the marantz sound...mid-fi avrs...vs Denon....

I had a Marantz THX certified AVR (forget the number, bought new in late 2000) before it fried the motherboard a bit out of warranty. There were no replacement parts available and seeing as I'd had the Marantz DVD player die shortly before receiver did, I was done w/Marantz.

I replaced it with a Rotel (1056) AVR and could not be happier. The Rotel lacks some of the features that the Marantz had, but I feel that the Rotel has a slightly warmer sound to it (which was what I wanted).

Speakers are B&W LCR6 R, L, and C up front and B&W in-ceiling surrounds. I have two velodyne SPL-10s taking care of the low stuff.

Since 2002, Denon and Marantz have been jointly owned by D&M. According to the company the research and development and production of the two brands are combined, while the brands maintain speparate marketing and distribution. Effectively, it seems like Denon- and Marantz-branded products are built in the same factory to the same spec and ought to be essentially identical.

D&M holdings also own McIntosh....... I would strongly disagree about Marantrz and Denon receivers sounding the same having owned several in the past few years of each, but YMMV.

mcintosh is maintained as a free-standing operation by d&m and, according to it, its products are still made in new york, unlike the asian-made marantz and denon. i haven't compared similarly-positioned denon and marantz avrs, though i can certainly accept that the manufacturer maintains some sonic differences between the two.