Looking at a couple receivers. I’m not a huge audiophile or anything, but have some functional things I’m looking for (Zone 2, phono, network control, Bluetooth transmission would be nice). I tend to hang on to this stuff for a while, so 8K would be nice so I don’t need to buy a receiver if/when the day comes that I get a new TV (Sharp 1080p sorta-smart TV still going strong 12 years in!)

Anyway, I’m down to two receivers:

• Denon AVR-X1700H (new at Costco)
• Marantz NR1711 (used on Facebook, includes some nice speakers I could probably resell if needed)

On paper, the Denon has a little more power and a few more 8k HDMI ports but otherwise similar. Since they’re both run by the same company behind the scenes, I suspect most components inside are identical.

In practice, I know the Marantz is supposed to be the better brand… but it seems conceivable that a lower-end slimline, slightly older Marantz could probably be beaten by a midrange Denon, yeah?

For what it’s worth, this is replacing an Onkyo TX-NR709 I’ve had for about 14 years. It’s been a workhorse but I really want proper Zone 2 functionality and it’s been giving me troubles there (no HDMI sources work, even with the “source” mode)