Marantz AV20 13.4 Channel AVP Discussion

[Oddball]

I had my AV-10 for many moons, 20 or so. It's most important characteristics are that in never fails, just keeps going cool as a cat, and syncs really nicely. No confusion or restarts, but just plain performance. In my open rack that is not particularly big on clearance, it stays barely warm to touch. It locks on many signals instantaneously without any drop outs, but sometimes it does need 3 or so seconds to lock on. In my experience, that has more to do with title that anything else as happens both way on variety of streaming services.

Features it has are really amazing starting from independent output to 19 channels (4 out of which are subs), advanced D&M bass management (LFE+main, LFE distribution - directional LFE is useful addition to prove that concept is not fit for most rooms), and support of both Audyssey and Dirac room correction systems.

AV-10 and AV-20 are reference level processors and not much more to be added. Storm has an edge in higher channel count and apparently more robust implementation of Dirac, and Trinnov is also a different high-end story with their unique solutions. But I don't mind not having those in my rack as AV-10 does absolutely everything that I need at this point. And then there is that $10K or so more that is required for the Storm or Trinnov club entry ticket. That might be worth to some, but less so to the others.

 

[Vacceo]

FWIW, sat down with the new Pink Floyd At Pompeii on Blu-ray. Again, I can’t really compare it to much else than my previous Marantz. All there is to say, as I’m not much for the flowery nonsense you get with most reviews, is that the AV20 did not seem an impediment in any way as it would regard AV reproduction.
Also ran my old Dead Presidents CDs through the Blu-ray player.
Ah, I missed that old Funk and Soul.
Same comment though, music reproduction certainly came across clean and true. Nothing felt altered to my ears.

Hopefully I can get some more time soon, but I don’t expect anything to change really. More than anything, I need to dig into the nitty gritty of setup details and make certain I’m getting every last drop of performance I can.

If one were to ask me about whether to buy the 10 or the 20, I think the most notable point would be whether you need 15 channels or not. As best I can tell, there isn’t much else to set them apart in terms of what really matters.

As someone who has his PC plugged to an older Marantz AVR, and plays videogames in it, I´ll gladly add that Freesync on the AV20 is a quite notable feature.

 

[Frank207be]

I had my AV-10 for many moons, 20 or so. It's most important characteristics are that in never fails, just keeps going cool as a cat, and syncs really nicely. No confusion or restarts, but just plain performance. In my open rack that is not particularly big on clearance, it stays barely warm to touch. It locks on many signals instantaneously without any drop outs, but sometimes it does need 3 or so seconds to lock on. In my experience, that has more to do with title that anything else as happens both way on variety of streaming services.

Features it has are really amazing starting from independent output to 19 channels (4 out of which are subs), advanced D&M bass management (LFE+main, LFE distribution - directional LFE is useful addition to prove that concept is not fit for most rooms), and support of both Audyssey and Dirac room correction systems.

AV-10 and AV-20 are reference level processors and not much more to be added. Storm has an edge in higher channel count and apparently more robust implementation of Dirac, and Trinnov is also a different high-end story with their unique solutions. But I don't mind not having those in my rack as AV-10 does absolutely everything that I need at this point. And then there is that $10K or so more that is required for the Storm or Trinnov club entry ticket. That might be worth to some, but less so to the others.

Same for me except that I chose the Denon A1H.

IMO the money saved vs Trinnov and Storm can be used for beter speakers and subs. Makes it a lot easier to successfully implement ART.

 

[Stinga]

What do you guys mean by "lower level of floor noise"?

 

[ryanosaur]

What do you guys mean by "lower level of floor noise"?

“Noise Floor” is the baseline noise in a system when no signal is being played. If a unit contributes less baseline noise than another it is said to have a “lower noise floor.”
A room will have its own noise floor, as well, if you consider the noise contributed by other sources in your home such as the refrigerator, hvac system, room fan, etc.

 

[Stinga]

Thankyou

 

[scotchrocks]

I ended up swapping out my Marantz SR7012 for the AV20 today. The promise of upcoming Dirac ART, the improved HDMI compatibility, and the much better measurements over my previous SR7012 sealed the deal. I think the upcoming AV30 would've been the best price/performance balance, but I just didn't have the patience to wait.

