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Is Marantz dead?

Love my Marantz 8B. Sounds good and has such a stately look about it.
Love to see that manage subs and multich content. Let alone any relevance to the Marantz brand generally for what 50 years?
 
Love my Marantz 8B. Sounds good and has such a stately look about it.
Still nigh-on my favorite store-bought amplifier.
The one 8B I had the privilege of rehabbing for its (very trusting!) owner even made my Cornies (Klipsch Cornwalls) sound good (i.e., better than anything else I every hooked them to).
 
Love to see that manage subs and multich content.
The brand new stereo flagship Model 10 doesn't do that either. But they did manage bass and treble controls this time... and a "mesh top cover with internal illumination and branding".

Joking apart, Marantz are a company with a complex history and multiple traditions... and a tendency to suddenly dip back into some aspect of their past, almost randomly. and sometimes in strange ways, for their product development. Nothing's off the table, and the 75th anniversary is not far away... they might just revive a tube amp for that date.
 
Lots of Marantz users (not all obviously) reported that they felt Marantz sounded better than Denon, iirc, 100% of them relied on their subjective measurements and memory.
Funny what paying up to an additional $1k can do for a person's memory!

I buy nicer things but I'm not using "Golden Ear" verbiage to justify my purchase (especially in a science forum)! Newer Mercedes have crap reliability whereas newer BMWs surprisingly are just a step down from perennials on the list like Honda/Acura. We have to keep up with the times so old adages like "all luxury German cars are unreliable" don't become the narrative in 2024!
 
Funny what paying up to an additional $1k can do for a person's memory!

I buy nicer things but I'm not using "Golden Ear" verbiage to justify my purchase (especially in a science forum)! Newer Mercedes have crap reliability whereas newer BMWs surprisingly are just a step down from perennials on the list like Honda/Acura. We have to keep up with the times so old adages like "all luxury German cars are unreliable" don't become the narrative in 2024!

Agreed, but not just $1K, marketing, internet hearsay also have similar effects. For example, in the M vs D case, by giving people the DAC filer and HDAM reasons... I can debunk such things by a simple and logical bottleneck analysis, but it won't can't convince fans who don't want to focus on logic, or theories. Ultimately it is their ears that they thought, count, the only that counts in the end.

As I said before, I got audibly better sound quality (sound stage got wider, deeper, crystal clear highs, rich and soft mid to mid highs, punch yet musical bass, more enveloping surround/height effects, etc. etc.) every time after I re-arrange/tidy up wiring clutter, layout, wipe and vacuum etc. I am not kidding!! Fact (to me) is, such cleaning up, tidying up exercise made more obvious difference than swapping out an Denon AVR to Marantz AVP(s), back to Denon AVR, and then to Anthem AVP, or swapping out a HK receiver to cheap Denon AVRs, do separate preamp, dacs, Bryston, Parasound, Hypex, Purifi amps, you name it lol.... We just don't know what others hear, or think they hear period, so it is almost silly to even debate which brand, models sound different, better, worse, same, or similar because people are not going to agree, or convinced one way or another, at least I have never read about any case where a D brand fan managed to convince a M brand fan, or the same with the A brands (Arcam, Anthem) or even vice versa.

In this case, the fact is, it you search on the internet for forum reviews hard enough, you will find a good spectrum of user's preference, those as you alluded to, $1K can do some wonder so it does seem that there are more nicer reviews on products that sell for more, even if they have the same guts, measurements, and in fact for the D vs M, there are more D's that measured better than the M's on ASR, yet it made no difference, there are more nicer subjective reviews for the M's and then people would draw the conclusion that the M brand is better for music (of course;) and the cheaper D brand is for movies, when less serious listening is anticipates as emphasis might be on the "effects" and video performance. That's just observed, perceived "facts", not verifiable, measurable facts.
 
Brands have gone through so many changes that these days it seems silly to attribute a "brand sound" to them.
Now that's logical, but it is easy to ignore logic right? And easy to be convinced by "brand sound", and the other logic albeit a silly one that says if they sound the same, why do they made both, so it must be true that you go with M for music and D for movies.
 
Agreed, but not just $1K, marketing, internet hearsay also have similar effects. For example, in the M vs D case, by giving people the DAC filer and HDAM reasons... I can debunk such things by a simple and logical bottleneck analysis, but it won't can't convince fans who don't want to focus on logic, or theories. Ultimately it is their ears that they thought, count, the only that counts in the end.

As I said before, I got audibly better sound quality (sound stage got wider, deeper, crystal clear highs, rich and soft mid to mid highs, punch yet musical bass, more enveloping surround/height effects, etc. etc.) every time after I re-arrange/tidy up wiring clutter, layout, wipe and vacuum etc. I am not kidding!! Fact (to me) is, such cleaning up, tidying up exercise made more obvious difference than swapping out an Denon AVR to Marantz AVP(s), back to Denon AVR, and then to Anthem AVP, or swapping out a HK receiver to cheap Denon AVRs, do separate preamp, dacs, Bryston, Parasound, Hypex, Purifi amps, you name it lol.... We just don't know what others hear, or think they hear period, so it is almost silly to even debate which brand, models sound different, better, worse, same, or similar because people are not going to agree, or convinced one way or another, at least I have never read about any case where a D brand fan managed to convince a M brand fan, or the same with the A brands (Arcam, Anthem) or even vice versa.

