. I've used HK, Technics, Pioneer and Yamaha products over the years and the only one that gave me problems was an HK receiver, which lasted a year and a day.

Two beers later...

My apologies to anyone I may have offended with the immolation joke.

Now, my first instinct is to shiver like a junkie and run downtown tomorrow and buy something just to keep myself from going into AV withdrawal. Someone talk me out of this, please. I need to take my time, do my research, and (only then) make an informed, semi-objective purchase. So, the budget is $1K, give or take. I'd like something I can keep for several years, and I'd prefer it was something that didn't occasionally make my house smell like a chemical fire. Tell me why I don't want to save $300 or more and buy an RX-V2400 instead of a Denon unit.

Mike,
If it helps at all I have had my Denon 3805 for a few weeks now and I have punished it to say the least. Loud music, many a movie etc. It has yet to be turned off since I got it (I don't turn any of my stuff off....ever) and it has been flawless. I'm not the only one I know who has the 3805 and nobody I talked to today has had any problems. I mean none at all.....as for talking you out of something new............here goes.................go get the 3805. How was that? lol

I just realized I called Alan "Ian". Sorry about that...