Marantz Cinema 70s AVR Review

[DonR]

57 dB - thats a lot! For children´s room tape recorder of the 1970s....

You can see the PS struggling as indicated by the tones to the left of the fundamental. Only so much you can do with space and budget.

 

[Sal1950]

Coke Zero to be specific.

That contains carcinogens and is gonna kill ya.
Just use good ole natural sugar.

 

[TonyJZX]

do you yankees even get real sugar? you need to get mexican coke right?

yours is all HFCS?

but i kid... who doesnt like a real sugar Vanilla Coke w/ your choice of whiskey?

back to this game... this unit is $2,000 of our funny dollars here... the Denon x3800 is a little more

but if you're willing to put up with a lot of imperfections at this price you may as well go the S series of Denons like the S970 or the X1700/1800 series

pretty much close enough

 

[Sal1950]

but i kid... who doesnt like a real sugar Vanilla Coke w/ your choice of whiskey?

Me, give me a real sugar Pepsi any day.

 

[peng]

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.

May be if you try harder, you can too.

Others have done it!

For preamp/dac it beats at least one NAD (T778) that cost a lot more, and also beat an Anthem AVR, two Marantz Prepro that costs a couple tons more, Arcam, as well as a bunch more Denon, Yamaha, Emotiva preprot, Pioneer etc.

For the 5 W power amp test, it beats one Arcam, one NAD and one Anthem.

Again, if one can get it for <$1,000 street price, it is would be a great value!!

 

[SuicideSquid]

i am quite amused that even in this slimline unit Marantz has to throw in features that the opposition has... so even a compact unit has to have it

why does it have phono? am/fm? like who cares?

it has a slew of online features which i assume all work well, like wifi and ethernet... its like running water... it SHOULD just work

however i delved into the manual to find out it only supports very basic 4.2 bluetooth so SBC only

but it does do BT out to headphones (if you care about that shit)

BUT i'd say that if I was to have this unit and pass out everything to a set of cheap V3s and A07 Max units then it would perform well enough???

I have a Marantz 1607, a previous model with similar features in a similar form factor, and it was my primary AVR for several years. I never used the radio but I certainly used the other features extensively.

For people who are just looking for "good enough" on the audio front and want a smaller device that can act as their AV hub for multiple game consoles and audio sources these units really do fill a role. It's just a shame all they can manage is "passable" audio performance.

 

[restorer-john]

Me, give me a real sugar Pepsi any day.

When I do want a sugary drink, I want proper cane sugar in it. It might blow my sugar intake for half a week, but whatever.

 

[Sal1950]

When I do want a sugary drink, I want proper cane sugar in it. It might blow my sugar intake for half a week, but whatever.

Not to go too far OT but I never met a sugar substitute that didn't make me gag, not to mention they're all
seriously bad for you. I just can't drink that stuff, I'll just do without if I must. Over the last decade or so they've tried
to turn real sugar into hells worst demon. Yes it's a bunch of empty calories that will make us fat and diabetic prone but
that's about it, it doesn't cause cancer. Like most everything in life, most all things in moderation are just fine. I love the Lipton half&half tea/lemonade for daily thirst but it is really high in sugar, I find it too sweet for me. So I mix it 50/50 with water and end up with a tasty drink thats only about 50 calories per 12oz, I can live with that.

 

[amirm]

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

Did not. If you look at amp measurements you see that distortion is the problem, not noise:

Third harmonic is already at -70 dB which would set SINAD to 70 by itself. Add the others and you get the 68/69 SINAD. Changing volumes would only change noise.

On that front, I have standardized at THX's 29 dB gain so don't want to mix and match there.

 

[amirm]

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 tested with analog input which is not subject to such clipping. Even when testing with digital, this new generation of products don't clip anymore:

See how you just give up a bit of performance. Since the DAC has far less distortion than the amp, it doesn't matter anyway in the final response.

 

[amirm]

oh no, im keenly considering cinema 40/50. I'm very worried now. Good sir, when is the reviews expected?

Must happen before Christmas so look for it "soon."

 

[peng]

Must happen before Christmas so look for it "soon."

Any chance you can do the reactive load tests? At least one member seems obsessed on that test on an AVR to see how bad it coukd be, so it wouldn't hurt to do one for the C40. Then we can safely assumed the C50, X3800/4800H's will be similar.

 

[amirm]

Any chance you can do the reactive load tests? At least one member seems obsessed on that test on an AVR to see how bad it coukd be, so it wouldn't hurt to do one for the C40. Then we can safely assumed the C50, X3800/4800H's will be similar.

It is an expensive AVR that is outside of return window so I will have to get permission from owner with respect to chance of damage.

 

[ban25]

It is an expensive AVR that is outside of return window so I will have to get permission from owner with respect to chance of damage.

Ugh, I would say that's not worth it...

 

[Power Pop 23]

Regardless, if they ever drop to $799 (Canadian), like the NR1510, I will buy one for sure and use it as 2.1 preamp because I am impressed enough with 94 dB SINAD at 2 V. That's almost 20 dB better than the AV7705 and as good as the AV8805A

Be advised, the recently released Denon AVR-X1800H AVR has preamplifier outputs for the Front L/R channels. The predecessor X1700H did not - unless one counts 'Zone 2'.

Denon AVR-X1800H

7.2-channel home theatre receiver with Dolby Atmos®, Bluetooth®, Apple AirPlay® 2, and Amazon Alexa compatibility

www.crutchfield.ca

 

[Sal1950]

oh no, im keenly considering cinema 40/50. I'm very worried now. Good sir, when is the reviews expected?

Just go ahead a buy it from someone with good return policies.
Last time I bought something from Crutchfield they had "no questions asked and they paid return shipping".
Times may have changed though, do your homework.

 

[ban25]

Just go ahead a buy it from someone with good return policies.
Last time I bought something from Crutchfield they had "no questions asked and they paid return shipping".
Times may have changed though, do your homework.

He doesn't even need to wait for the review. The pre-pro and amp performance will be identical to the X4800H as measured here...

 

[gags11]

Erin recently measured a slimline A/V Processor, McIntosh MX100. It had 107db SINAD. Looks like a champ, just missing Dirac and no 8k.

I wonder how their larger processors will fair.

McIntosh MX100 A/V Processor Review

McIntosh MX100 A/V Processor Review

www.erinsaudiocorner.com

 

[Deleted member 48726]

You can see the PS struggling as indicated by the tones to the left of the fundamental. Only so much you can do with space and budget.

The 60 / 120 / 240 Hz pushing through?

 

[375HP2482]

When I do want a sugary drink, I want proper cane sugar in it. It might blow my sugar intake for half a week, but whatever.

Remember Jolt Cola? "All the sugar and twice the caffeine."

The grandaddy of energy drinks.