In this case, the fact is, it you search on the internet for forum reviews hard enough, you will find a good spectrum of user's preference, those as you alluded to, $1K can do some wonder so it does seem that there are more nicer reviews on products that sell for more, even if they have the same guts, measurements, and in fact for the D vs M, there are more D's that measured better than the M's on ASR, yet it made no difference, there are more nicer subjective reviews for the M's and then people would draw the conclusion that the M brand is better for music (of course;) and the cheaper D brand is for movies, when less serious listening is anticipates as emphasis might be on the "effects" and video performance. That's just observed, perceived "facts", not verifiable, measurable facts.
I am always afraid that the Wire Police will arrest me one day at least for a misdemeanour :facepalm:. Will have to follow your path.
 
I am always afraid that the Wire Police will arrest me one day at least for a misdemeanour :facepalm:. Will have to follow your path.

Haha, the Cinema30 would have been my last "path" if I hadn't switched to Anthem AVM70, that's before the secret of the new Cinema30 was even know by anyone. I like the AVM70 too but just missed the D+M feature, and info displays, and especially miss Audyssey and of course DLBC.

Almost time to do, but still on time permitting basis:

1727704314585.jpeg
 
I had read about the AKM Fire which caused the DAC changes in the X4800H vs SR7012. I was starting to think that I was hearing these differences when using X4800H as preamp. I returned the X4800H. I decided to buy the Marantz Cinema 30 vs the Cinema 40 to get the better DACs and hopefully better amplifiers. I connected the Cinema 30 as preamp with the Primare for this test and played the same Harry James recordings. Finally, the vibrancy I was looking for with accurate stage placement
I think you've said it all here - you read things, expected certain outcomes, didn't use any controls and got what your brain wanted.

Deep down you had an itch to get a Cinema 30 and you found a justification to change.
 
Haha, the Cinema30 would have been my last "path" if I hadn't switched to Anthem AVM70, that's before the secret of the new Cinema30 was even know by anyone. I like the AVM70 too but just missed the D+M feature, and info displays, and especially miss Audyssey and of course DLBC.

Almost time to do, but still on time permitting basis:

View attachment 395677
Ups. Might be a step ahead of you in this case but still way to go. Once I end the nonsense of various upgrades, I will tidy up real neat .
IMG_7686.jpeg
 
Looks like I am not alone and many have the love for the cables. While I do pray for the progress and the day when all this will be done over WiFi without any possible interference and need to tidy up things, that will also be a sad day for the veterans to part from the essential component of the HT/HiFi heritage and all the rituals associated with it.

But then when I remember how many cables I had to troubleshoot in my life, puts a little smiley on my face. Thanks to higher forces, and my average cabling skills, this system is free from any of them. Even with ear on each of the speakers no hiss or interference of any kind.
 
Brands have gone through so many changes that these days it seems silly to attribute a "brand sound" to them.
In the end there shouldn't be such a thing as "brand sound".
With the technology that's in the hands of todays designers they should be and mostly are just a straight wire with gain.
Their differences then based on build quality, features, looks, and pricing.
If they would chose to have preference curves available, just make them switchable, along with some good loudness compensation curves.


I buy nicer things but I'm not using "Golden Ear" verbiage to justify my purchase (especially in a science forum)! Newer Mercedes have crap reliability whereas newer BMWs surprisingly are just a step down from perennials on the list like Honda/Acura. We have to keep up with the times so old adages like "all luxury German cars are unreliable" don't become the narrative in 2024!
And you can get something from GM or Ford that does the same. probably for a lot less "look at me" money. ;)
 
Haha, the Cinema30 would have been my last "path" if I hadn't switched to Anthem AVM70, that's before the secret of the new Cinema30 was even know by anyone. I like the AVM70 too but just missed the D+M feature, and info displays, and especially miss Audyssey and of course DLBC.

Almost time to do, but still on time permitting basis:

View attachment 395677
Always good to see someone else (i.e., besides myself) doing their part to forestall the heat death of the universe.
;) :cool:
 
If I understood the code correctly, my heat or carbon neutrality is indeed questionable, but feel that I am on the right path. Have relinquished my sports cars, installed LED lights and new A class appliances, but afraid will take a bit longer to dispose of my AB amps. After these fail, there is a bunch of Parasounds coming from a different HT and those are likely to last a long while.

And by the way, in predominantly cold climate where I live, these are in lieu of heating so actually serving their purpose to some extent - did not do efficiency calc as local heat provider does not actually disclose this data.
 
My major concern is noise levels. I am allergic to fan noises and such stuff. It just happens to correlate nicely with reduced power consumption, at least for the most part. OTOH I leave most of my equipment on all the time. Every time I try to set things up with auto power saving, some weird glitch will happen at some point.

While applaud sustainability initiatives, a lot of it is total greenwashing for appearance's sake.
 
Marantz uses coloring circuitry to get a sound. They even post images of the circuitry and PCB cards that plug into receptacles in the amps, receivers and surround sound pre-amps. One card for each channel or one card for stereo maybe.
Their circuits colored the sound?? But, the marantz measurements wouldn't show any color. Hence, there should be no color!!
 
Yes, they have the HDAM circuitry to color the sound somehow.
View attachment 395768
Well they look pretty if you want to showcase them.
Personally I am over that era in my audio journey. I like very compact these days. I was always into integrated amps for that reason, but now I ideally want everything integrated into one single and smaller box that does it all.
 
Well they look pretty if you want to showcase them.
Personally I am over that era in my audio journey. I like very compact these days. I was always into integrated amps for that reason, but now I ideally want everything integrated into one single and smaller box that does it all.
My 6 foot wide desktop is cluttered with lots of wires from my desktop PC, a notebook, cable modem, large mousepad, headphone amp and a DAC and I don't think I could fit a 17" wide component. So compactness is the order of the day for me too. :D
 
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