Has anyone heard anything about this new AV Receiver from Marantz?
I got this off the Marantz website.

How does Marantz amp perform with 4ohm speakers?

I think Its pricey, atleast the Denon 4308 comes with Wi-Fi.
This one is THX certified.

Digital Media Player for Ethernet
- Audio, Video and Photo (supporting DLNA)
Video Scaler Up to 1080p
HDMI V1.3a: 4-in/2-out
Dolby TrueHD, dts HD, Deep Color
DSD (SA-CD), Auto Lip Sync
XLR Pre Output Terminals
XLR Audio Inputs for SA-CD
Multi Room Component Video Out
RC2001 Main Remote(PC Programmable, Learning)
RC101 Sub Remote(for Multi Room Control, Learning)
HD Radio / XM Ready / Sirius Ready
THX Certified
Copper Plated Chassis
Toroidal Power Transformer
New Clean Front Panel
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That's a preamp/processor. You need a separate amplifier for your speakers.

You get XLR with this one the Denon doesn't, if you need that sort of connection.

As far as the 4 ohm I beleive Marantz usually works quite well and the THX certification IIRC means it is supposed to handle loads down to 3ohms and the amp to go with it is $2400

What does it DO that the Denon 3808 doesn't for $1,000 less?

Have balanced outputs?

can someone briefly explain for me what the benefit of balanced outputs is? obviously its high end stuff as no receiver I've ever physically seen has them, but what does is do for you? and how do you take advantage of it? does the amplifier have to have balanced inputs in order to use them on the pre/pro?

If you're using really, really long runs, the signal degradation is much less. That's about it. And yes, the amp would have to have balanced inputs to take advantage of it on the pre-amp. Certainly there are adapters, but you might as well just use the RCA outputs on the pre-amp if your amp doesn't have balanced inputs.

haha, thanks. I hadn't seen those until I started looking on these forums. also, are there usually times where the pre/pro and amplifier are far apart? I feel dumb asking, especially since with my Onkyo 605 I don't anticipate running into this problem ever, also with my speakers at most 10-15 ft. from my receiver I don't think that constitutes really long.

I can't think of any time when that is likely to be the case outside of some really, really custom installations.

perfect, thanks for the help. now back to the regularly scheduled thread...

Somebody scheduled a thread?

Am I missing something here? Why would you want to run a preamp with an Onkyo 605.

Funny!

I think the benefit of balanced XLR comes into play more with the subwoofer. It's still hard to have your subwoofer far enough way to warrant the connection, but now that I'm using XLR, my EP600 doesn't have the hum that it used to, so I'm happy.

well you know that 605 is a beast..