My SMSL SA-50 sounds an order of magnitude (in price) better than my Marantz PM68 and costs an order of magnitude less - in other words, it sounds fantastic and it was cheap. Some of the early carriers of class D hype (Tripath based) were even cheaper. A good chip and a bunch of quality passives don't need to be that expensive.

So I'm more concerned about Samsung owning B&W (there is no real substitute for good speakers) than Marantz and Denon. It seems like really good amps can be made by sticking to class D chip application notes these days.