Marantz AV8805A Review (AV Processor)

[Deleted member 50971]

For audibility of distortions, I am of the same opinion more or less. For noise, as Amir said before, you will hear it. Even then, I could hear my AV8801 hiss/hum but only at volume >-10 or so and even then it would still sound silent from 10-11 ft if the HVAC on though I still fee good about the Denon that is silent unless my ears are within a couple inches.

I disagree with the part about everyone believes that Dirac and Anthem are superior to Audyssey. To me, Dirac likely is, but not sure about Anthem's. May be every Anthem ARC users believes, but for those who have used both, may be not (again, key word "everyone, may be some do , some don't).

I admit I am a little biased, and I don't like their apparent approach of sticking with IIR only filters vs Dirac's mixed (FIR and IIR) and Audyssey's FIR only. Also, I wish Anthem is less secretive about their "ARC", I don't need them to tell us everything, but there just isn't much technical information about their system and approach. All I can see are mostly marketing blurbs, such as telling Audioholics.com in an interview that: "It works! Listeners prefer ARC on vs ARC off. We don’t hide behind pseudo-scientific explanations, and apparently other companies are slowly gravitating towards our approach as they can test our system and see for themselves that it works." Implying other's were pseudo....., when they didn't even try!! Just take a look of their owner's manual for their AVP/AVRs and compared that with Denon, Marantz, Onkyo, Yamaha's. Anthem's 70 pages cover to cover that covers every single model of their AVRs and AVPs, every time I wanted to know more about their product I got disappointed. Sorry I digress..

I appreciate the detailed response. This goes back to what I said earlier, Denon and Marantz just work, now Marantz needs to quit relying on their ears, and put a good engineer in charge of the final decisions. i’m just afraid that when they revamp this it’s going to put the price up two or $3000. at $5500 retail, it’s already high in my opinion. The Denon especially the 8500 HA version is intriguing, but I would really like XLR outputs, and like I said one XLR input.

We’ll see where it goes, and I’m going to be patient this time. But hey if Marantz wants to keep those hdams on the next model, I’ll go Denon. I have so many XLR cables that would kill me to do.

 

[MacCali]

Heres a big variable in all of this… room correction. I know everyone believes that Dirac and Anthem are superior to Audyssey, and I’ll concede that they may be, although I do not have any experience with any other one except Audyssey.

Amir reviewed audyssey multeq xt32 very favorably, and ever since room correction enter the AVR/AVP world they’ve been a game changer. Although during movies I like to run my subwoofers a little hotter than suggested, but that’s pretty easily remedied.

Are we really going to hear a difference between an AVR/AVP with a SINAD of 85 and one with 100 SINAD after room correction is applied?

How about for 2-channel and multi channel music listening?

I doubt we’d hear any difference but that’s just my opinion. so then it comes down to features and stability also in my opinion. I’m familiar with the Marantz/Denon platform and one thing I know… It just works day in and day out. Yes they all have glitches, but they are the Swiss Army knife of home theater and music listening.

This being said I would love to get to 100 SINAD with a new Marantz AVP and call it a day. For the sake of good engineering hygiene, and the satisfaction of knowing Marantz was willing to raise the bar. Who doesn’t like well measuring gear on this forum?

From my understanding the sound United room correction is greatly improved with the 20 dollar purchase of the app.

You set a curtain to only modify room response in the lower registers and leave the speaker to perform how it does naturally.

I’ve been pretty lazy and I guess probably most will be like what hell lol, but I never ran room correction on my speakers besides when I had a sub. Which was short lived.

I just got back to hooking up my home theater. Did a renovation on my spot where I replaced the flooring and new paint so everything had to go and I switched rooms so I can play my music and movies at higher volumes.

