Marantz vs H/K vs Pioneer - opinions

Well I've narrowed it down to the following receivers: marantz 5500, H/K 435, and the pioneer 1015. I'm moving my old receiver (Denon avr 3200, one of the first units) to another part of the house and want to go 7.1 in my main area. I'd would appreciate anyone that has these receivers to comment on my findings so far. My main use for the receiver is for movies, some music, but mostly movies. My speakers are PSB IMAGE 4t with a Stratus subsonic 3i. So here is my thoughts:

Pioneer:
pros: 3 component inputs, Auto EQ, THXcessing(not that big of deal), cost ~420 shipped...
cons: limited digital inputs, no audio sync

Marantz:
Pros: audio sync, digital inputs, cost (refurb ~420)
Cons: 2 component inputs, it doesn't appear to allow you to apply DDIIx to 5.1 sources (this is my bigggest complaint since I want 7.1, I emailed marantz and they said it should, but I was unable to get it to do that during a listening session..bummer, if anyone has any info on this I would appreciate it)

H/K:
Pros: component inputs, digital inputs, Logic 7 processing, audio sync, autoEQ
Cons: cost:~580shipped


If cost wasn't an issue then the H/K appears to have it all, with the pioneer second, and marantz third. Now most will say go and listen to them, but that is almost impossible when H/K is carried at Circuit city and pioneer at Best buy, not good listening stores.

So my final question is the H/K worth the extra $160...any thoughts would be appreciated.

I've messed around with the Marantz and the Pioneer, havent seen the Harmon, but for the money right now I dont think you can go wrong with the Pioneer, I know I'm kind of biased since it's what I'm going to buy, just havent been a fan of Harmon. The features and specs of the Pioneer blow away everything else in its price class. For me its hands down the 1015tx, just curious, where did you find it for 420 shipped?

Spiffyfast said:

For me its hands down the 1015tx, just curious, where did you find it for 420 shipped?

Click to expand...

abtelectronics, website is abtelectronics.com, have to talk to someone on the phone, that is their sales price supposedly on the floor, talked to them last night. JR.com has them for 429 shipped, abtelectronics is located in chicago where they have retail stores.

bishoptf said:

abtelectronics, website is abtelectronics.com, have to talk to someone on the phone, that is their sales price supposedly on the floor, talked to them last night. JR.com has them for 429 shipped, abtelectronics is located in chicago where they have retail stores.

Click to expand...

.....and welcome to Audioholics, BishopTF....are you anywhere close to the St Louis Airport?....or Grant's Farm?.....

If you're looking for long-term use here, I'd probably go with the H/K unit. Only because it has the features and abilities you'd need from a surround processor, the only draw back is the power.

BUT, since it does have 7.1 pre-out's, you'll be able to upgrade this in the future without throwing the H/K out, which is a good thing. So down the road you can buy a Rotel or Emotiva 7-channel amp to push a monster system.

The 5500 will easily sound better than the 1015, though they may be fairly similar in terms of power (don't let the rating fool you). Same with the H/K, these receivers probably put out about the same amount of real-world power.

5500 has 7.1 pre-outs too.

PLIIx is INTENDED to create 7.1 from 5.1 formats, so it should work fine.

There's no such thing as 7.1, only 6.1. 7.1 is techincally the same thing, just with two rear centers, though PLIIx does send slightly different signals based on the side the speaker is on.

j_garcia said:

The 5500 will easily sound better than the 1015, though they may be fairly similar in terms of power (don't let the rating fool you). Same with the H/K, these receivers probably put out about the same amount of real-world power.

Click to expand...

For 7 channel driven, yes. 5 channel driven, may be. For 1 and 2 channel, most likely the Pioneer will win by a wide margin. I have not listened to the Pioneer, but for that price it seems hard to beat. Assuming it is in fact a rebadged Elite 52TX

A buddy of mine picked up a 1014 and said it was highly overrated in the power department, even in 2ch. Which would lead me to believe that it isn't going to win by a wide margin, as the 2ch power of the Marantz and H/K is more realistic, and representative of actual output. Of the three, I would expect the H/K to be the most likely to deliver it's more honest, conservative rated output. The fact is, it's actually probably the othe way around, the 52tx is a rebadged 1015... I've compared previous entry level Elites and can't say that I was impressed either. Power isn't everything, though the 1015 has a host of features, soundwise, I'd take the H/K or Marantz over it. You should really go listen to each of them if possible, because they will each have a sound of their own.

Takeereasy said:

The lack of pre outs is a concern but that is missing on just about every entry level receiver I can think of.

Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong but I've looked at the pioneer and it has pre outs for 7.1. The only thing that I think is lacking is audio sync, and I wish it had more digital inputs. I finally had a chance to listen to an elite 52tx and a yamaha 1500 today at a descent store. With two channel music the yamaha had much better bass..but the comparable unit I could get (5890) is almost $200 more than the pio . I can find them for ~520 but not from an autorized online dealer...so far it looks like I'm going to get the 1015...

