Best Receiver for music listening and HT surround

Onkyo 3009 all the way.

butter and jelly please.

Hello Mark, I hope all is going well with the new house? I'm an Onkyo fan as well as I have had my 808 for two years now and love it. Some have had problems with thiers but none here ( knock on wood ).

Since you have/ or will be invested in Sierra towers I would look into this.... www.harmankardon.com/EN-US/Products/Pages/ProductDetails.aspx?PID=AVR 3650. I have had no experiance with HK but a few friends highly reccomend HK esp. for music, just saying is all .

Don't waste your time with HK,its garbage! The Onkyo 3009 or Denon 4311 end of story! Plus on both of those you get Audyssey XT32 with Subeq HT. I have an Onkyo 805 now ,never had an issue for 7 yrs. My next receiver soon will be one of those 2..

You probably already made your decision, but if by some slim chance you haven't you need to know there is no best receiver, there are however worst. The Onkyo and the Denon are good but I think Marantz SR7007 offers more bang for almost the same amount of money. The Marantz offers the Audyssey XT32 with multeq XT. Subeq is for someone using multiple subs which very few people do, if you only have one sub then SubEQ is never activated. MultEQ XT measures the room acoustics to correct problems with the room. Marantz does not use the SubEQ. Marantz is more of a musical amp, it characterizes the human voice more naturally, it presents an accurate soundstage, it makes vinyl records sound wonderful; and video sound is explosive with dead silence where there needs to be. This is the quietest amp on the market for electronic noise, it also offers Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume low-volume listening and volume-leveling modes. The amp is rated at 125 watts per channel into two but it's a truer watts rating then other use because it uses current feedback technology (which is why it is so quiet) while all other amps use voltage feedback to control distortion and that method demands watts thus if a company claims 125 watts but uses voltage feedback your end watts is closer to about 25% less to drive the speakers with and in using voltage feedback you have more electronic floor noise.

Just another option for you to get crazy about...or is there another option, a lower costing option that people have ignored? What about the Cambridge Audio Azur 551R? It misses the fancy Audyssey stuff , it appeals more to the person who might get befuddled over all the doodads and computer whiz found on other receivers making it less complicated to operate. It has a natural sound to it making it surprisingly musical with a fantastic soundstage with a 3 dimensional illusion to it, movie dialog is clear but not as natural as the Marantz is but still very good.

More to think about.

Most of us know by now Marantz is basically Denon at higher price, hardly more bang, and Audyssey is either MultEQ XT or XT32, not XT32 with XT. The Marantz is MultEQ XT. Don't know about "the quietest amp on the market for electronic noise" but claims like this seems a bit exaggerated when S/N stated at 100dB doesn't look anything out of the ordinary.

To chime in as well - I've had issues with two separate Denon receivers previously. Are the Marantz, quality-wise about the same would you say?