Anyways, I just started testing things out and have a couple initial observations:

• Design: This new unit looks great and is a huge improvement over the old SR7012. The remote is also worthy of a mention, as it feels premium with the gold touches and metal exterior.
• HDMI: My Nvidia Shield had some trouble connecting with my projector, and the AV20 was showing a jumbled mess of characters for the auto-detected input name. I forced it to use the original input name (e.g. Blu-ray) instead of the auto-detected name, and things seem to be working fine again. The Apple TV had no HDMI issues though, and its device name was detected automatically, so it may be a Shield issue.
• XLR Pre-Outs: I think the XLR pre-outs to my Buckeye amps has solved a ground loop issue I had. Previously, when my projector was off, I would get a hum/ticking sound that disappeared when the projector was turned on. This is when connected via the RCA output for the SR7012 using Benchmark RCA-XLR cables. Notably, unplugging the projector's HDMI cable would fix this, but there's no practical way to do this. With the AV20 XLR outputs, it is dead silent with the projector on or off. This is a huge plus for music so I'm not burning the bulb out just to keep the humming at bay during music sessions. Plus, the satisfying click of XLR cables never gets old.
• Temperatures: The AV20 runs cool versus the older AVRs like my SR7012, as ryanasour mentioned. I have it enclosed in a rear-ventilated cabinet with a fan blowing on it just in case, but regardless it's only barely warm to the touch.
• Sound: Things sound very good as expected so far. I've only tested casually for an hour or so with Apple Music lossless over the Apple TV. This is over plain stereo on the Revel F228Be with no subs and no calibration (no Dirac or Audyssey). The noise floor does seem lower than the SR7012, but that could just be placebo or the elimination of the ground loop issue. It is also very hard to compare apples to apples with my previous set up as I was using Audyssey MultEQ-X and MSO for the subs. I'm very curious to try Dirac and compare versus Audyssey+MSO in my use case. Hopefully, will be able to get Dirac set up this weekend.

 

[EWL5]

I ended up swapping out my Marantz SR7012 for the AV20 today. The promise of upcoming Dirac ART, the improved HDMI compatibility, and the much better measurements over my previous SR7012 sealed the deal. I think the upcoming AV30 would've been the best price/performance balance, but I just didn't have the patience to wait.

Anyways, I just started testing things out and have a couple initial observations:

• Design: This new unit looks great and is a huge improvement over the old SR7012. The remote is also worthy of a mention, as it feels premium with the gold touches and metal exterior.
• HDMI: My Nvidia Shield had some trouble connecting with my projector, and the AV20 was showing a jumbled mess of characters for the auto-detected input name. I forced it to use the original input name (e.g. Blu-ray) instead of the auto-detected name, and things seem to be working fine again. The Apple TV had no HDMI issues though, and its device name was detected automatically, so it may be a Shield issue.
• XLR Pre-Outs: I think the XLR pre-outs to my Buckeye amps has solved a ground loop issue I had. Previously, when my projector was off, I would get a hum/ticking sound that disappeared when the projector was turned on. This is when connected via the RCA output for the SR7012 using Benchmark RCA-XLR cables. Notably, unplugging the projector's HDMI cable would fix this, but there's no practical way to do this. With the AV20 XLR outputs, it is dead silent with the projector on or off. This is a huge plus for music so I'm not burning the bulb out just to keep the humming at bay during music sessions. Plus, the satisfying click of XLR cables never gets old.
• Temperatures: The AV20 runs cool versus the older AVRs like my SR7012, as ryanasour mentioned. I have it enclosed in a rear-ventilated cabinet with a fan blowing on it just in case, but regardless it's only barely warm to the touch.
• Sound: Things sound very good as expected so far. I've only tested casually for an hour or so with Apple Music lossless over the Apple TV. This is over plain stereo on the Revel F228Be with no subs and no calibration (no Dirac or Audyssey). The noise floor does seem lower than the SR7012, but that could just be placebo or the elimination of the ground loop issue. It is also very hard to compare apples to apples with my previous set up as I was using Audyssey MultEQ-X and MSO for the subs. I'm very curious to try Dirac and compare versus Audyssey+MSO in my use case. Hopefully, will be able to get Dirac set up this weekend.

