I'd call it dead heat. Both have had about the same amount of quality control issues in the same price ranges. Both carry good warranties (Marantz is 3yrs for all receivers), so I wouldn't worry about it too much.
I haven't seen a Marantz at CC or BB. I have an H/K 520 and really like it. Was looking at Marantz at Cambridge Soundworks but CC nad the H/K "on the shelf" for $299 so I bought it. I'd say they were equal but the Marantz would have been nice to have. Gene
Thanks for the help guys. How easy are they to use? My parents are pretty good from a technology standpoint, but if the two are pretty equal, I might use that as a good tie breaker...
Regardless of which receiver you end up with, it still might be best to provide your parents with one remote control that can control all of their devices. Additionally, the remote control could have a few macros which they could push to setup their system for playing DVDs, etc.
Also, I'm not sure about the Marantz, but the H/K has a neat feature - via the on-screen programming, you can define a "set-point" for the volume and it will be at that position every time you turn the receiver on (e.g. -50 on the volume scale.) I think with parents, this would be a good feature since they might have had it turned up a bit loud the night before and then when they go back to use it the next day - wham!! Where did all that volume come from??