For a home theatre system, which is the higher quality receiver: Marantz, Harman Kardon,Bose or Denon?

Question

For a home theatre system, which is the higher quality receiver: Marantz, Harman Kardon,Bose or Denon?

Answer 1

Short answer:

Yamaha or Dennon - very good quality in all models. The RX-V models in the Yamaha are the higher end units.

Sony "ES" series or Pioneer Elite series - very good quality

Kenwood, Harmon Kardon - Good quality

Sony, Pioneer generic line - so so quality (they make a LOT of lower end units).

Bose - Mainly a speaker company and their 321 system does not let you hook too many things up like a AV Receiver will.

HOME THEATER vs MUSIC

There are a lot of good things we know about music reproduction. But music and Home Theater are different.

- Lots of watts are not needed for a HT system.

- A external, self powered sub is best for a HT system.

- Auto calibration of speaker levels is a nice feature

- HDMI Up-converting is a nice feature

- Lots of inputs is a nice feature

- Ability to assign jacks on the back to various inputs is a nice  feature

- Good On Screen Display (OSD) is a nice feature

These are not things people look at for an audiophile music receiver, but they are important for an AV receiver.

Answer 2

The one that sounds the best to your ears when listening to music. You cannot go by brand name.All Receivers degrade the audio ,because of a single power supply to power all three sections. The needs of the Power Amp. degrade the Pre-Amp. which is the heart of the system. The one that degrades the Pre-Amp. the least ,is the better Receiver.

EDIT....If music quality is not that important then take the advice of the other posters.

Answer 3

Go with Marantz or Denon. I beleive they are the same company now.

Answer 4

Any of the three besides Bose offer great products. I think Marantz is considered a higher end brand than the others though. I would compare the systems from the three that have the features you want and see which one offers most for the price.

Answer 5

According to these guys I will have to concur with them,  for some reason Harman Kardon, receivers have just seem to fly the coop.  I owned one for about a week and I wound up taking it back and just going with their DVD & CD-R units. I would definatly advise going with Marantz, or even a High End Onkyo, for that matter.  The Harman Kardon[s] seem to over heat and for some reason they don't carry a lot of power [wattage] per channel. so their you have it.