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Marantz AV8805A Review (AV Processor)

peng

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sadly as much as I want to own the very best with zero distortion or bugs ill be honest in saying my speaker setup would do it no justice. I have a large open living room with all windows. the dining area is the more open area. I have two inwall speakercraft cinema aim5 inwall each side of the 65inch samsung. The rest of my setup is all in ceiling klipsch pro-180-rpc-lcr with 2 front and 2 rear of listener(actually more directly above and to left amd right of the listener on the couch and one center above the samsung I also have one front mounted in wall iw 14inch subs using peachtree 220 amp for 400w per ch. this basically makes me have to fake atmos using the front 2 ceilings as height

Just curious, in that case why spend so much on a preamp/processor, why not just an AVR, Yamaha or Denon should do just as well right?
 

twokdesigns

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although the setup is weak I have noticed big differences using the marantz av8805a with just my rotel rkb 8100 vs over the previous avrs I have owned. the previous sr7012 sounded decent but I wanted better seperation and that was achieved with the 8805 and rotel. then I decided that I wanted to make ready for options on moving to a new location and just got hooked on various setups. when i tried arcam and anthem with so many firware bugs I didnt want it to become a hobby I constantly had to fiddle with so I backtracked when finding nothing at this time is really ready and opted for the yamaha setup being 4k less overall
 

peng

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although the setup is weak I have noticed big differences using the marantz av8805a with just my rotel rkb 8100 vs over the previous avrs I have owned. the previous sr7012 sounded decent but I wanted better seperation and that was achieved with the 8805 and rotel. then I decided that I wanted to make ready for options on moving to a new location and just got hooked on various setups. when i tried arcam and anthem with so many firware bugs I didnt want it to become a hobby I constantly had to fiddle with so I backtracked when finding nothing at this time is really ready and opted for the yamaha setup being 4k less overall

I am sorry to say this but it seems contradictory, to me anyway, that on one hand you don't seem to think the measurements such as ASR would make much of audible difference because of your speakers and room yet you could notice audible difference between AVPs/AVRs, even between the SR7012 and AV8805. I couldn't help but to think the difference heard might just disappear in a controlled bling tests. That's just me, surely it is what you heard that matters.
 

twokdesigns

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I understand your point and anything is possible. differences were so slight that it could be likely my desire to hear a difference rather than any actual difference. But in that case I suppose there will be no way to be dissapointed in my yamaha choice lol.
 

twokdesigns

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secondly I do believe that have a amplllified source that can provide the equal power to all speakers rather than limit the power of say the surroubds has given me the option to increase manually those speakers so that the surround is heard better in the areas that are problematic due to the room. is this also contradictory?
 

peng

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I understand your point and anything is possible. differences were so slight that it could be likely my desire to hear a difference rather than any actual difference. But in that case I suppose there will be no way to be dissapointed in my yamaha choice lol.

Thank you for the feedback, I was concerned you might take it the wrong way..:)
 

RichB

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I may be wrong but I would think natural should mean neutral, and as such, a "warm" sound may not necessarily be natural by definition.

Bench measurements typically use a load resistor, and people would claim that even amps with flat FR will sound different because loudspeakers are not resistors. So in the past, when I was playing with Room EQ, I would also measure the FR of my AVRs, and amps as well using my speakers. Incidentally, I just did one a few days ago, to compare the A21 with my new Purifi amp made by VTV.

The A21 is class AB but Parasound told me it would run in class A up to about 8 W, so for the comparison test I did, it would have been in Class A. In this test you can see that my class A and class D amps have the same FR from 15 to 22,050 Hz. On the THD+N side, at below their rated power output limits, both would be at levels below the threshold of audibility so there shouldn't be any intentional low order even harmonics at play that could contribute to the so called warm sound. I do believe some amps may not have been designed for neutrality/tranparency, but I also happen to believe the vast majority claims of the different sound signatures between amps with similarly good specs and measurements are imagined. People often talked about its their ears and brains that they trust, when in fact it is quite likely it's their eyes and brains doing the hearing and trusting because they invariably did not do such comparison listening in controlled blind tests.

If it helps you decide on class AB vs class D, you can always visit a high end dealer who typically would stock both, and you can do a comparison yourself. I wonder if they would let you do some level matched blind tests using analog input and direct mode only though. Or you can just trust the specs and measurements and save yourself some money. To be clear, I am just offering my opinion based on my own experience, and to limited extent, my technical knowledge.


View attachment 157688
What is the time window for these measurement?
Cannot timing affect act like smoothing?

- Rich
 

peng

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What is the time window for these measurement?
Cannot timing affect act like smoothing?

- Rich

Just the default setting, 500 ms if I remember right.

Edit: Just checked, it was 500 ms

This one is for 1/48 smoothing, that's wouldn't be too meaningful in practical sense for such high resolution though. The Umik-1 mic itself isn't going to be accurate to better than +/- 1 dB either.