You are absolutely correct bishoptf. I don't know where my brain was there. I deleted my post so I wouldn't confuse anyone looking for accurate info on that unit. I guess I may have been thinking of the 815 that's been talked about a lot on the site lately, but anyway, you are correct. I make no excuses, I was wrong, take a picture why don't ya. LOL, I'm teasing. I would still suggest the Pioneer unit as the budget leader. Awesome list of features and pretty powerful. One thing that did bug me was that Pioneer Skewed the power ratings on the 1015, but left them alone on the 9100. I don't know what unit I'd pick between the 9100 and the 1015. The 1015 has THX select II which is nice to have, but the 9100 has some things going for it as well. If I lived in the US I'd be at best buy looking at the two in person. Can someone from the states do me a favor and stop by BB and lift up the 1015 and the 9100 and tell me if one is heavier? That will answer a lot of questions for me.

I don't think many of the BB's stock the 9100 or 9300.

Come on. There has to be one store with both in stock. Do this for me someone. This is important for me now. Don't make me drive to the States. The water tastes funny and all the kids are ugly and rude . (totally kidding, I'm half yankie and the water tastes fine)

Actually I'm going to the Walden Galleria in Buffalo next weekend so my GF can go to Victoria's Secret. That's going to be a gooooooood weekend .

Takeereasy said:

Can someone from the states do me a favor and stop by BB and lift up the 1015 and the 9100 and tell me if one is heavier? That will answer a lot of questions for me.

Click to expand...

Might want to read this thread Pioneer VSX-9100tx receiver specs and advice , towards the end I think the finally settle what the differences are between the two...

The post by rumble seems pretty conclusive. Seems like the 9100 is close to a 1014. I still want someone to go into a best buy and lift up both receivers for me and tell be for sure which one is heavier.

Takeereasy said:

The post by rumble seems pretty conclusive. Seems like the 9100 is close to a 1014. I still want someone to go into a best buy and lift up both receivers for me and tell be for sure which one is heavier.

Click to expand...

The normal best buy audio departments dont have the 9100 or the 9300 in stock, only the Magnolia Audio depts will have them in the store, I just bought my 1015tx yesterday, and I can tell you its frickin heavy, if I can find the scale in our house I'll weigh it tonight, just know its about 3 times as heavy as my old sony and about twice the size its a beast for a $500 dollar receiver

Spiffy,
Did you go order online or pick it up in store? Got it hooked up to anything yet?

Edit: Just to give some perspective that 1015 is $700 CAD at BB in Canada right now. That would be like you guys paying $560 US, then having to pay 15% tax to bring it up to $644 US. Oh yeah, and we have no authorized online retailers, and the ones that will ship to us void our warranties for Pioneer products. You guys in the States that are picking these up are really getting a deal, you lucky so and sos.

Best Buy has a price matching policy with authorized retailers, usually it doesnt include online retailers, but they worked with me www.jr.com is selling the 1015tx for 429.99 shipped, but they told me I probably wouldn't have it at my house until about 2 weeks from now. So I went to Best Buy and told them, this is the price I can get it somewhere else, shipping included. They wouldnt sell it at 430, said they would lose money, I find this unlikely, but they would sell it for 450, so after taxes it was like $478 and change, they threw in free Best Buy Rewards, so every $150 I spend there I get a $5 credit onto my account for future purchases, so I really only will end up spending $463, so I could have saved a little bit of money, but I'm impatient plus I like the fact that I have a store really close to take it back to if anything should go wrong, knock on wood.

I have it all hooked up, blows my old receiver out of the water, as it should, I can definately tell a difference in the sound quality, in fact its so much of a difference that I can actually tell a difference in sound from my sony speakers from my old 5.1 setup and the yamaha bookshelves I added as mains to make it a 7.1 system. With my old receiver the Yammy's were my mains for the last 2 weeks and I think there was so much distortion with the old receiver they all sounded the same. Now I HAVE to get at least a matching front 3 setup soon.

Spiffyfast said:

Best Buy has a price matching policy with authorized retailers, usually it doesnt include online retailers, but they worked with me www.jr.com is selling the 1015tx for 429.99 shipped, but they told me I probably wouldn't have it at my house until about 2 weeks from now.

Click to expand...

Last time I talked to JR (which was last week), they were in stock, are they not in stock now? When did you talk to them...

bishoptf said:

Last time I talked to JR (which was last week), they were in stock, are they not in stock now? When did you talk to them...

Click to expand...

Yesterday, they said it was in stock, but it might take two weeks to get it to me in MO.

Spiffyfast said:

I have it all hooked up, blows my old receiver out of the water, as it should, I can definately tell a difference in the sound quality, in fact its so much of a difference that I can actually tell a difference in sound from my sony speakers from my old 5.1 setup and the yamaha bookshelves I added as mains to make it a 7.1 system. With my old receiver the Yammy's were my mains for the last 2 weeks and I think there was so much distortion with the old receiver they all sounded the same. Now I HAVE to get at least a matching front 3 setup soon.

Click to expand...

It's pretty amazing what a good receiver can do, don't you think?
But you're absolutely right. A: I love my 1015 as well and B: Yes- Your front three are the most critical part of any home theater!

Fronts- KEF Q75
Center- KEF Q100C
Rears- DCM TF-400
Sub- Mirage FRx-10