Rock doesn't sound right

It could well be the quality of the recording that's making ya bite ya lip....i have some purple and to be honest it sounds pants compared to newer recordings.

Firstly, I wouldn't put my money on cables. Very little gains to be had there IME. 

From experience I would say that the previous poster is right that there is much difference in quality between recordings and that hard rock would likely be fun and good enough, rather than purity and sky high quality. However, at this price point I'd estimate this shouldn't really show up that badly with your system.

Which leaves me with the hardware; cd amp speakers. A quick google search on your amp , the Yamaha RX V467, reveales that it is a home cinema amp. My first guess would be that changing the av amp for a stereo amp would give better results. 

Second option would be that the marantz player might be better suited to other genres. I've owned 2 cd player marantzes in the past and loved them for the slightly mellow sound and musicality. Still also played the odd AC\DC IIRC, so in short I would think trying out a different amp on home demo would be my first action to take.

Changing the amp would just mean adding another one. I kinda use this receiver for playing movies as well. This amp has a pre-out but thats for turning it from 5:1 to 7:1. I am not quite sure whether this pre-out can be used to connect it to a stereo amp which can power the front speakers. How do i find that out?

I'm afraid I dont know the answer to that. Others may know...

its the speakers.no good.

I have some Deep Purple on vinyl. Sounds fine to me. With a vintagey sound to the production.

My 2c:

Check speaker placement and recalibrate the AVR then, Also, the recordings matter a whole lot, try playing Dire Straits, Dave Matthews which typically have had decent recordings to get a feel for where your system is weak. I've found that you'll need a decent stereo system / cd to get the most out of old classic recordings.

If you're into stereo , i'd recommend a stereo setup and keeping the AVR seperate.

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Cyrus CD8X, Mono X200, PreX (All with PSX-R) & Sonus Faber (Grand Piano Speakers)

Yes, you can use the additional amps in an AV amp to bi-amp your stereo speakes.  It's a nice cost effective way to do and minimise the hardware count if that's an issue.  

One question. Have you tried playing your rock music using "Direct Mode" on the amp? This is designed to stop the av system re-processing the sound, and is better for stereo music. Only the front pair will be driven - but as you have a pair of floorstanders, this should be OK.

It's probably just the quality of the recordings. The sound quality of the Deep Purple songs that I own are very dull indeed. The recording quality of Black Sabbath is a bit better but even this sounds quite dull IMO.

If you want to upgrade your system I advise that you listen to some new speakers first as these are likely to make the biggest difference to the sound. The Yamaha RX-V467 is a perfectly good amplifier/receiver so won't need to be changed if you're on a tight budget.

Your cables are probably fine too if you bought some basic speaker wire from a hifi dealer. So long as they're oxygen free copper with a reasonably thick guage any cheap speaker cable will be fine.

+1

Depending on which DSP sound processing options you normally use when listening to music the 'Direct Mode' can make big difference to the sound quality of Yamaha receivers.

+1 on all of that.

Rock recordings are notoriously variable - even more so on CD than Vinyl I've found. We're a bit of a rock household, and some recent rock CDs Mrs. Scene got sound

M34 sound a bit harsh and abrasive with Rock, IIRC when I listened to them - depends on what the other speakers in your 5.1 system are...

Yep, really expensive cables aren't worth going for at this level - good thick OFC copper is what you want, especially if for the full size front speakers.

Yeah I play it in direct mode with 2;0 stereo output. I guess I could look into adding a power amp to the stereo setup. Really can't afford to change the speakers at the moment. Any suggestions for a reasonably cheap power amp which could do the trick?

Ooops. Duplicate post.

Most cheap amplifiers are underpowered and IMHO your Yamaha receiver will sound just as good as a stereo amplifier if you're on a tight budget. If you want to upgrade the sound quality then new speakers are likely to be best the way to go.

You could always try borrowing some speakers and amplifiers from a hifi shop to see how they work with your own setup at home. That way you can decide for yourself what sounds the best to your ears.