Marantz sr6300 or H/K 325?

[natronforever]

Hey everybody. I'm in serious "ready-to-buy" research mode for A/V receivers. I have narrowed my search down to the Marantz sr6300 and the H/K 325. Both seem like nice receivers. I good friend has the Marantz sr5300 and it sounds great. The problem with the Marantz, and my purpose for writing, is that it doesn't have bass management. You merely select large, small, or none for speakers. I understand the the crossover is set at 100 hz. The H/K 325 has a pretty extensive bass management feature. My main speakers, the polk audio rti-38 is for all practical purposes a full-range speaker which achieves somewhere near the 45 hz range. Nonetheless, I don't want to make them try to play beneath their range. However, I feel that a 100 hz crossover is a little high for my mains.

I plan on using my receiver for 70% music and 30% movies. I personally enjoy the musicality of the marantz, but doubt it's night-and-day different from the H/K. Any recommendations as to which receiver would be better for me? Am I misunderstanding anything about bass management? Is bass management all that important for me? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[poneal]

I've had the older model HK-320 for almost 3 years now and love it. The bass management on the 320 is good, but on the HK-325 it absolutely rocks. You can set each speaker differently (mains, center, surrounds, back) so you will not have any holes in the frequency range (make sure to read the errata sheet on the 325 bass management). The HK has everything that I need (preouts on all channels, level control, pink noise, microphone in remote, speaker size, and on and on). Put it this way, I still read the manual from time to time and learn something new every time -- it's that extensive of a manual. Also, while some manufacturers hype the wpc channel to 100+, HK tends to underrate their wpc. I had an integrated amp previously that was rated for 100wpc so I was concerned about the HK only put out 55 in HT and 65 in stereo. I can tell you that the HK performs better and louder than the integrated amp did. Also, since the 325 is being replaced by the 330, you should be able to find an excellent deal on them. My listening preference is about 50%HT and 50%Music and the HK plays both very well. So, in conclusion, I recommend the HK-325.