Looks like a "win win" for your changeout! Congrats!

 

[Vacceo]

I ended up swapping out my Marantz SR7012 for the AV20 today. The promise of upcoming Dirac ART, the improved HDMI compatibility, and the much better measurements over my previous SR7012 sealed the deal. I think the upcoming AV30 would've been the best price/performance balance, but I just didn't have the patience to wait.

Anyways, I just started testing things out and have a couple initial observations:

• Design: This new unit looks great and is a huge improvement over the old SR7012. The remote is also worthy of a mention, as it feels premium with the gold touches and metal exterior.
• HDMI: My Nvidia Shield had some trouble connecting with my projector, and the AV20 was showing a jumbled mess of characters for the auto-detected input name. I forced it to use the original input name (e.g. Blu-ray) instead of the auto-detected name, and things seem to be working fine again. The Apple TV had no HDMI issues though, and its device name was detected automatically, so it may be a Shield issue.
• XLR Pre-Outs: I think the XLR pre-outs to my Buckeye amps has solved a ground loop issue I had. Previously, when my projector was off, I would get a hum/ticking sound that disappeared when the projector was turned on. This is when connected via the RCA output for the SR7012 using Benchmark RCA-XLR cables. Notably, unplugging the projector's HDMI cable would fix this, but there's no practical way to do this. With the AV20 XLR outputs, it is dead silent with the projector on or off. This is a huge plus for music so I'm not burning the bulb out just to keep the humming at bay during music sessions. Plus, the satisfying click of XLR cables never gets old.
• Temperatures: The AV20 runs cool versus the older AVRs like my SR7012, as ryanasour mentioned. I have it enclosed in a rear-ventilated cabinet with a fan blowing on it just in case, but regardless it's only barely warm to the touch.
• Sound: Things sound very good as expected so far. I've only tested casually for an hour or so with Apple Music lossless over the Apple TV. This is over plain stereo on the Revel F228Be with no subs and no calibration (no Dirac or Audyssey). The noise floor does seem lower than the SR7012, but that could just be placebo or the elimination of the ground loop issue. It is also very hard to compare apples to apples with my previous set up as I was using Audyssey MultEQ-X and MSO for the subs. I'm very curious to try Dirac and compare versus Audyssey+MSO in my use case. Hopefully, will be able to get Dirac set up this weekend.

You don´t loose anything notifying Nvidia about the issue. They might add a fix on their updates.

 

[Jaemon]

Could anyone please advise me if I’m running a cinema 50 as a preamp for my 7.2.4 setup with all channel run with buckeye amplifier, what benefit will this av20 bring apart from the fact that I can run pure xlr instead of xlr-rca cable?

 

[ryanosaur]

Could anyone please advise me if I’m running a cinema 50 as a preamp for my 7.2.4 setup with all channel run with buckeye amplifier, what benefit will this av20 bring apart from the fact that I can run pure xlr instead of xlr-rca cable?

I would suspect most differences will be fairly minor. You could expect higher yet likely inaudible Sinad, probably better processing power.

Hypex and Purifi modules really do want XLR input over an adapter or other unbalanced cable. I won’t try to speak to any benefit.

What I will stand by is this was a significant upgrade from my older SR6012.

 

[Jaemon]

I would suspect most differences will be fairly minor. You could expect higher yet likely inaudible Sinad, probably better processing power.

Hypex and Purifi modules really do want XLR input over an adapter or other unbalanced cable. I won’t try to speak to any benefit.

What I will stand by is this was a significant upgrade from my older SR6012.

understood, that buckeyes amp should work with fully xlr route but that in avr is an really expensive route. I can upgrade to av20 but if there is a need to purchase full suite of Dirac again which does add up.

 

[ryanosaur]

understood, that buckeyes amp should work with fully xlr route but that in avr is an really expensive route. I can upgrade to av20 but if there is a need to purchase full suite of Dirac again which does add up.

