Marantz SR5003 Audio Video Receiver Review

I bought this Marantz receiver on sale from OneCall, which I've purchased from before and had very good experiences. It's in a secondary system with a universal DVD/SACD player (connected via HDMI) and a recent addition of a Logitech Squeezebox, and also an external amp driving a biamped set of speakers. It replaced an analog 2 channel preamp because I decided to add a display and needed HDMI switching. I also needed something with the 12 volt DC trigger output to turn on the external amp, which not many receivers have. This is not a very common feature in this price range, and it took me quite a while to find a receiver under $1K which met that along with having a few other must have features. The fact that Marantz has a reputation for giving attention to refining the sound quality of their products helped.

I've been very happy with it from a feature standpoint as well as performance. The looks are pretty nice, too. The one operational nitpick I've had is that the menu interface could be a little better, and the setting of the 12v trigger to turn on the external amp is off by default - and the option to change that is buried fairly deep in the menus.

The remote is not a favorite of mine. I especially dislike that switching inputs on the receiver also switches what component the remote controls - you have to press the "Amp" button to control the receiver again. (I.e. if you are listening to a CD and then switch to Aux1, the remote also sets itself to control Aux1 instead of the receiver, even if you don't have anything actually set to be controlled as Aux1.) I use a Logitech Harmony 670 universal so it's not a big deal.

Overall, despite a few minor ergonomic nitpicks, the Marantz SR5003 is a very nicely made and specced AVR.


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