You've had the Marantz for 3 days, how about leaving it running for 200-400 hours on every playback side [cd for 300, sacd for 300, dvda for 300hrs, etc] before you pass judgement, then try new interconnects and power cords/conditioners and isolation devices [a bicycle intertube worked for me, never rest this player flat on a wood/mdf shelf]. Speaking psychoacoustically, I suspect that you've simply become accustomed to your NADs sound and refer to it as neutral, as it's what you're simply used to hearing, yet the Marantz in fact is both more natural and neutral in reality you're missing your old, colored sound. I've heard the NAD and the Marantz, I can't imagine anyone missing anything from the NAD after hearing the Marantz, at least in my experience, though your ears and your system is what's most important to you....Another thought, the more honest Marantz source may simply be exposing weakness elsewhere in your system that the NAD couldn't reveal or simply covered up with its faults. Not that the Marantz is perfect or competitive with 10k front ends, but it's quite good and more then competitive at its price point and a little beyond.