Most likely will purchase the app and do what I mentioned. Going to run my amp in pre mode as discussed in previous comments. Just want to see what’s going on comparison wise. Plus I just got my 4K player, want to see if I can get any noticeable improvements

 

[peng]

I appreciate the detailed response. This goes back to what I said earlier, Denon and Marantz just work, now Marantz needs to quit relying on their ears, and put a good engineer in charge of the final decisions. i’m just afraid that when they revamp this it’s going to put the price up two or $3000. at $5500 retail, it’s already high in my opinion. The Denon especially the 8500 HA version is intriguing, but I would really like XLR outputs, and like I said one XLR input.

We’ll see where it goes, and I’m going to be patient this time. But hey if Marantz wants to keep those hdams on the next model, I’ll go Denon. I have so many XLR cables that would kill me to do.

I think Marantz understands the power of Placebo and expectation bias effects so they are going to continue on the same path. That is, to make sure there are some hardware differences to distinguish the Marantz brand and will therefore most likely simply put the same HDAM now in the SR8015 into the lower models and the AV preamp processors. They (the new models) will mostly measured better too as they have done it in the SR8015.

The better measurements for the 8015 may not be due to the "better" HDAMs but could be something changes in circuity that prevents, or minimize the power amp's distortions feeding back to the preamp. If the service manual of the 8015 is available I will buy it just to see what they have done but it is not available. Regardless, from measurements stand point, the 8015 is the good news. Based on that fact, there is incentive to wait for the replacement of the AV7706 that apparently is essentially same as the 7705 with just feature updates. The even better news would be if Marantz just eliminate the discrete HDAMs with high quality OP amp ICs, and likely lower their overall cost in the process too. But again, they are not going to do it because...

 

[Deleted member 50971]

I think Marantz understands the power of Placebo and expectation bias effects so they are going to continue on the same path. That is, to make sure there are some hardware differences to distinguish the Marantz brand and will therefore most likely simply put the same HDAM now in the SR8015 into the lower models and the AV preamp processors. They (the new models) will mostly measured better too as they have done it in the SR8015.

The better measurements for the 8015 may not be due to the "better" HDAMs but could be something changes in circuity that prevents, or minimize the power amp's distortions feeding back to the preamp. If the service manual of the 8015 is available I will buy it just to see what they have done but it is not available. Regardless, from measurements stand point, the 8015 is the good news. Based on that fact, there is incentive to wait for the replacement of the AV7706 that apparently is essentially same as the 7705 with just feature updates. The even better news would be if Marantz just eliminate the discrete HDAMs with high quality OP amp ICs, and likely lower their overall cost in the process too. But again, they are not going to do it because...

Good morning. That’s a good analysis, and I guess it’s (hdams) their claim to fame at this point. I was really disappointed with the way the 7705/7706 measured, especially after a friend of mine told me to get rid of my 8801 and go for the 7706. I’m really glad I didn’t do that, and I even called Marantz about it, and the gentleman on the phone even conceded for two channel listening that the 8805 would sound very similar to my 8801. That kind of stunned me, not that they would sound similar, just that he would admit that.

Anyway you’re probably right about this, but I would still like to see better measurements for the Marantz.

The Denon 8500HA looks very appealing, but it just lacks the XLR’s that I’m after. All my DAC’s, switchers, amps everything I have uses XLR. I just like it, never any ground loops, and I like the locking feature.

We will see, and I would even consider the 8805a on a closeout deal if the new ones don’t impress me when they come out.

 

[peng]

I even called Marantz about it, and the gentleman on the phone even conceded for two channel listening that the 8805 would sound very similar to my 8801. That kind of stunned me, not that they would sound similar, just that he would admit that.

In direct/pure direct modes, the 8805 and 8801 should sound similar but the 8805 will be quieter for sure and to me that's important psychologically.

 

[peng]

In direct/pure direct modes, the 8805 and 8801 should sound similar but the 8805 will be quieter for sure and to me that's important psychologically.

The AV8801 doesn't suffer roll off from 10 kHz that the 8805 does but I can't hear the difference from such minor roll off at such higher frequency, ymmv...

