So since you have heard both which one would you recommend? I spoke to a guy local to me that owns a home theater sales and installation business. He says he has been in the business for over 40 years and pushes Marantz. When I mentioned Yamaha ne says that he lists that as an option for lower end receivers to his customers and says that Marantz is very high end. I'm kinda a newbie but my ears like Yamaha and that is all I've ever known. I'm not necessarily married to Yamaha.
My $2600 MSRP Yamaha CX-A5100 pre-pro sound every bit as awesome as my $7500 MSRP Denon AVP-A1HDCI pre-pro.
My $2200 MSRP Yamaha RX-A3080 AVR sound every bit as awesome as my $5,500 MSRP Denon AVR-5308 AVR.
It matters EXACTLY ZERO percent to me which brand it is -Yamaha, Marantz, Denon - they all can sound EQUALLY amazing.
As far as other people’s opinions, take them with a grain of salt.
The reason I now use Yamaha is because I believe personally Yamaha has better reliability. The Yamaha WiFi remote app is 100% better. I love Yamaha MusicCast. In my own experience Yamaha’s HDMI worked better with some older components (cable box, DTV receiver, etc.).
But they are EQUAL in sound quality.