Deciding between Yamaha or Marantz


Hello everyone, I need to get a new Pre and trying to decide between the Marantz AV8801 or the Yamaha CX-A5000. The Marantz is about a $1k more, is it worth it? Speakers are SF Liutos, Mac MC205 for power, thanks in advance.
kalbi23
The roomcorrection from Yamaha is very easy in use. Audyssey has no room for errors. The system from yamaha is more forgiving. This year Yamaha was beside our room. They showed me a demo.
I have not had problems with the room correction in either the Marantz or the Yamaha and, yes, the Yamaha will handle two independant subs.
This is an old thread but it showed up in a Google search and others may ask the so same questions... I don't understand why u all hype up onkyo, I've owned the 801, the 805 then the high end pre pro 9nkyo pr-sc5509... I've owned an audio research sp16 tube pre a bat 51 tube pre amp, mcintosh, muse, adcom... I find the onkyo only sounds listenable when in pure audio mode which bypasses all crossover settings and the audyssy. I find the unit unlistenable in any other setting from an audiophile perspective, I should note I'm running a Rega Apollo cd player with aucistic zdn analog rca...

That being said any audiophile pre amp still crushes the onkyo in 2ch music, I started running my cd player into the multi ch inputs and assigned those to the cd player input, that was a marked improvement fyi.

So the fact that even a budget $450 adcom pre amp crushes the onkyo in 2ch, instead of adding more cables and components I've decided to buy a yamaha cx-a5000. My buddy owns a $1500 yamaha receiver that crushes my onkyo with my proceed amp 5 with synergistic research XLR cables,

I will update this when I get yamaha, fyi I think onkyo crushes marantz
Easy answer ..simply email this question to several of the highly regarded well know AV magazine reviewers out there, who regularly review AV gear, and let them tell you what they would chose! Then go with that
. Why dink around if you can't A/B them in your own home otherwise? Makes more sense