 

[MacCali]

I think Marantz understands the power of Placebo and expectation bias effects so they are going to continue on the same path. That is, to make sure there are some hardware differences to distinguish the Marantz brand and will therefore most likely simply put the same HDAM now in the SR8015 into the lower models and the AV preamp processors. They (the new models) will mostly measured better too as they have done it in the SR8015.

The better measurements for the 8015 may not be due to the "better" HDAMs but could be something changes in circuity that prevents, or minimize the power amp's distortions feeding back to the preamp. If the service manual of the 8015 is available I will buy it just to see what they have done but it is not available. Regardless, from measurements stand point, the 8015 is the good news. Based on that fact, there is incentive to wait for the replacement of the AV7706 that apparently is essentially same as the 7705 with just feature updates. The even better news would be if Marantz just eliminate the discrete HDAMs with high quality OP amp ICs, and likely lower their overall cost in the process too. But again, they are not going to do it because...

Well definitely the HDAM buzz word got me. However, more or less I had this crazy desire to get something with a massive amount of channels. Really foolish now that I think back on it, yet at the same time for the price I paid there’s absolutely no way it’s a bad deal.

This is in regards to 7013*

My question is about this HDAM etc, you don’t think that if they improved the output stage alone to let’s say shootout 4 v without clipping even on rca or 8v XLR that it alone would improve the overall sinad?

Clearly seems on pre amp mode there is improvement but what makes it go up to 94 db and then all of sudden plummet after .7v?

Or are the measurements strictly related to op amps etc that you mentioned or a combination of that. Edit: Reason why I ask is I’m not sure how the output stage works. I don’t think the HDAM does anything to output stage but I may be wrong I know there’s some form of power delivering that voltage. But the internal amp for the channels are off, which is where I assume HDAM is

Also, how come the units without HDAM don’t have better performance. My 7013 had it but if I recall the until the 6015 which was 2020 all previous lower models did not have HDAM in it. Why are those not measuring like denon or do they?

 

[Deleted member 50971]

Hi, this was some of the only testing of my AV8801 that I could find online, and it may not even have influenced my buying at the time. The 8801 caused fireworks through much of the audio world, and for $3600 everyone was claiming that it could run with the big dogs. At the time Datasat was one of the top dogs, and the owners of them of course were not buying the fact that the Marantz could come anywhere close to them. As it turns out I don’t think the Datastat ever measured well, as evidenced Amirs testing of one not that long ago. I think that Marantz does a lot of subjective listening tests, and at the time I believe that testing led to the hdams being sandwich between two opamps as the below statement says. This is what hometheterhifi said about this in early 2013 I believe, is it relevant today? I’d say yes. By the way I don’t know how the AV 8801 fared with other offerings of the day, I just know that it’s been glitch free for 10 years, and the only thing wrong with it is one of the HDMI inputs does not work.

“During my review time with the AV8801, Secrets’ Dr. David Rich has had the opportunity to thoroughly review the service manual for the AV8801 and his findings have lead us to ask Marantz some tougher questions about the components that make up the AV8801.

Here’s the last question that Dr. Rich posed regarding the HDAM circuits in the AV8801.

“The marketing material for the AV8801 states that HDAM technology is used in the line driver and that the HDAM is made from discrete blocks and no opamps. Based on my analysis, the actual circuitry has no HDAM blocks and uses two opamps which ultimately define the performance of the circuit. ”

Here is the response from Paul Belanger, Technical Product Manager for Marantz:

“We use a discretely designed circuit in lieu of a standard Op-amp. The HDAM itself is sandwiched between 2 Op-amps in a diamond buffer configuration – the 8801 features 13 of these “discrete” HDAM boards – 1 for each channel. The HDAM SA2 is the circuitry sitting between the OP-Amps and is mainly defining the characteristic of the sound. The OP-Amps might not look best on the data sheet, however in this configuration with the HDAM and current feedback topology it was our choice for a good balance in sound”

Edit;

Basically I believe that Marantz tunes their gear by ear in the final stages, and I think that’s where some of problems are. Of course that’s my opinion, but look what Denons doing, and look with Marantz is doing. Their hdams are their claim to fame and have been for over 10 years. Can you say marketing?

