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Marantz Cinema 40 AVR Review

Rate this AVR:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 8 3.8%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 50 23.8%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 127 60.5%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 25 11.9%

  • Total voters
    210

amirm

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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.
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Dolby Atmos Vision Review.jpg

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:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Dolby Atmos Vision back panel Review.jpg


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:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR DAC Measurement.png

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:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR DAC Toslink Measurement.png

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:
Best AVR DAC Review.png


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:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR DAC THD vs Level Measurement.png


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:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR DAC Toslink SINAD vs Volume Position Measurement.png


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:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR DAC Toslink DNR Measurement.png


IMD is not great as DACs are concerned but in the context of AV products, we bend the rules and call it good:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR DAC Toslink IMD Distortion Measurement.png


Multitone response is where the rest of the measurements are:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR DAC Toslink Multiutone Measurement.png


50 Hz response is the same.
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR DAC 50 Hz Measurement.png


AV products tend to generate suboptimal linearity but results are fairly good for the class:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR DAC Toslink Linearity Measurement.png


We have a pronounced jitter source at 6 kHz that gets worse with HDMI:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR DAC Toslink Jitter Measurement.png


I am relieved that Marantz now has a proper filter but its attenuation needs to be improved:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR DAC Toslink Filter Measurement.png


Frequency response is flat which we didn't have in previous generations:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR DAC Toslink Frequency response Measurement.png


The less than ideal filter impacts wideband THD+N measurements:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR DAC Toslink THD vs Frequency Measurement.png


We can see that clearly by performing a wideband spectrum analysis of 1 kHz:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR DAC Toslink 2 kHz FFT Measurement.png


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:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Amplifier Toslink Digital Measurement.png

That is decent performance which improves a bit with analog input:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Amplifier Analog Measurement.png


Average for all amplifiers tested is in low 80s so the Cinema 40 is doing good here:
Best AVR Amplifier Review.png


And oh, no warm up issues as we saw in Cinema 70s AVR review:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Amplifier warm up Measurement.png


Noise performance is very good:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Amplifier Analog SNR Measurement.png


Frequency response is wide and unimpeded with analog input:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Amplifier Analog Frequency response Measurement.png


Crosstalk is disappointing:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Amplifier Analog Crosstalk Measurement.png


Same for 19 and 20 kHz tones:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Amplifier Analog 19 20 kHz Measurement.png


That's because distortion sharply rises at high frequencies:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Amplifier Analog Multitone Measurement.png


Which we can confirm in our power vs frequency sweeps:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Amplifier Analog Power 4 ohm vs frequency Measu...png


We do have good bit of power with overall good performance:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Amplifier Analog Power 4 ohm Measurement.png

Some kind of feedback loop is keeping distortion constant but allows it to rise early in the sweep.
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Amplifier Analog Power 8 ohm Measurement.png


We naturally have some headroom as the power supply has to feed more than the two channels we test:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Amplifier Analog Max peak Power 4 ohm vs freque...png


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:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Amplifier Analog Power vs Impedance Measurement.png

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:
Marantz Cinema 40 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Amplifier Analog Power vs Impedance Watts Measu...png


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/
 
@amirm Shouldn't AVR/AVP be SINAD ranked based on HDMI input result, not toslink? So this is actually only 90/92dB SINAD i.e. pretty bad?
It should as HDMI is certainly the most common source. The "issue" if you call it is that I use my computer as HDMI source. Everyone else uses an HDMI module in the AP analyzer. From past interactions, it seems that the AP generates a cleaner HDMI signal (as it should). Is a standard HDMI source (BD player) as clean as the AP HDMI module or my PC? I don't know. I need to measure that at some point.

Meanwhile I asked AP how much their new HDMI module costs. I think they said $7,000! And it won't fit my version of the APx555 to boot. So I can't do any comparisons.

As a result of all of this, I am giving the benefit of doubt that HDMI should be as clean as Toslink and go with that. Yes, I keep bending the rules for AV products. What can I say. :(

The Manufacturer Specifications for this beast of an AVR are long and detailed. To post them would eat up multiple pages of this review. To facilitate access to this information I am going to just drop a link. This is in “no way” is any form of endorsement or collaboration with the Manufacturer. As none exist.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
This is the most important comparison for me… it does show that the Marantz is different from the Denon.
Well, I screwed that up for you by using different volume control range. :p
 
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.
View attachment 335356
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:
View attachment 335357

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:
View attachment 335358
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:
View attachment 335359
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:
View attachment 335360

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:
View attachment 335363

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:
View attachment 335364

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:
View attachment 335361

IMD is not great as DACs are concerned but in the context of AV products, we bend the rules and call it good:
View attachment 335362

Multitone response is where the rest of the measurements are:
View attachment 335365

50 Hz response is the same.
View attachment 335368

AV products tend to generate suboptimal linearity but results are fairly good for the class:
View attachment 335369

We have a pronounced jitter source at 6 kHz that gets worse with HDMI:
View attachment 335370

I am relieved that Marantz now has a proper filter but its attenuation needs to be improved:
View attachment 335371

Frequency response is flat which we didn't have in previous generations:
View attachment 335372

The less than ideal filter impacts wideband THD+N measurements:
View attachment 335373

We can see that clearly by performing a wideband spectrum analysis of 1 kHz:
View attachment 335374

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:
View attachment 335375
That is decent performance which improves a bit with analog input:
View attachment 335376

