Any major/noticeable differences for receiver from $500 and up?

[m500]

Any major/noticeable differences for receiver from $500 and up? Is it really worth the investment to get a $1200 receiver? I been listening to several receiver ranging from $500 retail to $6000 retail and I don't really hear too much of difference is the quality of the music except more features on controls, safety, gold plating everything, gold circuitry, and more power to each channels. Please advise, thank you.

[RGA]

No there isn't generally a lot of difference across recievers at least not for two channel audio -- better receivers can offer a noticeable improvement - sometimes a LOT for home theater and have much more functioanlity - I suspect most use the same preamp section across their entire lines and beef up the power amps but beef up still isn't necessarily too beefy.

Some more expensive receivers may have better noise floors - you also have to be careful where you're comparing -- there won;t be big if any noticeable frequency response changes -- amplifier differences are far more subtle than speaker differences -- subtle takes longer to detect often times.

At the end of the day if you don;t hear the difference then save money and buy the cheapedt one you can find with the features and warranty you like best.

[m500]

Thanks for the good response RGA. It makes me feel better about my decision to go with my Yamaha RX-V650. Marantz SR8400 was my orginal choice but some how I find Yamaha sounds more suitable to my taste and can't justify the 3 times more expensive price tag except for bragging rights.

[RGA]

I own the marantz 4300 --- Why I chose it was because in Canada it has the longest warranty of all receivers, and upgrade jacks so you could add on a power amp -- it was the only reciever for that price with that feature -- a dedicated power amp can make a big difference -- so for me that was a must have feature. Going from the 4300 to their top of the line given the price difference makes no sense -- well except for the superior sound modes - but how superior is it and who really cares - not me. Chances are I would do far better with the 4300 and say adding a Bryston amp than I would be buying whatever the top Marantz is.

Make sure that Yammie has the jacks -- you may never upgrade buyt if you decide to you can -- otherwise you'll have to sell the receiver -- and receivers after about 5 years are worthless. The top of the Line Sony ES receiver a few years ago that was selling for $5k was at my dealer for $230.00 and that was the asking price...and it shall site there for a long time --- as an amplifier receivers are not to great and as surround sound devices they are fast out of date. Not unlike computers. Plus the build is far sketchier so not as safe used buys.