Sorry I edited this after someone liked it.

 

[Deleted member 50971]

As far as I can tell by the specs of the 8801 it varied in SINAD between 75 and 83 depending on input/output tested. To hear any noise at all you have to put your ear right next to the tweeter. From my MLP of 10’ from the mains it’s dead silent, even when pushed past reference levels, and it’s more than likely dead silent from less than 6 feet away also, I just never tried it.

So SINAD has increased at least on some of the Marantz products that were tested here, other ones not so much.

 

[MacCali]

Hi, this was some of the only testing of my AV8801 that I could find online, and it may not even have influenced my buying at the time. The 8801 caused fireworks through much of the audio world, and for $3600 everyone was claiming that it could run with the big dogs. At the time Datasat was one of the top dogs, and the owners of them of course were not buying the fact that the Marantz could come anywhere close to them. As it turns out I don’t think the Datastat ever measured well, as evidenced Amirs testing of one not that long ago. I think the is a Marantz does a lot of subjective listening tests, and at the time I believe that testing led to the hdams being sandwich between two opamps as the below statement says. This is what hometheterhifi said about this in early 2013 I believe, is it relevant today? I’d say yes. By the way I don’t know how the AV 8801 fared with other offerings of the day, I just know that it’s been glitch free for 10 years, and the only thing wrong with it is one of the HDMI inputs does not work.

“During my review time with the AV8801, Secrets’ Dr. David Rich has had the opportunity to thoroughly review the service manual for the AV8801 and his findings have lead us to ask Marantz some tougher questions about the components that make up the AV8801.

Here’s the last question that Dr. Rich posed regarding the HDAM circuits in the AV8801.

“The marketing material for the AV8801 states that HDAM technology is used in the line driver and that the HDAM is made from discrete blocks and no opamps. Based on my analysis, the actual circuitry has no HDAM blocks and uses two opamps which ultimately define the performance of the circuit. ”

Here is the response from Paul Belanger, Technical Product Manager for Marantz:

“We use a discretely designed circuit in lieu of a standard Op-amp. The HDAM itself is sandwiched between 2 Op-amps in a diamond buffer configuration – the 8801 features 13 of these “discrete” HDAM boards – 1 for each channel. The HDAM SA2 is the circuitry sitting between the OP-Amps and is mainly defining the characteristic of the sound. The OP-Amps might not look best on the data sheet, however in this configuration with the HDAM and current feedback topology it was our choice for a good balance in sound”

But clearly you can’t roll the op amps in these HDAM circuits, right?

To my last comment, I just ask cause can’t you upgrade the output stage? Honestly if it would cost me 300 to upgrade the output stage to something legit and improve the performance I would do it, especially at the price I paid.

Clearly on my 7013 I can’t hear anything bad, it sounds crystal clear, dynamic and immersive when watching a movie. In addition don’t see any reason for years to come for anyone to need more than what this unit outputs codec wise. You can easily avoid any issues merely by feeding the receiver audio and the video source direct from a bd player.

The only thing is I guess since it doesn’t hit 96 db you won’t get the maximum cd quality sound, if my knowledge serves me correctly.

 

[Deleted member 50971]

But clearly you can’t roll the op amps in these HDAM circuits, right?

To my last comment, I just ask cause can’t you upgrade the output stage? Honestly if it would cost me 300 to upgrade the output stage to something legit and improve the performance I would do it, especially at the price I paid.

Clearly on my 7013 I can’t hear anything bad, it sounds crystal clear, dynamic and immersive when watching a movie. In addition don’t see any reason for years to come for anyone to need more than what this unit outputs codec wise. You can easily avoid any issues merely by feeding the receiver audio and the video source direct from a bd player.

