Hi Swainy,
I have a 7.2 setup. Dali Zensor 7's, Vokal Centre, 4 x Zensor 3 (rears and surrounds) & 2 x Dali E-12 F subwoofers. I run mine from a Yamaha 2040.
Firstly I am extremely happy with mine. The 7's are great for music in 2.0 (better than the Monitor Audio Bronze range IMO but YMMV). In films they give a very accurate and expansive soundstage. The Yamaha does a great job of wrapping me in a bubble of sound rather than feel like things are coming from specific speakers.
A few points or thoughts I will mention.
1. Having previously owned this setup with a high end Pioneer receiver & a Yamaha 3030 receiver, both using the Sabre 32 bit Dac's a few films had some harsheness to them at sepcific points. This really bothered me when a £500 Sony str-dn1040 didn't have these "issues". Obviously now using the Yamaha 2040 with the "lower quality" ESS 9006 (as opposed to 9016) Dac which does not have the issue as far as I can detect. Seeing as I have no plan to run an Atmos setup in the near future a 9.2 amp is fine for me. However the 3040 does have the capability of running a 7.2.4 setup should that be in your planning for the future. This was a really minor niggle that honestly you will probably never notice. It literally was in a couple of places in certain films although repeatable by me at home and in the store.
Yeah, I do fancy the Atmos set up to tbh, from what I gather at the minute though, there isn't very much content at all so will more than likely hang on. There doesn't seem a great deal of choice (Atmos speaker wise) at the moment either so even more reason.
2. I have had Zensor 1's as surrounds in the past too as opposed to the larger Zensor 3's. Honestly the difference between the two is negligible as far as sound quality goes. Whilst I can cross the Zensor 3's lower than the 1's I actually still use 80hz for both. The Zensor 3's are much harder to place discreetly though so my advice would be to just get the Zensor 1's. I upgraded to get a bigger surround sound and to match the woofers from the 7's to the rest. IMO I haven't really gained much and it's not worth the extra money / space.
Funny you should mention this, I have a budget, as you would imagine lol, but have considered swapping out the 1's for the 3's. I had the same thoughts but obviously an uneducated guess !
Think I will stick with the 1's as you say.
3. I have only ever owned two subs; a REL Q150E 10" and the Dali E-12F 12" sub. I am very happy with the Dali. It sounds epic in comparison to my old one. Really gets the sofa shaking nicely when I want it to. Adding the second one gave me slightly better balanced bass in my main listening position - minor improvment but noticeable and for me worth it on picking up a 2nd hand one. However for similar money you could get a BK Monolith or a XTZ Sub 12.17. Both are practically the same price but review wise (and spec wise) should be an improvement on the Dali. If you can get a demo somewhere of these two I would try to. I don't think having the same sub manaufacturer as the speakers is important. You are not trying to match tonal characteristics. Just get nice controlled and deep bass. One of the other subs will do a better job IMO (alhtough haven't heard them myself). Unless the E12-F is part of a package deal that means you are effectively paying much less than the RRP for it I would go with one of the other two.
I'll demo these.
Can't comment on the Marantz since I have not heard it but again, judging by reviews I am sure it will be good. However the Yamaha gives a great performance for movies. I believe the Marantz is slightly more refined musically. I'm sure you will be pretty happy with either.
Hope some of this is helpful. Happy to answer any other queries you may have with regards to the Dali's if you want.
Hope the auditions go well