Hi laher,
I don’t have specific experience with that NAD model, but I believe that it has been around for several years, and 7011 has also been around for about 3 years I think. I owned an NAD T770 AVR for 18 years (purchased in 2000) and it performed well and sounded good for Dolby Digital and 2 ch music.
A big difference between your choices looks to be that the 7011 is 9 channels, while 758 is 7 channels, so depending on how many surround channels you will power/decode, that could be important.
I’d expect the NAD to be more conservatively spec’d regarding amplification than Marantz -- that is, NAD claiming 110 wpc probably hits harder than Marantz claiming same, if you like to play loud or have to drive difficult speakers (I’m not sure whether your speakers are hard to drive, but if Klipsch probably not I’m guessing). NAD is 110 for 2 ch, and 60 for surround; Marantz is 110. Either probably okay for most everything.
I would expect the Marantz to have a warmer sound than the NAD. Several NAD amps that came after the 758 had the reputation in reviews for having a somewhat bright sound, but again I’m not sure if the amplification circuits in those amps are different than what is in the 758.
If I had to classify them as companies or brands, I’d say generally that Marantz is more focused on home theater than NAD is, and NAD is more focused on music than Marantz is, but that is a generalization. Meaning, a majority of Marantz’s product line seem to be focused on home theater (although they are getting more and more into 2 channel recently - prior to this summer they only had multichannel receivers and 2 ch integrated amps, but now they have more 2 ch offerings (see 7000n and a couple others I forget now). By contrast, most of NAD’s line is geared towards 2 ch music.
NAD uses BluOS as it’s streaming control service (NAD is a parent company of Bluesound), and BluOS is very good as well (my third system uses a Bluesound device). I’d call BluOS and Heos similar in effectiveness, although I think BluOS is probably more full featured and probably higher regarded within the industry, but that’s just a guess. For me they both work well. BluOS is arguably a leader in stream management though, so maybe they get the nod.
Hopefully that helps. I’d seek out 758 reviews and see if the sound is described as bright or forward, because if it is I’d be hesitant to pair with Klipsch. But if not, then probably a great choice (except that the model is pretty old, as mentioned previously).
Both appear to have some room correction. NAD has Dirac; Marantz has Audyssey. I think that Dirac is regarded better, but there are different versions of each so check that out.
It looks like the DAC chip used in 7011 is AK4458, which is same that I have in my SR5012. It’s a mid-level dac chip but I like the sound of it. The NAD appears to use a very old dac chip that I’m not familiar with. I’d give Marantz the edge on this point.
Bottom line, I think either would probably be pretty good. If it were my money, I’d go Marantz, but just barely.