The only thing is I guess since it doesn’t hit 96 db you won’t get the maximum cd quality sound, if my knowledge serves me correctly.

Someone more knowledgeable than myself would have to answer that, but I don’t think it’s as easy as it sounds. Of course we want a new design, but they’ve been so successful with this one that they look like they’re reluctant to change.

From what I can gather on the forums here 100 SINAD should be enough. Of course there are other measurements that are important, and honestly give me this same AVP with 100 SINAD, and let them improve a couple more specs and I’m probably a buyer. $5000-$6000 is a little more than I want to pay, but what else is there as far as an AVP goes? I’d like to believe the anthem AVM 70 is a good piece of gear, but looks like a lot of frustration from the owners of them.

 

[MacCali]

Someone more knowledgeable than myself would have to answer that, but I don’t think it’s as easy as it sounds. Of course we want a new design, but they’ve been so successful with this one that they look like they’re reluctant to change.

From what I can gather on the forums here 100 SINAD should be enough. Of course there are other measurements that are important, and honestly give me this same AVP with 100 SINAD, and let them improve a couple more specs and I’m probably a buyer. $5000-$6000 is a little more than I want to pay, but what else is there as far as an AVP goes? I’d like to believe the anthem AVM 70 is a good piece of gear, but looks like a lot of frustration from the owners of them.

That’s why I mentioned if you can get past the XLR’s that refurbished 3700h for a 1000 is a grand deal.

Like I said it does seem to be missing one or two decoding software for Dolby. If my memory serves me right vs like 6500 or 7013 above equivalent but the performance is phenomenal.

Seems like a lot of external amps will reach full rated power at 1.2v input. At 1.1 it’s 101. So it will probably consistently be in 92-95 range at typical home theater listening. So the options are endless.

You will save a lot of money and be able to get external amplification with both probably at the same price as the AVM 70.

For me the AVM 70 is too much, not by price. Going past 5 channels on the floor is difficult for me and when my Dolby atmos speakers are pinned to a beam it’s sending way too much vibration through my apartment. Seems odd but I guess the vibration travels into the structure more. Got to find a way to mount them without being on the wall so I can get 4 channels of atmos

 

[peng]

Hi, this was some of the only testing of my AV8801 that I could find online, and it may not even have influenced my buying at the time. The 8801 caused fireworks through much of the audio world, and for $3600 everyone was claiming that it could run with the big dogs. At the time Datasat was one of the top dogs, and the owners of them of course were not buying the fact that the Marantz could come anywhere close to them. As it turns out I don’t think the Datastat ever measured well, as evidenced Amirs testing of one not that long ago. I think that Marantz does a lot of subjective listening tests, and at the time I believe that testing led to the hdams being sandwich between two opamps as the below statement says. This is what hometheterhifi said about this in early 2013 I believe, is it relevant today? I’d say yes. By the way I don’t know how the AV 8801 fared with other offerings of the day, I just know that it’s been glitch free for 10 years, and the only thing wrong with it is one of the HDMI inputs does not work.

If you are talking about SINAD, SNR etc., the ICs used for the volume control and DACs are always going to be relevant whether it is today or 2013. Opamps, HDAMS are part of it.

To understand what Hometheaterhifi said about the AV8801's technical review, you probably should also read the following too to get a better picture of what he seemed to be saying about the 8801 and 8805:

A key takeaway: circuit quality in the direct mode (stereo or 7.1) is almost always invariant to AVR prices in the range of $400 to $2,000. As examples, the $250 Yamaha RX-V367 and Marantz AV8801 ($3000) use the same Renesas LSI chip (R2A15220FP). With the LSI analog chip in these products, the sound of the direct mode is relatively constant, although a more robust power supplies, addition a quality output buffer and enhanced DC blocking capacitor quality can make small differences.

