I'm going to return my recently purchased Marantz 1602 because I'm having trouble with it connecting to my NAS. It works great sometimes and won't connect at other times; other times it just takes a looong time to handshake.

In any case, my next two choices were the Denon 2312 or the Yamaha 671. Trouble is the Yamaha supports SACD, but does not support multi-point crossover settings. While the Denon is the opposite.

I'd like to be able to play SACDs. And since I have decent, but much less capable surround speakers than my mains I *think* I could use the multi-point surround setting feature. I say I think, because I really don't know enough to know whether that makes that big of a difference.

If it helps, I have an M22/V100 front, and some very old mini-Advents for surrounds.

Anyone have any opinions on this choice?

I'm sure the Denon supports SACDs somehow. At the very least, it should support it over HDMI.

If you're really interested in SACD you need to look out for a receiver that will natively decode DSD. Many will simply convert the DSD stream to PCM and then decode the stream as PCM. I'm not sure how up to date this list is, but there is a lot of info over a SA-CD.net:

There are two digital connections that can provide DSD input:
i.LINK with DSD is not a common feature (yet) but it’s available on various receivers, including Sony’s STR-DA9000ES, Pioneer’s VSX-59TXi and VSX-84TXSi, and Yamaha’s RX-Z9.

HDMI from version 1.2 up supports DSD but although several receivers are compatible with this HDMI version, so far few of them decode DSD. Models that do include Sony’s STR-DA5300ES (called TA-DA5300ES in Japan), Marantz SR60001, SR7001, SR8001, SR7002 and SR8002, Yamaha’s RX-V661, RX-V861, RX-V1700, RX-V2700, RX-V1800, RX-V3800 and RX-Z11 (DSP-AX661, DSP-AX761, DSP-AX861, DSP-AX1700, DSP-AX2700, DSP-AX1800, DSP-AX3800 and DSP-Z11 in some regions), Denon’s AVR-3808 and AVR-4308 and Onkyo’s TX-SR805, TX-SR875 and TX-NR905 receivers.

Ken, the manual I downloaded comess up blank for "SACS, "DSD", and "super audio". And Denon site has this "HDMI SACD Support -", (http://usa.denon.com/us/Product/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?pcatid=AVSolutions%28DenonNA%29&CatId=AVReceivers%28DenonNA%29&Pid=AVR2312CI%28DenonNA%29).

Andrew, thanks, an interesting site. So far, while I've learned a bunch, I can't seem to find a list of receivers that support SACD/DSD. (Other than that blurb from their FAQ; but that list is out of date as it doesn't include the Yammaha V671.)

As previously suggested, also consider the Onkyo 709 from A4L, in addition to the 2312.

It turns out that my DVD player can convert the DSD signal to LPCM, so I don't need the receiver to do it. On another forum (hometheaterforum), someone said that receivers are moving away from supporting DSD and depending on the DVD player to decode.

Now my problem is that being naive, I just realized that Denon and Marantz were made by the same core company, so I'm concerned that if the NAS connection was faltering with the Marantz, it will do the same thing with the Denon. So really the question becomes just how much will I need discrete crossover settings.

Thanks John, I was looking at a 609. But my last two receivers were Onkyo, and for no logical reason I just want to try another brand. Kind of like ... you meet a really great girl, but she's a blonde. And since your last two girlfriends were hot blondes you just would rather hold out for a brunette or redhead. Yeah, I'm not making any sense ...

Your last two girlfriends were really hot blondes?

You've been around here long enough to know that we like pictures!

Uh, yeah, that was more theoretical than applied.

But any such good fortune would have been long ago, pre the 23 years of marriage. And those pictures have been archived; back when removing pictures from the public domain was actually possible.