Marantz SR 4400 A/V Receiver

Author's product rating:   

How is the Sound Quality?	Excellent
Ease of Use	Simple
How is the Look & Design?	Excellent
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Looks great, sounds awesome, feels awesome
Disadvantages:	Detailed set up can be tricky  -  just as well it comes idiot proof !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Ok then, so I'm a lucky boy....

On my last birthday my wife decided that she wanted to treat me to a home cinema system so off we went to our local Richer Sounds store (they are VERY cheap and VERY helpful - recommended everyone pays them a visit!) with cash in hand an wangled a deal.

I got this Marantz A/V Receiver , A Yamaha surround sound speaker package and a Panasonic DVD recorder for the princly sum of £350 - a bit of a discount from the £900 RRP!

I'll be reviewing each product in turn so check out my other reviews if you want a full system checkup!

So into the review of the A/V Receiver:

1) The Theory

I wanted a reciever that not only looked good, but that also provided the output and poer to match. I've long been a fan of the Marantz range as they not only look and feel good to use, they also have the reputation for shear high end quality.

Unfortunately they were always well out of my price range!

2) The decision

I was presented with a choice of three receivers, all of which fitted my requirements for connections, features etc. They included a Sony, a Yamaha and this Marantz.

Well, I fell in love with this unit the moment I saw it - especially when the salesman explained that it has been the display model and so they were willing to reduce it to bring it into my budget - SOLD!

3) The machine in general

The unit is that standard DVD/Hi-Fi/VCR width of about 15 inches and is finished in a very nice looking brushed metal - it looks very sleek with the power on as well as off!
Here's a pic for you to drool over:
http://www.marantz.com/archive//e_sr4400_lrg.gif

On the front there's the main display hidden behind the black front panel. The display is VERY clear with 3 dimmer settings so you can make it as bright/dark as you want, and it's completely Dot Matrix - meaning that it can display pretty much anything in any order and anywhere on it!

Also along the front are a two very nicely sized and weighted knobs, one for the volume and one for the surround sound selection. As well as a number of buttons for the controlling of the radio tuner, input selection, menus, setup etc. All are well laid out and easy to use.

On the back is, well, lets be honest, a sill amount of connections! There's connections for 2 digital inputs, 2 scart socket, 6 phono inputs, 2 S video input, 1 record deck input, 7 speaker output, a sub woofer connection, you really can connect it to anything!

Check out this image to show you exactly how many inputs there are:
http://www.marantz.com/archive//e_sr4400_bck.gif

4) Features

As well as the obvious it comes with the following features:

- Dolby Digital 5.1 and 6.1 decoding
- DTS ES & THX decoding
- Dolby Digital EX, Pro Logic II, and circle surround decoding
- 80w per channel output (more than enough for the adveage front room - trust me, it's LOUD!!)
- Fully customisable sound set up - even into as much detail as how far away each speaker is from you so it can adjust the surround sound volume for you!
- Source Direct sound - allows for all encoding to be removed and the user to set up a purely unique sounding system
- Fully intergrated FM/AM radio with presets and RDS/EON
- Fully customisable remote control that LEARNS the controls from your other remotes - you throw all the others away, you only need the one remote to control your TV, DVD, freeview, Amp and all the other setups in your room!
- Easy set up. Pre-sets all speaker and sound levels according to the size of your room
- Detailed set up. You can change everything. And I do mean EVERYTHING! It took me over 2 hours to go through the full set up and play - although once I'd finished I went back to the easy set-up mode anyway as it sounded better!! Can you guess that I'm not an expert at these things?!

5) Conclusions

OK, so you might have got the impression that I love this unit... well you'd be right. It looks so good, sounds even better and, once you've spent about 3 hours playing with all the functions, (then, if you're like me, gone back and reverted to the easy set-up option) will make a massive difference to your home cinema.

I am truely impressed, and although you can get other units more volume you'd be hard pushed to beat this for the money.