This is a review and detailed measurements of the Marantz Cinema 40 9.4 channel AV Receiver (AVR). It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $3,500.
As is typical in this class, you get a very large box. At least the look is unique and to my liking. The port hole display while limiting fits in the style.
Back panel as usual has hundreds of connections:
While I liked the remote on Marantz AV 10 I reviewed recently, in this instance had rather sticking and hard to use 4-way arrow buttons. I updated the unit to latest firmware and performed a factory reset for testing.
Marantz Cinema 40 DAC Measurements
I set the pre-outs to be only that (not driving speakers) and tested the left front and right front channels using HDMI input:
Usually I don't see a difference in "Pure Direct" mode here but as noted, we earned 2 dB for turning off some subsystems in the receiver. We gained more though by using Toslink:
Giving the benefit of doubt and going with this value of SINAD (ratio of noise+distortion), we get a reasonable ranking for an AV product:
Above is at volume level of 82.5 which on all Denon/Marantz products generates nominal 2 volts out. We can test at other levels first by sweeping the digital input level:
As you see, we already have the optimal output at 2 volts/volume of 82.5. As you crank up the volume, noise level increases so performance drops (green). You do get more output though if you need that at the expense of distortion. At 3.6 volt though, the preamp clips so best to not go above that.
We can alternatively keep the input at full digital level but crank up the volume 30 dB starting at volume level 58 dB going up to 88 dB:
I have put a cursor at 2 volt/82.5 volume level. All the way on the left is volume level of 58 dB which has a SINAD of 84.5 (13 dB loss relative to 2 volts out).
Would have been nice to land in green though. Form here on, I used Toslink unless noted otherwise. Noise performance is good for AV class:
IMD is not great as DACs are concerned but in the context of AV products, we bend the rules and call it good:
Multitone response is where the rest of the measurements are:
50 Hz response is the same.
AV products tend to generate suboptimal linearity but results are fairly good for the class:
We have a pronounced jitter source at 6 kHz that gets worse with HDMI:
I am relieved that Marantz now has a proper filter but its attenuation needs to be improved:
Frequency response is flat which we didn't have in previous generations:
The less than ideal filter impacts wideband THD+N measurements:
We can see that clearly by performing a wideband spectrum analysis of 1 kHz:
The tall spikes are the reason the previous graph looks so poor. Fortunately they are not audible.
Marantz Cinema 40 Amplifier Measurements
Let's start with the same Toslink input and see what we get at 5 watts:
That is decent performance which improves a bit with analog input:
Average for all amplifiers tested is in low 80s so the Cinema 40 is doing good here:
And oh, no warm up issues as we saw in Cinema 70s AVR review:
Noise performance is very good:
Frequency response is wide and unimpeded with analog input:
Crosstalk is disappointing:
Same for 19 and 20 kHz tones:
That's because distortion sharply rises at high frequencies:
Which we can confirm in our power vs frequency sweeps:
We do have good bit of power with overall good performance:
Some kind of feedback loop is keeping distortion constant but allows it to rise early in the sweep.
We naturally have some headroom as the power supply has to feed more than the two channels we test:
Marantz Cinema 40 Reactive Load Testing
For desert, we have some stress testing by varying the phase from -60 to +60 with resistance of 8 down to 2 ohm:
Ideal amp would keep its output voltage constant no matter what the load. Here we some drooping but good robustness, handling down to 2 ohm even though it is rated at 6 ohm! Even though voltage drops as impedance decreases, we still pump out a lot of power:
I should note that the amplifier never shut down even though it was pushed hard and into clipping. Very happy about that!
Conclusions
Our suite measurements show some progress toward a more uniform and performant AV product, far outperforming previous generation AV products from Marantz. Other than the weak attenuation of the filter, there are no major holes. I like to see the company attempt to climb up one step in total performance as to not make me stress over whether recommending it or not!
I am going to recommend the Marantz Cinema 40 AVR. It is expensive but delivers good enough performance.
