Hello sprfrank,
Thanks for your reply. I'm seriously considering purchasing the marantz now, together with the 5.1 speaker set from Canton (movie 150QX). Do you think they will be suitable? About your 'darker images' issue. Have you tried changing the AV-settings in your PS3. There are some tuning-possibilities, like the RGB limited or full range, the super white, etc... Maybe tweaking them will approve you on screen details. Personnaly, I do not think that the image quality changes when passed through by the AV-receiver, and normaly there would be no signal quality loss due to the cable (HDMI-), unless its more than 10 m of lenght.
Another thing, because I own also a panasonic plasma screen (TH42PV700), do you use the same HDMI input with the AV-receiver as when you input your PS3 directly to the TV? For instance when connecting the PS3 to TV: HDMI 1 and when you use the AV-receiver in between: HDMI 2. In the beginning you changed the screen setting on your plasma with the PS3 hooked up for the best picture, not? The TV remembers that, but the other HDMI inputs are still on default setting, so when you connect the AV-receiver to another HDMI input, you should change the setting on the TV again. Maybe I'm fishing, but that could account for the less clear picture???
Thanks again and kind regards