Average for all amplifiers tested is in low 80s so the Cinema 40 is doing good here:
View attachment 335377

And oh, no warm up issues as we saw in Cinema 70s AVR review:
View attachment 335378

Noise performance is very good:
View attachment 335379

Frequency response is wide and unimpeded with analog input:
View attachment 335380

Crosstalk is disappointing:
View attachment 335381

Same for 19 and 20 kHz tones:
View attachment 335382

That's because distortion sharply rises at high frequencies:
View attachment 335383

Which we can confirm in our power vs frequency sweeps:
View attachment 335384

We do have good bit of power with overall good performance:
View attachment 335385
Some kind of feedback loop is keeping distortion constant but allows it to rise early in the sweep.
View attachment 335386

We naturally have some headroom as the power supply has to feed more than the two channels we test:
View attachment 335387

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:
View attachment 335388
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:
View attachment 335389

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/
So, they can, if they want to :)
 
AVR testing standards is a good candidate to send to manufacturers, as they are somewhat behind the curve compared to other electronics. Even better if there is an approved sticker to add to the thousands they already proudly display on such products. :)
 
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Marantz Cinema 40 Reactive Load Testing
Tnx :cool:
Such measurements would also be interesting for multiple channels driven in parallel. DLART will be offered in the future and it would be very interesting to see whether such a receiver can operate four potent floorstanding speakers including co-optimisation in full-range.
 
Such measurements would also be interesting for multiple channels driven in parallel.
The 2-channel load that enables this costs $25,000, comes in a massive box and weighs 70 pounds. Unless you have $100K to send to me, that is not going to happen. :)

There is also the risk of blowing up power supplies, amps, etc.
 
Similar to Denon X3600H here. Improvement from Marantz but Denon measurement is still better.
IMG_0904.jpeg
 
handling down to 2 ohm
The values for 2ohm were determined in the imp.sel. 8ohm position, correct? I don't know the exact protection design of this AVR, but couldn't it be that even more current is tolerated for 2ohm in the 4ohm position?
Has anything like this ever been measured?
 
ok so for the understanding of the other 99 percent non engeneering background readers of this forum... is it correct to deduce that the C40 is far far superior to the X4800 and the price difference is justified....?

because everywhere we read people say the x4800/C40 have identical components inside and sound the same and perform the same and that all the C40 gives over X4800 is asthetics.
 
It should as HDMI is certainly the most common source. The "issue" if you call it is that I use my computer as HDMI source. Everyone else uses an HDMI module in the AP analyzer. From past interactions, it seems that the AP generates a cleaner HDMI signal (as it should). Is a standard HDMI source (BD player) as clean as the AP HDMI module or my PC? I don't know. I need to measure that at some point.

Meanwhile I asked AP how much their new HDMI module costs. I think they said $7,000! And it won't fit my version of the APx555 to boot. So I can't do any comparisons.

As a result of all of this, I am giving the benefit of doubt that HDMI should be as clean as Toslink and go with that. Yes, I keep bending the rules for AV products. What can I say. :(
But using different source/input makes your AVR/AVP SINAD list invalid.
For example, Denon AVR-X8500H, you measured 102/103dB SINAD with HDMI input. So is that real? If it is, then why did this Marantz give so low HDMI input SINAD?
What about Arcam AV40, it measured almost the same as this Marantz via HDMI, was that real or just your PC?
 
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.

Many thanks for an excellent review that includes measuring the pre out level up to 4 V, and reactive load tests on the power amps down to 2 Ohms. I think you may be the first reviewer who included those two tests in one single bench test session. Again, thank you for the nice desert!!

It looks like D+M did manage to squeeze the 93 dB SINAD spec TI PCM5102A dry, totally dry. They should patent their DAC chip implementation for achieving the seemingly impossible 98 dB SINAD you measured on the pre outs using Toslink. Even if they use differential implementation by doubling the number of the PCM chips, it doesn't seem possible to reach 98 dB when the spec for the chip all by itself is only 93 dB. Differential implementation mainly benefits in term of may be up to 6 dB noise reduction at the most anyway.

1702990857459.png


Based on the pre out performance of the Cinema 40 and the AVR-X4800H, may be D+M/Masimo has secretly replaces the PCM5102A with a better one such as the ESS's ES9010K2M??
 
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Hi, are these your own pics? Any chance to find out the output transistors model? Thanks!
 
i must be going blind

how much power at 8 ohms?


also this is twice the price of the denon 3800 so.... make your peace, pay the price?
 
This is the most important comparison for me… it does show that the Marantz is different from the Denon.


View attachment 335390
View attachment 335391

You seem surprised? I wonder why, I thought we have seen enough ASR reviews to know that it is not going to be identical don't we? You can say the same between the two Marantz AV7705, two AV8805 and two SR7015 are different too, that's a fact by the way...:D

Regardless, I would add that there is no evidence that shows the little difference mean anything other than meet the eye. I would admit that without comparing their service manuals, there could be significant differences, but if you compare the service manuals of the previous models such as the AVR-X3600H vs SR6014, you will know that the same people who keep saying how different D vs M are based on hearsay, incorrect information, when the real differences are HDAM vs no HDAM and the use of slow vs standard dac filters.

To me, based on the measurements, D+M has done a fantastic job implementing the preamp/dac in their C40 and AVR-X4800H, or even the AVR-X3800H practically speaking. The only part I don't like, not that I think it matters audibly speaking, is their poorer performance in IMD, and I wonder why, any ideas?
 
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