1633802138063.png
 
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twokdesigns

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so not have the technical knowhow you have i need to ask another question. I am unaware if the difference of distribution amplifier in class d (rotel rkb 8100 v3) vs the class a/b of the yamaha mx-a5200 I do kno2 it foesnt determin whether front or surround soeakers get more or less power but it has seemed in my case nice to be able to adjust that i dependantly as I had done with the anthem avm70 using the rotel. Putting aside my poor speaker setup and replacing with studio quality in tge right locations what difference would I notice between these two amps?
 

Mars2k

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What am I missing? Where is the technical data for ananlogue straight through xlr in xlr out?...It seems to me you guys are treating this strictly as a digital processor. What about as a media hub and all of its switching capability. XLR in and RCA surround in? where can I find those capabilties elswhere? No other surround proc is this price range has XLR in. Not NAD, Emotiva, Monolith or Anthem not even Trinnov
I already have a pretty respectable multichannel DAC/streamer. A fully modded Oppo UDP 205. For those of you saying “I rather have the Denon” ok so what do I do with my expensive XLR inter connects an ATI N-Core amps for 15 channels. The only thing I would ever use the processor for in either this or a Denon receiver would be fortmos and even that gets handled pretty wel by my Apple TV box.
So back to my question how does this 8805a stack up as an analogue switching hub? How clean is the analogue?
 

Kal Rubinson

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What am I missing? Where is the technical data for ananlogue straight through xlr in xlr out?...It seems to me you guys are treating this strictly as a digital processor.
Ain't that what it is?
What about as a media hub and all of its switching capability. XLR in and RCA surround in?
I use those inputs with external XLR-connected amps but, if you insist on analog pass-through, the functions are limited.
 

Mars2k

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Thanks Kal it’s a dilemma. And by limited you mean only 1? Not even the Trinnov has balanced in. Few AV processors are actually good processors the ones that are, like Trinnov Datasat or Theta, have stratospheric pricing. That’s part of my point here. I offboard all but a tiny fraction of what I listen to, to external processors. I buy preamp/procs like the 8805 as switching hubs based on how well they treat an analogue signal without their processors in the way.
This site keeps reviewing units in this market segment with similar results. Something along these lines "you can do better with a cheaper DAC". Well of course you can but how do you get 15 of those to sync up, talk to each other and spit out an analouge signal you can use with some grouping of amplifiers. And how exactly would you hook your record player up to all that and still hear a purely analogue sound?
I find it remarkable that there is no mention of that in this review.
I might suggest expanding the usefullness or this sort of review by including some information of how this thing performs simply as an analogue preamp.
 

Kal Rubinson

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I offboard all but a tiny fraction of what I listen to, to external processors. I buy preamp/procs like the 8805 as switching hubs based on how well they treat an analogue signal without their processors in the way.
Understood. In my main system, I use a Coleman 7.1SW to switch among multichannel analog inputs from my DACs and player. In the HT system, I have used the analog inputs of the 8805 to connect the output from a MCH DAC to my amps but not at the moment.
 

Mars2k

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Yeah I have outboard pre-amps for vinyl, have had Lumin dacs before and now my Modwright Oppo 205 has multi channel rca, or stereo XLR. Also the Oppo has a clock upgrade, its HDMI audio only is jitter free but it will not stream Atmos or Aural as a Roon endpoint but will on disc.
The AppleTv will stream Tidal Atmos. Apple Tv processes Tidal Atmos connected to the 8805 via HDMI. The Apple TV passes a great signal BTW
I actually pass the Oppo 2 channel XLR though a Bryston BP 26 preamp, and yes it sounds better, The Marantz handles surround duties via the analogue out from the Oppo or its Jitter free HDMI (for Atmost), Can you tell I didn't buy Marantz for its processing?
 

peng

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What am I missing? Where is the technical data for ananlogue straight through xlr in xlr out?...It seems to me you guys are treating this strictly as a digital processor.
So back to my question how does this 8805a stack up as an analogue switching hub? How clean is the analogue?
You have the specs in the manual and the bench test measurements from ASR, so what else are you looking for?

As to how clean, that's relative, compared to the Denon AVR and the Marantz SR8015 it is not as clean, but if you must use XLR then those won't work for you. Sad but true..
 

Mars2k

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Well how about THD+N into RCA and XLR at 1Khz and 10Khz. with no digital in signal path. My apologies if I missed that
 

peng

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Well how about THD+N into RCA and XLR at 1Khz and 10Khz. with no digital in signal path. My apologies if I missed that

Unfortunately most bench tests don't do such a test especially on AVPs, HTHI did do it in this case but you might have read it ready. If not, here's the link:


ASR did measure the frequency dependencies on AVRs, but only at the power amp outputs. It should still give you some idea though, obviously the THD+N at the pre out would be much lower.

index.php
 
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Mars2k

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Oh yes, well my point here is that a review of a product like this is not really complete without those measurements. And yes the Denon is a fine product...if it suits you needs. So how would we compare the Denon analogue performance to the 8805 if those numbers are not included in this review?

