Always let your ears guide you. The problem that I find is that in order to audition products for high end audio you often have to go to several audio dealers. For example, I wanted to hear some Revel speakers and the closest dealer was 40 miles away. When I got there is choice of amps was limited to Levinson and Macintosh none of which I was interested in purchasing.

As for tone controls..I agree. Some audio purists tell you that you should never have tone controls on a high end system but I disagree and want them included. Marantz is indeed making some serious inroads into high end audio at great prices. Their $349 CD player is a great unit for the price and I could not imagine paying $5,000 for a CD player now.

Congrats, and your summary is very helpful and informative. I own the PM7001 (maybe the predecessor to the PM7003, but I'm not sure), which was recently discontinued, and I'm very pleased with it.

I've gotten to the point that I rarely use the tone controls anymore, but I like having them. The controls can sometimes be useful for identifying a noise (e.g., if I think I hear some intermittent rumbling, I can crank the bass up to see if I can hear what it is).

Congrats on finding the right equipment!

Count me as another happy Marantz integrated owner from that series.

Another thing about the dealer that some bargain hunters may overlook is that even though you paid 'retail,' you received a monetary benefit from the dealer's ability to stock the unit and save you from a more expensive purchase, even if you had gone online and gotten it at a discount!

I really like those Marantz units!

Family pic...Marantz front and center!

Gavin-

I'm glad to hear that you had a positive experience at the dealer. A great dealer can certainly add a lot of value to the purchasing experience.

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Count me as another happy Marantz integrated owner from that series.

Another thing about the dealer that some bargain hunters may overlook is that even though you paid 'retail,' you received a monetary benefit from the dealer's ability to stock the unit and save you from a more expensive purchase, even if you had gone online and gotten it at a discount!

I really like those Marantz units!

Family pic...Marantz front and center!

Who's the cute chick on the right "wearing" the cowboy hat!?!

Buddha, three words.

LCD

which marantz is that?

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Buddha, three words.

LCD

I KNEW something wasn't right!

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Buddha, three words.

LCD

which marantz is that?

PM7000

That NFS Audio...ya gotta watch out for that guy.

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That NFS Audio...ya gotta watch out for that guy.

Yep, that's the second time, IIRC he's asked about that babe!

RG

A dealer I went to in Dallas sadly carries such a limited number of brands that auditioning anything there aside from their top lines can be very frustrating. I didn't like any speaker and amp combos they had that were in my price range.