------------
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/
As is typical in this class, you get a very large box. At least the look is unique and to my liking. The port hole display while limiting fits in the style.
Back panel as usual has hundreds of connections:
While I liked the remote on Marantz AV 10 I reviewed recently, in this instance had rather sticking and hard to use 4-way arrow buttons. I updated the unit to latest firmware and performed a factory reset for testing.
Marantz Cinema 40 DAC Measurements
I set the pre-outs to be only that (not driving speakers) and tested the left front and right front channels using HDMI input:
Usually I don't see a difference in "Pure Direct" mode here but as noted, we earned 2 dB for turning off some subsystems in the receiver. We gained more though by using Toslink:
Giving the benefit of doubt and going with this value of SINAD (ratio of noise+distortion), we get a reasonable ranking for an AV product:
Above is at volume level of 82.5 which on all Denon/Marantz products generates nominal 2 volts out. We can test at other levels first by sweeping the digital input level:
As you see, we already have the optimal output at 2 volts/volume of 82.5. As you crank up the volume, noise level increases so performance drops (green). You do get more output though if you need that at the expense of distortion. At 3.6 volt though, the preamp clips so best to not go above that.
We can alternatively keep the input at full digital level but crank up the volume 30 dB starting at volume level 58 dB going up to 88 dB:
I have put a cursor at 2 volt/82.5 volume level. All the way on the left is volume level of 58 dB which has a SINAD of 84.5 (13 dB loss relative to 2 volts out).
Would have been nice to land in green though. Form here on, I used Toslink unless noted otherwise. Noise performance is good for AV class:
IMD is not great as DACs are concerned but in the context of AV products, we bend the rules and call it good:
Multitone response is where the rest of the measurements are:
50 Hz response is the same.
AV products tend to generate suboptimal linearity but results are fairly good for the class:
We have a pronounced jitter source at 6 kHz that gets worse with HDMI:
I am relieved that Marantz now has a proper filter but its attenuation needs to be improved:
Frequency response is flat which we didn't have in previous generations:
The less than ideal filter impacts wideband THD+N measurements:
We can see that clearly by performing a wideband spectrum analysis of 1 kHz:
The tall spikes are the reason the previous graph looks so poor. Fortunately they are not audible.
Marantz Cinema 40 Amplifier Measurements
Let's start with the same Toslink input and see what we get at 5 watts:
That is decent performance which improves a bit with analog input:
Average for all amplifiers tested is in low 80s so the Cinema 40 is doing good here:
And oh, no warm up issues as we saw in Cinema 70s AVR review:
Noise performance is very good:
Frequency response is wide and unimpeded with analog input:
Crosstalk is disappointing:
Same for 19 and 20 kHz tones:
That's because distortion sharply rises at high frequencies:
Which we can confirm in our power vs frequency sweeps:
We do have good bit of power with overall good performance:
Some kind of feedback loop is keeping distortion constant but allows it to rise early in the sweep.
We naturally have some headroom as the power supply has to feed more than the two channels we test:
Marantz Cinema 40 Reactive Load Testing
For desert, we have some stress testing by varying the phase from -60 to +60 with resistance of 8 down to 2 ohm:
Ideal amp would keep its output voltage constant no matter what the load. Here we some drooping but good robustness, handling down to 2 ohm even though it is rated at 6 ohm! Even though voltage drops as impedance decreases, we still pump out a lot of power:
I should note that the amplifier never shut down even though it was pushed hard and into clipping. Very happy about that!
Conclusions
Our suite measurements show some progress toward a more uniform and performant AV product, far outperforming previous generation AV products from Marantz. Other than the weak attenuation of the filter, there are no major holes. I like to see the company attempt to climb up one step in total performance as to not make me stress over whether recommending it or not!
I am going to recommend the Marantz Cinema 40 AVR. It is expensive but delivers good enough performance.
------------
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/