Looking at the 8805 as a one stop shop for all your digital processing needs would prove to be disapointing.
On the other hand acknowledging the lackluster processing performance and approaching this unit from the perspective that you use it primarily as a preamp, that’s another matter altogether. Its performance is pretty good. I listen to vinyl quite a bit and have a very respectable out board surround processing unit (Roon enabled) that can pass a 7.1 analogue signal to this pre-amp. Look to the 8805 for its strengths

If you ignore that capability and the other 8805A virtues such as 8K video switching. You are short sheeting it. I’ve own several Marantz AV processors (among other brands) over the years each of which have provided good value relative to other brands in the market for what I expect of them…

What other AV processors at this price point are recommended on this site? Near zero right? On the SINAD chart page 1. The NAD 33 is 2 channel right? The Trinnov costs 4 times as much. The Denon 8500 is a receiver that has no surround analogue in and cannot compare to my Modwright Oppo 205. Datasat 4x the cost, Monolith still no surround in, have they worked out the whole Roon don’t work thing? Is the Mini DSP multichannel? No
Just say up front the only thing we think matters about any generic box we get on our work bench is digital processing. Never mind the utility vis a vis what you actually want to use it for.

I’m glad to see the reviews but even in the original early 2019 8805 review Amirm only discusses output from the 8805’s lackluster digital section and fails to mention it’s pure analogue performance which is respectable. Shouldn’t that temper his comparisons to less expensive units?
 
D

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the Marantz AV8805A Audio/Video Processor (no amplifier). It is on kind loan from a member to see how the switch to ESS DAC has impacted the performance of this processor. AV8805A costs US $4999. I previously tested the AV8805 version.

Even though the cardboard box says AV8805A, there is no such designation on the unit itself, front or back:

View attachment 148877

View attachment 148878

You all know I am not a fan of Marantz designs. The porthole display is too small causing you to flip down the panel to see what the AVR is doing. If the porthole was pretty it would be one thing but I think it is odd looking. The back panel is silliness in the extreme with gold plated obsolete video inputs such as component and composite.

Anyway, the unit came with the latest firmware (owner had tested it first) and I performed a factory reset before testing.

Marantz AV8805A Measurements
I am using a mix of Toslink and HDMI inputs for the tests so let's look at both in our dashboard:
View attachment 148879

View attachment 148880

SINAD when adjusted to the same 4 volt output is a hair better than before:
View attachment 148881

There are a lot of spurious tones however. Their levels are too low to impact SINAD due to high distortion but still, it shows lack of good engineering hygiene.

Unlike a number of other Marantz products, the top performance is reached at 4 volts output which is good:

View attachment 148883

Dynamic range is 3 dB worse than before:
View attachment 148882

IMD distortion shows less saturation than with the older DACs:

View attachment 148884

Sadly the same slow filter is used for the DAC:

View attachment 148885

Predictably jitter spectrum is not clean:

View attachment 148886

Multitone is decent likely because it has lower levels than our other test signals:
View attachment 148887

Linearity is a bit worse than before but in the same ballpark:
View attachment 148888

The slow filter comes to haunt the THD+N vs frequency test:

View attachment 148889

The spurious tones that should have been filtered were not causing them to sink SINAD at higher frequencies. Switching to 192 kHz removes that issue but still shows that performance is nothing to write home about being many dBs worse than our $99 reference DAC.

Conclusions
Performance here is not awful but clearly could be a lot better as sister group Denon has shown. $5,000 is a ton of money for an AV product so performance needs to be much more optimized than it is. Anyway, good news is that switch to ESS DAC from AKM has not resulted in any harm. Overall performance remains quite similar.

----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/


Thank you for the detailed review.


Disappointing in my opinion for that kind of money. I will be hanging onto my older Marantz pre-pro, until someone makes a $3000-$5000
AVP that measures well. honestly we shouldn’t have to pay any more than that for something very good.

I contacted Marantz customer service over this, because I’m going to be in the market for an AVP within the next year or two. So my question was is this kind of quality going to continue? This line needs a revamping IMO, and they’ve been milking this same design for over 10 years. I also don’t have a problem switching brands to something that measures better.
 

tparm

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Thank you for the detailed review.


Disappointing in my opinion for that kind of money. I will be hanging onto my older Marantz pre-pro, until someone makes a $3000-$5000
AVP that measures well. honestly we shouldn’t have to pay any more than that for something very good.

I contacted Marantz customer service over this, because I’m going to be in the market for an AVP within the next year or two. So my question was is this kind of quality going to continue? This line needs a revamping IMO, and they’ve been milking this same design for over 10 years. I also don’t have a problem switching brands to something that measures better.
One can only assume when the new AVP comes out with the revised HDAM boards (from the 8015) it'll measure better if measurements are your main concern. And if so, buy an Anthem. I have the AVM 70 and thoroughly enjoy it.
 
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