I’m thinking of trying Dirac when they offer their holiday sale. Depending on how recent your purchase, they may allow you to transfer the license. Worth asking if you decide to perhaps go this route.
Again, though, I’m only really speculating to potential differences rather than claiming you will experience the mythical veil lifting…

 

[EWL5]

understood, that buckeyes amp should work with fully xlr route but that in avr is an really expensive route. I can upgrade to av20 but if there is a need to purchase full suite of Dirac again which does add up.

Check w/our Dirac rep before making any commitment. I would not make the "upgrade" if I had to purchase all my Dirac licenses all over again! The minimal performance increase would fall under diminishing returns based on new investment alone!

 

[EWL5]

I’m thinking of trying Dirac when they offer their holiday sale. Depending on how recent your purchase, they may allow you to transfer the license. Worth asking if you decide to perhaps go this route.
Again, though, I’m only really speculating to potential differences rather than claiming you will experience the mythical veil lifting…

So you weren't aware of the Dirac 20% off sale that just ended June 30th?

 

[Jaemon]

I’m thinking of trying Dirac when they offer their holiday sale. Depending on how recent your purchase, they may allow you to transfer the license. Worth asking if you decide to perhaps go this route.
Again, though, I’m only really speculating to potential differences rather than claiming you will experience the mythical veil lifting…

Mine was Jan 2024 when they had some bundle deal for the holidays I supposed. Well will wait for it to be out in Singapore before deciding, price for Marantz seem to be quite good here. My cinema 50 was just marginally higher than Denon when I bought it.

 

[peng]

Could anyone please advise me if I’m running a cinema 50 as a preamp for my 7.2.4 setup with all channel run with buckeye amplifier, what benefit will this av20 bring apart from the fact that I can run pure xlr instead of xlr-rca cable?

Actually using XLR to XLR, or RCA to XLR interconnects (the one wired according Hypex's recommendations) will offer no benefits unless a) you have very long runs, having ground loop related issues now for whatever reason, or b) you need higher pre out voltage.

Regarding a) you know what you are getting now obviously, about b), you basically can tell if you need higher voltage simply by using your volume setting as an indicator. For example, if you don't need to crank your volume up pass say -5 when you listen to spl that hurt your ears, then you don't need higher voltage. I use -5 only because I assume your buckeyeamp's gain is relatively low, about 25 to 25.5 dB gain just like mine. If you are using other class D amp (probably NAD's) that has the more typical 28-29 dB gain, then I would use volume -10 as an indicator.

The Cinema 50 has the same DSP IC as the AV10 so I wouldn't expect audibly better movie SQ as pronounce as what ryanosaur's getting, as his SR6012's DSP is not of the same calibre.

 

[Oddball]

I tired to search for AV-20 DSP but did not get much or conclusive answer. Do we know what is AV-20 using vs AV-10. I could see a case where AV-20 got someting newer and potentially with more processing capability.

 

[Jaemon]

Actually using XLR to XLR, or RCA to XLR interconnects (the one wired according Hypex's recommendations) will offer no benefits unless a) you have very long runs, having ground loop related issues now for whatever reason, or b) you need higher pre out voltage.

Regarding a) you know what you are getting now obviously, about b), you basically can tell if you need higher voltage simply by using your volume setting as an indicator. For example, if you don't need to crank your volume up pass say -5 when you listen to spl that hurt your ears, then you don't need higher voltage. I use -5 only because I assume your buckeyeamp's gain is relatively low, about 25 to 25.5 dB gain just like mine. If you are using other class D amp (probably NAD's) that has the more typical 28-29 dB gain, then I would use volume -10 as an indicator.

The Cinema 50 has the same DSP IC as the AV10 so I wouldn't expect audibly better movie SQ as pronounce as what ryanosaur's getting, as his SR6012's DSP is not of the same calibre.

I’m usually about -15 at the lowest and that’s loud for my enough for my arendals. I’m just wondering what does a preamp got to offer more for the price it charged compared to those AVR when solely used as preamp.

 

[Oddball]

It will be a pre-amp, so can use the same amps while changing the pre-amp only. I had 3 pre-amps on my current amps. Pre-amps are changed more often due to new features. Amps are just amps - 15y old good amp is still a good amp. And potentially could still be a good amp in 10 years.

Otherwise, the only other thing is it will run cooler than comparable AVR in pre-amp mode.