Marantz AV8805 Processor Review - HomeTheaterHifi.com

The AV8805 is the latest generation flagship A/V processor and preamp from Marantz. Featuring support for up to 13.2 channels of immersive sound, the...

hometheaterhifi.com

The AV8805 does not use an AVR LSI chip but multiple chips which perform a single function. See the accompanying article “Good News, Marantz says no AVR LSI for you.” for more details. In this unit, two AVR LSI chips are replaced by 9 new chips from New Japan Radio and 6 added opamps. The 120.5dB SNR is a result of the change. The AKM AK4490 DAC noise is dominating the noise from the new analog chipset.

The strange non-harmonic spurs that were all over the AV8802 spectra have all but disappeared. We saw some non-harmonic noise in the low-level linearity test spectra (-90dBFS) compared to two-channel products but we are not showing the plot. We need to test another AVR, of similar complexity on the digital side to the AVR8805 before we can start showing these plots.

Harmonic distortion has not improved from the AV8802 to the AV8805 as was expected from the new chips. The change in the worst-case THD specification between the chips used in the AV8802 and AV8805 points to a 50% distortion reduction. We know the distortion is not from the AKM AK4490 DAC since the THD increased as we changed the output level from 2VRMS to 4VRMS with the volume control.

It is possible the HDAM discrete circuits past the new analog ICs are the dominant distortion source. The only way to find out is to open up the case and start probing internal boards which is not something we do here at Secrets.

“The marketing material for the AV8801 states that HDAM technology is used in the line driver and that the HDAM is made from discrete blocks and no opamps. Based on my analysis, the actual circuitry has no HDAM blocks and uses two opamps which ultimately define the performance of the circuit. ”

Here is the response from Paul Belanger, Technical Product Manager for Marantz:

“We use a discretely designed circuit in lieu of a standard Op-amp. The HDAM itself is sandwiched between 2 Op-amps in a diamond buffer configuration – the 8801 features 13 of these “discrete” HDAM boards – 1 for each channel. The HDAM SA2 is the circuitry sitting between the OP-Amps and is mainly defining the characteristic of the sound. The OP-Amps might not look best on the data sheet, however in this configuration with the HDAM and current feedback topology it was our choice for a good balance in sound”

So Marantz confirmed that for the 8801, they did use Opamp ICs with the HDAM itself sandwiched between them. In the HTHF's review on the 8805, Dr. Rich confirmed that those Opamps have been replaced with the block that is all discrete.

Edit;

Basically I believe that Marantz tunes their gear by ear in the final stages, and I think that’s where some of problems are. Of course that’s my opinion, but look what Denons doing, and look with Marantz is doing. Their hdams are their claim to fame and have been for over 10 years. Can you say marketing?

Sorry I edited this after someone liked it.

Seems like marketing to me based on published technical information. No need to be an engineer, just take a look of the typical signal flow block diagram (I simplified it for just a logical assessment):

Line in signal >>>>>DAC/DSP/OPA ICs >>>>>>VOL IC >>>>>HDAM (for 8801, its sandwiched between OPAs >>>>> FINAL OPA BUFFER (not in 8801)

So there are opamps and volume control chips in the signal path ahead of the HDAM, and even after the HDAM in the newer models such as 6014, likely the 7015/7705 at least for the FL/FR channels, so the claim that the HDAMs improved slew rate is illogical (think in terms of bottleneck analysis)

About tuning their gear by ear in the final stages, what final stages? If it is really "final", then it would only be effective if they use the analog discrete HDAMs as sort of tone control of harmonic generators. Others who have analysis the HDAM circuits will tell you that is not the case, if that's the case Dr. Rich would have said something about it...I would think.. Besides, if you look at the measurements, frequency response appeared to be practically flat, distortions seemed below threshold of audibility, so what changed the "sound"? I think if you read more on the topics you will also conclude those claims were really for marketing reasons.

