Need advise on the A/V receiver.

[Neal74]

My home theater setup: 7.2.4 with atmos speakers. Recievers I am thinking of are: Anthem(MRX 1120) or Pioneer(SC-LX901)or Marantz(SR7011) or Onkyo (TX-RZ3100) or Denon AVR-6300H
Which one is best and why?

 

[Halon451]

I was cautioned here as well as from a few others I spoke to that it's best to avoid the Pioneer Elite line these days. Since Onkyo bought out that product line, they just haven't been giving it the same love that Pioneer itself did when it still owned it. Just this past weekend I bought the Marantz SR6011 and I'm absolutely loving it so far. I demo'd AVR's from other brands at roughly the same price point (Denon, Yamaha Aventedge, etc.) and found that the Marantz offered the best all around package. I can only imagine that the 7011 is just that much better than the 6011. Though for a while it was a close tie with the Yamaha I demo'd. What sold me was the 11.2 pre-amp connections in addition to 9 available powered channels and a lot greater flexibility for expansion. Sonically, both were fairly similar but I gave the edge to the Marantz for its superior voice channel reproduction.

 

[PENG]

My home theater setup: 7.2.4 with atmos speakers. Recievers I am thinking of are: Anthem(MRX 1120) or Pioneer(SC-LX901)or Marantz(SR7011) or Onkyo (TX-RZ3100) or Denon AVR-6300H
Which one is best and why?

The Denon has a negligible edge in the amplifier section. If you need multi channel input the Marantz is probably your only choice but the Denon has Denon link that could be useful if you have Denon media players. The Anthem is marginally less powerful but apparently their ARC room EQ system is very good. The Pioneer has the best DAC in this group, but some people are skeptical about the class D amplification, though I think they should have worked all the bugs out by now.

Overall, I would rank the Marantz and Denon equal, followed by the Pioneer.

 

[Neal74]

Sorry, forgot to mention, I'm also looking for Zone 2 and Zone 3 options.

 

[PENG]

Sorry, forgot to mention, I'm also looking for Zone 2 and Zone 3 options.

At that price range you can be sure they all have zone2/3 capabilities.

 

[lovinthehd]

Sorry, forgot to mention, I'm also looking for Zone 2 and Zone 3 options.

Best to check the manuals for each in that regard to make sure they can do what you want in the main and other zones at the same time, or limitations on number of supported speakers in main vs zone, or digital vs analog requirements, etc....