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AVR suggestions


mansr

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59 minutes ago, esldude said:

I could use an updated AV preamp.  So have been watching to see what suggestions were made.  It is inconvenient that to buy just a good pre/with processing and balanced outs costs several times more than the more expensive AV receivers with all of the processing and power amps included.  Even to settle for RCA outs you seem to get short shrift and pay what a good AVR costs.  

 

I would probably get the Outlaw if it were $300 cheaper.  Or the $599 Emotiva MC700 if not for the reports of all kinds of software bugs and QC issues.  

 

I am not as keen on streaming.  I believe that is an area that will change quite a bit over coming years long before the pre/pro otherwise becomes useless.  So a streaming add on suits me better.   

 

A tough piece of gear to get the way you want it right now.  

Hi,

Yes - this really really bugs me. You get all the processing in an AV Receiver - 7 amplifiers, all for less than £1k (even cheaper too) and yet you want just the processor, and you are looking at £2k minimum for the same processing capabilities.

 

I want to use a good power amplifier for stereo listening, and a less powerful amplifier for the rears - i never bother with the centre now, sounds artificial.

 

Regards,

Shadders.

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6 minutes ago, Shadders said:

Yes - this really really bugs me. You get all the processing in an AV Receiver - 7 amplifiers, all for less than £1k (even cheaper too) and yet you want just the processor, and you are looking at £2k minimum for the same processing capabilities.

The pre/pro units are generally comparable to the flagship integrateds. I haven't seen any corresponding to the budget models. This is probably because those buying the separates wouldn't consider the lower end in the first place.

 

12 minutes ago, Shadders said:

I want to use a good power amplifier for stereo listening, and a less powerful amplifier for the rears

I've used a dedicated power amp for front L/R and the AVR's integrated for remaining channels. Can't say it made much difference. Of course the result depends on the specific gear involved.

 

12 minutes ago, Shadders said:

i never bother with the centre now, sounds artificial.

Really? The centre channel is typically used mostly for dialogue. I find having a dedicated speaker helps.

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3 minutes ago, mansr said:

Really? The centre channel is typically used mostly for dialogue. I find having a dedicated speaker helps.

Hi,

Yes - i now only have a stereo amplifier for the rears.

Using only the left and right channel for the sound is much better - especially when people are to the right o left of the main picture - seems more realistic. The centre channel with associated sound from the left or right, does not seem to provide a coherent presentation.

Why not try it - makes a change if nothing else.

Regards,

Shadders.

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4 minutes ago, Shadders said:

Using only the left and right channel for the sound is much better - especially when people are to the right o left of the main picture - seems more realistic. The centre channel with associated sound from the left or right, does not seem to provide a coherent presentation.

Do you use room correction? In my experience, it helps maintain tonal balance as sounds move between channels.

 

4 minutes ago, Shadders said:

Why not try it - makes a change if nothing else.

Sure, I might do that. It just never occurred to me that it could be an improvement.

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Just now, mansr said:

Do you use room correction? In my experience, it helps maintain tonal balance as sounds move between channels.

 

Sure, I might do that. It just never occurred to me that it could be an improvement.

Hi mansr,

No - i do not use room correction. I will eventually get round to it after i build my next set of hifi - active loudspeakers. It will be a long way off before i do look into it.

Regards,

Shadders.

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I've owned a few Pioneer Elite and Denon AVRs but I prefer the sound of Marantz over others. I currently have a Marantz SR6006 (my theater is 1080p/5.1) and it's been just fantastic. I even listen to music on it at times (Roon with Apple TV).

 

I bought my Marantz used via Craigslist for a song.

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I like this cheaper model by Marantz, it has most the features I want, and a lot your looking for, except 5.1 pre out.  It has L/R and Sub pre out.  If they just added the Center channel pre out I easily consider this unit.  I'd just use the internal amps for surrounds.

 

http://www.us.marantz.com/us/Products/Pages/ProductDetails.aspx?CatId=AVReceivers&SubCatId=0&ProductId=NR1608

Computer setup - Roon/Qobuz - PS Audio P5 Regenerator - HIFI Rose 250A Streamer - Emotiva XPA-2 Harbeth P3ESR XD - Rel  R-528 Sub

Comfy Chair - Schitt Jotunheim - Meze Audio Empyrean w/Mitch Barnett's Accurate Sound FilterSet

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I had the Marantz SR5012 which i liked very much.  even supports dsd over ethernet and alexa support.

 

it had a bug with firmware with DSD 512 that i reported and they later confirmed, and i sent it back....they later said they are planning a firmware update to fix it in feb firmware release.

 

I would recommend it....that or the 6012 or 7012 as well.

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5 hours ago, mansr said:

That's why I'm looking for an integrated device. A pre/pro plus power amp(s) would cost more than I'm willing to spend. And then there's the space issue.

 

I'm talking about streaming from a local server. It seems unlikely that DLNA will disappear in the immediate future. Longer term, I really hope something sane replaces it. It's a horrid system, but it's the only open spec that's widely supported.

 

There's also HDMI 2.1 looming. When new models with support for that turn up, the current ones will hopefully drop in price. It's not like I'll be needing 8k video support any time soon.

