Yamaha 420 or marantz 4200

[wassap]

Which one and why, i have found the marantz for £250 and the yamaha for £220, have a slight pref for the marantz as i already have a stereo amp from them already, but features etc which is better, really would like the marantz 5200 but its about a £100 outta my range!!! if anyone can point me to any reviews it would be great.

cheers

[MikeK]

Originally posted by wassap
Which one and why, i have found the marantz for £250 and the yamaha for £220, have a slight pref for the marantz as i already have a stereo amp from them already, but features etc which is better, really would like the marantz 5200 but its about a £100 outta my range!!! if anyone can point me to any reviews it would be great.

cheers

Well, probably the most obvious difference is that the Marantz sports ProLogic2 where the Yamaha doesn't.

At the price, perhaps the only missing feature worthy of note on the Marantz is the lack of a 5.1 analogue input, which means DVD-A and SACD are a no-no.
Of course, this is only of interest to those who plan to move to the new multichannel music format - but nevertheless, it's and odd decision by Marantz. IMO they would have been better to ditch the 5.0 pre-outs in favour of a 5.1 input (obviously the .1 pre-out is needed for connecting a sub), but there you go.

The SR4200 is a pretty solid buy IMO for £250, on the above proviso. If it had a 5.1 input, it would be pretty unstoppable at the budget end of the market - apart from the 5.1 input it's better specced than the more expensive Denon AVR1602, one of it's main rivals.

It depends on what you are going to be using it for as well though. The Kenwood KRF-X9050D is available at a similar price (thanks to big discounts) and comes with a higher feature count (THX select too) and more power - but while it's great for movies, it has a reputation of being a bit crude for CD playback.

[wassap]

Thanks for the info, looks like im gnna have to go for the marants sr5200. would really like to keep my options open for sacd and the like, plus i had a play with one at superfi, yesterday. it was awesome, but it is a £100 more!!! what is the stereo perfomance like on the marantz 4200 and yamaha 420, i currently have a marantz pm32, which i think is very good,

cheers for ur help