Marantz Cinema 70s AVR Review

[restorer-john]

The graph after this sentence is not the right one.

Just shoot @amirm a quick PM if you see those little typos. He's more likely to see it and fix it quickly.

 

[amirm]

The graph after this sentence is not the right one.

Thanks. Fixed.

 

[René - Acculution.com]

I actually own one of these, but the fronts are driven by my integrated. I like it a lot.

 

[mcdn]

Pre-pro kind of negates the small form factor unless you are using active speakers.

What do you mean? Is there a pre-pro you would recommend for a similar price?

 

[restorer-john]

There's clearly an awful lot of work in an AVR review as we can see here.

Even then, with half a day's work, there's no touching on the phono stage, tuner, multichannel amplifier performance and surround decoding performance. Then there's the bluetooth, WiFi and LAN capabilities. Too much if you ask me, unless you are getting paid a lot of money.

Much appreciated Amir. As far as compact good looking, 1st tier brand products go, this Marantz should do better.

 

[pogo]

Reactive Load Test Results?

 

[restorer-john]

Reactive Load Test Results?

See post above...

 

[jaakkopetteri]

If only they just omitted the amplifiers completely and gave us XT32/Dirac instead. The pre-outs seem transparent enough for 99% of people, I dare say even among audiophiles (at least if you don't mention the SINAD)

Could have gone for a half-rack sized enclosure while at it - it's not such a small market either. I find it frustrating how companies like Canton and Nubert make mediocre attempts at compact pre-pros while bigger companies are not even trying. Would it eat too much into other products' sales or am I just overestimating the demand?

 

[respice finem]

...Would it eat too much into other products' sales or am I just overestimating the demand?

I think it's both. Paying more for an AV Preamp than a "full" AVR is another symptom of this "sickness". As a manufacturer, you won't be inclined to develop new products, if you can't expect making much profit with them. So, low demand = low production = high price.

 

[jaakkopetteri]

I think it's both. Paying more for an AV Preamp than a "full" AVR is another symptom of this "sickness".

I have to say I find the comments about the 70s making no sense when you can buy a 3800H for 200$ more rather strange. People seem happy making compromises in speaker size (although you always have some people also saying a 10" is not a real subwoofer) but compact receivers for some reason are never given any slack. Or, people buy passive speakers so that they can change the amp if needed, yet prepros and separate amps are considered as heresy.

I agree that the 70s isn't at a great spot, but it could well be.

 

[Thomas_A]

@amirm did you try to set volume lower in the amp test (higher input)? Eg 75 instead of 82.5.

 

[Koeitje]

This is just e-waste. Complete waste of everyone's time and resources.

 

[Koeitje]

Pre-pro kind of negates the small form factor unless you are using active speakers.

Mwah. My tv cabinet isn't very tall and is made for things like a simple cable box. If this fits in there in terms of height it would be something for me. Next to it there is plenty of space for amplification, I just don't have the height available for a regular avr.

 

[Waxx]

That is way to much distortion, and not even the good ones, (low harmonics) but mainly IMD distortion. And even when it was mainly low harmonic distortion, that is not what you want from an AVR system. This is just crap in my opinion.

 

[AdamG]

There's clearly an awful lot of work in an AVR review as we can see here.

Even then, with half a day's work, there's no touching on the phono stage, tuner, multichannel amplifier performance and surround decoding performance. Then there's the bluetooth, WiFi and LAN capabilities. Too much if you ask me, unless you are getting paid a lot of money.

Much appreciated Amir. As far as compact good looking, 1st tier brand products go, this Marantz should do better.

And that’s not even touching on the Video processing side of this device. AVR’s have essentially become Audio Video dedicated computers. Then there’s room correction of some type. HDMI performance, Various Streaming Services performance (max throughput). I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to spend a full week testing out every attribute and functionality and still miss something. The ultimate problem with these devices is they try to do so many different things that they forget to do any of them well. I know Amir is happy to see the ass end of this kit being reboxed and shipped out before we all come up with a list of stuff we want him to test.

 

[EWL5]

What's the Denon equivalent of the Cinema 70? Does it exist?

 

[pma]

I am puzzled how they can achieve so bad amplifier performance. I would not be able to do it even if I wanted to do so . Maybe that’s a Big Guys trick.

 

[Thomas_A]

As mentioned, I think it is a good idea to test 5W with lower volume setting as the previous NR models seem to "clip" above volume 80 (0 dB). I've seen the same with nr1710. I never go above this volume level in practical use, unless there is a very weak source voltage. Bad it is, but anyhow, good to test this as well.

See thread: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/.../marantz-nr1200-stereo-receiver-review.44685/

 

[Tangband]

Hmm … the Marantz house sound I guess ?

I wonder when we get AVR:s with switched mode power supplies, tpa3255 chips and good dac implementation for half the price ?

 

[jaakkopetteri]

I wonder when we get AVR:s with switched mode power supplies, tpa3255 chips and good dac implementation for half the price ?

Might take a decade or two considering the Flex HT costs more than a Cinema 70s, without any amps OR decoding