I have heard the Marantz SR 7500 and NAD T 743 at a local dealer with PSB T65/55/B25's and some Triangles. To me, in his room there was very little difference, meaning I liked both or did not dislike any. I am too new to components and this would be my first system.

Any comments on the 2 brands/specific models? Denon 2805/3805 are highly recommended in these forums.

When I was reciever shopping, I compared specs online, and found that H/K offered more bang for the buck than Marantz or NAD (or Denon, for that matter). But that's just me, and that was also a couple of years ago.

I have the Marantz 7500 paired with M60s and I am very happy with this receiver's quality. It does everything that I could want and the sound is amazing. Personally, the Denon sound just wasn't for me. The other contender at the time was Yamaha (2500) because of it's equivalent features, but I found that the Yamaha/Axiom combo was a bit bright for me. So, I trusted my instincts and went with the Marantz, which has been well worth it. Pairing this receiver w/ the clarity of my Axioms, I now truly hear the music and not the receiver's coloring of the music.

Good Luck

Personally, I don't think you can go wrong with most of the high end receivers you hear about on these boards. When I was looking I had it narrowed down to the Pioneer Elite 54tx, Yamaha 1400, and Denon 2805. I ended up going with the Denon 2805 after talking to many members on this board, as well as Brent and Joe at Axiom.

If possible try to audition some Axioms in your area. Also, if you can find a high end AV dealer that has HT type rooms set up where you can listen to various receivers. I try to stay away from the retail chain rooms, as they will not give you the same results. Also, don't buy in to much on all the bright/warm/etc... talk on various receiver/speaker combinations. What Joe Blow hears won't be what you will hear

Good luck on your decision, oh and I almost forgot, I love my Denon/Axiom combination, very detailed and accurate and true sounding.

Randy

m60's vp150 ep350 4-Qs8's
Denon 2805
Sanyo Z2 Projector
Samsung HD reciever
Toshiba DVD

Pardon me but how can you call yamaha, denon, jvc high end gear?!!! How about Rotel? they are definitely much better than mass market Yamahas and panasonics and so on, and are called only entry-level to high-end gear!!!

I see you're going to fit in well around here.

When i was auditioning the B&W 603 i think with the Denon 2105 and the Marantz 5500, the Denon sounded brighter and the Marantz were warmer. I found that the Marantz produced vocals a tinnnie weenie better than Denon but thats my ears from listen to F-16s fly everyday. I personally am trying to obtain a Marantz 8400. Basically if you don't get your receiver from Best Buy or Circuit City (not sure if those are in canada or not, i'm an american hehe) you should be good.

TN, it really doesn't matter what they're "called". We shouldn't take labels such as "mass market" or "high end" to mean more than price level. If within its power output capability the amp is audibly flat 20- 20Khz and has inaudibly low noise and distortion(which these days is all available at quite low cost)then the sound is amplified transparently and isn't improved by spending more money. When name plates and pricetags disappear in blind listening tests, so do sound differences.

devil's advocate here, John, but an interesting experiment would be to determine whether the sound differences re-appear when the name plates re-appear.

ok, I just want to confirm something.

Bright sounding means what??

Warm means what???

I've seen this mentioned on different forums, and I see the terms used differently.

For a definition of most terms used by audioenthusiasts to describe sound go here . This is another good article by Alan to judge speaker quality by.

Cheers - Paul

Not sure the exact def or wording but from my experience when i say bright, i think of the treble being a little higher and clearer. Sometimes listening to higher treble can be fatiguing.

Warm to me means more even sounding, no one aspect of the sound stands out. Ok so i don't really know how to explain warm.

One person said it to me, if you go to an underground club that plays trance and techno, the sound is bright because the music makes use of a lot of treble/higher pitches. In an opera or classical music place, the sound is more finesse or calming. I dunno, that made sense to me. Its like comparing Sarah Brightman to Kylie Minogue.

Sorry if i absolutely made no sense.

that's actually how I have always understood it. Just making sure

Pardon me, but I guess I don't seem to recall mentioning JVC or Panasonic in my post. If you recall I mentioned that you can't go wrong using any of the higher end equipment many of the users on this post own. Not everyone is into seperates, and there is nothing wrong with Denon, HK, Elite, Onkyo, or Yamaha. Sorry but I don't plan to jump on the Rotel bandwagon anytime soon, I'd rather spend my money on a kick a$$ projector.