 

Also, i know safe and sound sells both Marantz new and refurbished.

They have the one i sent back (SR5012)...worked well, sounds great....gapless dsd over dlna

only one bug in firmware that marantz said they are fixing in feb firmware release that i reported.

 

 

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6 hours ago, TubeLover said:

There is a rave review of the Yamaha RX-A2070 receiver that ticks most of your boxes and they say provides incredible surround sound quality in the newest issue of Sound and Vision. I can vouch for the Yamaha build quality and support. This is one you should look into.

How does Yamaha room correction compare to Audyssey XT32? I read somewhere that it wasn't as advanced.

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16 hours ago, mansr said:

The recent Marantz models let you tweak a lot more Audyssey parameters than they used to, including setting your own target curve. I haven't seen it in action, so I don't know how well it works in practice though.

 

The Anthem falls short in that it has no streaming ability to speak of, and it does no video processing.

 

True, but it's  a nice receiver. I've had the MRX-700 for about 7 years now, and still like it quite a bit. Good DSP, powerful amplifiers enough to drive my very inefficient speakers, clean and powerful sound for watching movies, room correction that works well with my sub and surrounds. No streaming or 4k support in my older model, so I'm also looking to upgrade (and yes, I have 4k content to watch! :)

 

I would've liked to also have a way to use the MRX preamps bypassing the AD/DA conversion, which apparently it does not do: all analog inputs go through the digital conversion, whether you want DSP or not. If you've been around for a while, Anthem is actually Sonic Frontiers that used to make some well acclaimed DACs back in the day.

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On 1/24/2018 at 9:26 AM, mansr said:

The Ethernet connection seems to be only for some rather crude remote control, not DLNA streaming. It looks nice otherwise.

 

I did some further checking since I was also interested in that model.  So I emailed Anthem Tech Support

"

Good Evening Chris,

The MRX 720 has Play-Fi Built into it, which will allow you to wireless stream over your network using DLNA protocol, but the MRX 520 does not.

You would need either an iOS, Android, or PC product to control the wireless stream.

Andrew B. | Technical Advisor | Paradigm/Anthem Support Team""
 
So I'm now leaning to the MRX720.  Just need to demo one and try the Play-fi app.

The Truth Is Out There

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4 minutes ago, mansr said:

Play-Fi is horrible, from what I've gathered. All the data passes through the phone app, which is just crazy.

Man thats not good, but I don't use my current AVR for streaming, I let my one of my Lumins handle that and its app which works.  The AVR in my home is strictly for normal TV and Movies, BlueRay and 4K with the occasional CD playback..

The Truth Is Out There

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43 minutes ago, rn701 said:

Denon AVR-X6300 or really just an X4300 on sale.

How is the interface to setting up or adjusting that unit?  Denon used be a goto recommendation.  Once they took over Marantz seems they do their best work on the Marantz  brand.  Suddenly Denon units were quite frankly retarded.  One ended up hating anything to do with them.  Very frustrating to use.  So they still made really nice performing gear and handicapped it with terrible interface decisions. 

And always keep in mind: Cognitive biases, like seeing optical illusions are a sign of a normally functioning brain. We all have them, it’s nothing to be ashamed about, but it is something that affects our objective evaluation of reality. 

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24 minutes ago, esldude said:

How is the interface to setting up or adjusting that unit?  Denon used be a goto recommendation.  Once they took over Marantz seems they do their best work on the Marantz  brand.  Suddenly Denon units were quite frankly retarded.  One ended up hating anything to do with them.  Very frustrating to use.  So they still made really nice performing gear and handicapped it with terrible interface decisions. 

You definitely have to poke around in a lot of different menus to get everything set up, and it's not always intuitive. They at least have nicer graphics now. 

 

They also have a guided setup that does the Audyssey calibration and about 90% of what you need. My wife even said "that's pretty nice." The rest of the 10%, see above re. menus.

 

One thing I like is you can set a lot of stuff per input, so you can have different Audyssey tweaks (or turn it off) for TV, movies, music, etc. You can also set input gain for each source to even out volume levels when switching.

 

The built-in DLNA network player now works pretty good, too.

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3 minutes ago, rn701 said:

One thing I like is you can set a lot of stuff per input, so you can have different Audyssey tweaks (or turn it off) for TV, movies, music, etc. You can also set input gain for each source to even out volume levels when switching.

That's something I like about the Marantz.

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5 minutes ago, mansr said:

That's something I like about the Marantz.

From looking at user manuals (yes they still have those!) Denon and Marantz have basically the same software. My limited understanding is they use different (better?) power amps and maybe(?) better DACs in the Marantz line.

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1 hour ago, rn701 said:

From looking at user manuals (yes they still have those!) Denon and Marantz have basically the same software. My limited understanding is they use different (better?) power amps and maybe(?) better DACs in the Marantz line.

The probably even share entire PCBs between some models. The digital I/O and DSP chips are on a separate board that plugs into the DAC board which in turn plugs into the amp section. With a few variants of each, they could easily mix and match to create dozens of models.

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