What Hi-Fi? Awards 2025: Sony and Marantz defend their titles in the best home cinema amplifiers category

It's been an unfortunately quiet year for home cinema amplifiers. The key players in the market, namely Denon, Marantz, Sony, Yamaha, JBL and Arcam, have all been suspiciously quiet, leaving us to choose from an existing cohort of five-star AVRs when it comes to appointing this year's Award-winners.

It should, therefore, come as no surprise that we settled on the exact same winners as last year, and for good reason, too.

Kicking off with the previous Product of the Year-winner, the Sony TA-AN1000. This (frustratingly) remains the only home cinema amplifier in Sony's lineup here in the UK, so we're thankful that it performs exceptionally when it comes to delivering cinematic audio.

We first reviewed the TA-AN1000 back in 2022, when it dethroned the Denon AVR-X2800H as our pick for the best-value AVR, though both now live harmoniously on our best AV receivers list.

The Sony made an incredibly strong first impression with its sleek design and easy set-up, and it happened to sound exceptional too. We complimented its punchy, agile sound that was bursting with life and detail, and it happened to be an absolute champion when it came to dynamics, too.

While a couple more HDMI 2.1 sockets wouldn't have gone amiss, the Sony TA-AN1000 is a practically flawless home cinema amplifier, and that's why we continue to use it in our reference home cinema set-up to this very day.

However, we think it's always best to have two AVRs on hand, and that's where the Award-winning Marantz Cinema 30 comes in...

The Marantz Cinema 30 looks as good as it sounds

The devilishly handsome Marantz Cinema 30 defends its title for another year, making it the "Best home cinema amplifier over £1500". This suave AVR serves up a rich, powerful and engaging surround sound experience, all in a price that undercuts its more expensive peers, such as the Arcam AVR31 and JBL Synthesis SDR-38.

It also happens to support more amplification channels than its rivals, with 11 channels supporting up to a 7.4.4 system, thanks to its four subwoofer outputs. There are seven HDMI 2.1 inputs, all of which support up to 4K/120Hz or 8K/60Hz signals with Dolby Vision and HDR10+ included. Add to all that the Audyssey set-up system, which calibrates this AVR with minimal effort required, and it's hard to argue that this AVR is anything but feature-packed.

It’s all wrapped up in a stunningly designed chassis, embellished with a textured metal faceplate, an adorable port-hole display, and a touch of tasteful ambient lighting that allows the AVR to shine in dark home cinema rooms.

And it impresses where sound is concerned, too. Punchy, powerful and dynamic, yet totally controlled and capable of digging up subtle detail, the Marantz Cinema 30 will appease even the pickiest audiophiles when it comes to delivering cinematic audio.

It's no wonder that we continue to use it in our reference set-up as our go-to AVR for testing home cinema speaker packages, and it happens to match the Award-winning KEF Q Concerto Meta 5.1 system rather nicely.

It's a two-horse race here, but you'll have to wait until the 14th of November to find out which AVR takes home the coveted Product of the Year title.

MORE:

Find all of the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2025 winners here

Check out our picks for the best AV receivers

How to set up your AV receiver and get the best sound