Marantz has made quality its number one priority for the last 55 years and while other manufacturers have often scrambled to be first to market with the latest, greatest features, the company has remained quietly patient, waiting out the inevitable bugs and limitations of brand-new technologies. The company’s patience resulted to a legacy of remarkably well-made, solid products that have a way of performing flawlessly for years and years. Marantz now offers a suite of state-of-the-art receivers that have been designed complementing the latest audio decoders and video processing with their legendary high-end sound.

The Marantz SR6004 has four noticeable HDMI 1.3 inputs and two HDMI outputs along with plenty of component video and composite inputs. However, there is only one S-Video connection on the front panel which is omitted from the bay on the back of the receiver to reduce clutter and increase ease of setup. The SR6004 upscale all video sources to 1080p and output it via one of the two HDMI connections using on-board video processing from i-chips. It can also output a component video signal synched with the second zone audio output.

It offers all the latest audio decoders including Pro-Logic IIz for “height speakers” adding to the vertical surround field for more realistic effects. The company even included their proprietary M-DAX processor to restore high frequencies to compressed music for significantly better sound from iPod or iPhone. Other features include a Bluetooth wireless receiver, a USB, XM/Sirius radio capability and an Infrared receiver.

The Marantz SR6004 sells for $1249.99, a tremendous value by offering uncompromised sound, incredible connectivity and an intuitive user interface in a very attractive package.