AV receivers · owner-verdict comparison

Marantz Cinema 50 vs Sony STR-AN1000: what real owners say

Real owners rate these about evenly: 66% of 80 Marantz Cinema 50 owners recommend it, vs 65% of 79 for the Sony STR-AN1000.

Verdicts aggregated from Reddit, enthusiast forums, and YouTube owner comments — affiliate reviews excluded. Sample sizes differ; judge accordingly. How we score

Marantz Cinema 50

66%of 80 owners recommend
66% recommend · 8% neutral · 26% don't
Owners praise
  • Sounds fantastic; noticeable upgrade in clarity and soundstage over previous receivers
  • Tons of clean power, drives demanding speakers with ease
  • Dirac Live upgrade dramatically improves room correction over Audyssey
Owners complain about
  • HDMI eARC/CEC handshake bugs, dropouts and garbled Atmos with some TVs
Full owner report →

Sony STR-AN1000

65%of 79 owners recommend
65% recommend · 7% neutral · 28% don't
Owners praise
  • Excellent sound quality, often beating pricier rival receivers
  • Impressive, immersive 360 Spatial Sound Mapping
  • Plenty of power and volume to fill a room
Owners complain about
  • Buggy, glitchy firmware that randomly powers on or reboots
  • Hiss, crackling and pops from the speakers
  • eARC, HDMI passthrough and A/V sync problems
Full owner report →

What Marantz Cinema 50 owners say

“I tried Dirac on my Marantz Cinema 50 for the first time this weekend. The improvement over Audyssey Multi EQ was dramatic. Detail and clarity have improved to the extent that I would expect from whole new speakers.”
— captscience on Reddit
“The Cinema 50 is definitely not plastic. I have it and also it says on their website spec sheet that it is metal. It is solid and gorgeous especially in silver.”
— @Thebigblackwasp on YouTube
“It's been the case since day one, only works if eARC is disabled but you lose Atmos -.- really unprofessional and very unhappy so far.”
— pressslav on Reddit

What Sony STR-AN1000 owners say

“Finally, been waiting ages for this”
— @ammankalyan7460 on YouTube
“I have never been more excited for the average consumer”
— @matthewwilson110 on YouTube
“The an1000 has a well documented problem with hiss and crackling with streaming. I experienced this first hand with my unit using airplay even with repeated unit resets. Returned to Best Buy for a similarly priced Yamaha Rx V6A and no problems at all with streaming”
— Odd-Complaint-5291 on Reddit