If they really did tune their products by ears, I would never bought any Marantz products unless and until I know what exactly they were aiming for in the "ear tuning" process..

 

[peng]

Also, how come the units without HDAM don’t have better performance. My 7013 had it but if I recall the until the 6015 which was 2020 all previous lower models did not have HDAM in it. Why are those not measuring like denon or do they?

It is not true that models previous to the 6015 did not have HDAMs in it. The fact is, HDAMs have been used in Marantz AVRs for many years prior to 2020. For example, the 2013 SR7008 has them. The slimline series such as the NR1609 (likely the newer models too) don't have them, so I would think they may measured like Denon, but who knows..

 

[MacCali]

It is not true that models previous to the 6015 did not have HDAMs in it. The fact is, HDAMs have been used in Marantz AVRs for many years prior to 2020. For example, the 2013 SR7008 has them. The slimline series such as the NR1609 (likely the newer models too) don't have them, so I would think they may measured like Denon, but who knows..

Hmmmm you are right, just checked the other 2019 models and they got too. I guess maybe it’s not in there marketing shenanigans or it maybe, could be incorrect here as well, they use the new HDAM in the 7013. Honestly no clue, think there’s versions of it right. It’s been almost 2 years since I bought it and my primary goal was to have a lot of channels and decent power.

My AVR was my first piece of audio equipment I ever purchased. Also my budget was only ~1000 since I had no income, overall it worked out

Unfortunately a month after purchasing is when I realized ASR existed lol. In addition, this unit made me realize I prefer stereo over headphones which saved me a lot of money in the long run. Even with all of its imperfections it did help in the long run and open new doors to audio pleasure

 

[peng]

they use the new HDAM in the 7013. Honestly no clue, think there’s versions of it right. It’s been almost 2 years since I bought it and my primary goal was to have a lot of channels and decent power.

I hate to say you are not correct on this either. Do you have a link to your source? It seems your source isn't very reliable.

I actually double checked, compared the schematics and can tell you the HDAM version changed from the SR7008 to SR7009 and from AV8801 to AV8802.

There has been no change since SR7009 and AV8802, same version in the AV7705 and the AV8805 as well. The SR8015 reportedly, by Gene of Audioholics, to version SA2 so hopefully the upcoming models would standardize on the SA2 version, that I found, has been used in their integrated amp PM series such as the PM6005.

 

[MacCali]

I hate to say you are not correct on this either. Do you have a link to your source? It seems your source isn't very reliable.

I actually double checked, compared the schematics and can tell you the HDAM version changed from the SR7008 to SR7009 and from AV8801 to AV8802.

There has been no change since SR7009 and AV8802, same version in the AV7705 and the AV8805 as well. The SR8015 reportedly, by Gene of Audioholics, to version SA2 so hopefully the upcoming models would standardize on the SA2 version, that I found, has been used in their integrated amp PM series such as the PM6005.

Yea wouldn’t doubt I am incorrect. At that time I was purchasing things based on buzzwords and YT reviewers. HDAM wasn’t a factor on my purchase as mentioned.

I don’t know what the hell HDAM is now lol, besides the fact it should probably not be there if they want better measurements.

As we discussed before if it’s hard to tell what a bad unit sounds like, ie that band camp amp, this unit with nearly double the sinad would be even more difficult to differentiate.

I got my 4K player which was the reason we had that preamp discussion above and want to get the best performance to see if I can get an audible improvement and better immersion. Even though probably sinad has nothing to do with or maybe it does. At least it won’t be lossy compressed audio

 

[MacCali]

New Cinema series coming with some having the sa2 HDAM’s for everyone anticipating something hopeful

 

[dlaloum]

The even better news would be if Marantz just eliminate the discrete HDAMs with high quality OP amp ICs, and likely lower their overall cost in the process too. But again, they are not going to do it because...

Because that would be Denon....

 

[MacCali]

Because that would be Denon....

“It’s not musical enough bro” -Marantz