The SR in Marantz’s now-shipping SR8002 A/V receiver stand for surround receiver, but they might as well stand for sweet ride. Yeah, this thing’s kind of like a nice sports car to drive your entertainment system.

The $2,099 unit comes fully equipped with 125 watts x 7.1 channels, HDMI 1.3a repeating/switching (with four HDMI 1.3 inputs, two HDMI 1.3 outputs), and THX Select2 processing so you can go full throttle with lossless audio like Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio.

If you’re looking for musical variety, the receiver includes HD Radio and its HD2 and HD3 broadcast signals, plus the M-DAX (Dynamic Range Expander) will give your MP3 compressed music a little jolt in quality.

Along with the regular remote control, there’s also a simply designed one specifically for the second and third zones the SR8002 can support. There’s also MultEQ room correction and calibration technology from Audyssey Laboratories so your audio will sound sweet all around.

Arlen Schweiger - Editor of Electronic House Magazine

Arlen writes about home technology installations and product news and reviews for electronichouse.com and Electronic House magazine.