Marantz has been making high-quality, high-end audio gear since the 1950s. Until their newest line of AV receivers, which includes the $799 SR5003 model, they have maintained the same overall appearance and feel for the entire brand.  The Marantz new line has dared to go beyond a 50-year-old proven look and the results are nothing but positive. The new Marantz look keeps a solid metal middle face, but adds smooth, rounded glass-reinforced resin edges to the sides, making the whole face more modern, while the clean and simple design keeps it all in line.  This receiver is one of the cheapest on the market to handle all the new audio codecs, including Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio, with its three-to-one HDMI 1.3a switching, sending all that uncompressed audio through seven 90-watts-per-channel amplifiers to make any home theater sing.

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While this would be considered by many to be a budget receiver, and likely one of the least expensive models to handle all the new codecs, it is still full of goodies, like Audyssey's MultiEQ room correction and calibration, as well as 1080p video scaling. The SR5003 includes an FM and AM tuner and is XM- and Sirius radio-ready, offering control via RS-232, DC trigger and IR flashers. A total of eight analog inputs and a single 7.1 channel input, as well as a host of analog video inputs for your older legacy gear, are there, too. Should you like to add more powerful amplifiers in the future, full 7.1-channel preamp outputs are also included.

Marantz is known for high-end audio sound and, even at this price point, their heritage shows, with smooth and detailed sound with enough power to handle small to moderate rooms, depending on the sensitivity of your speaker.  Add to that the ability to control a second zone and you've got one great deal in an AV receiver.