BTW: IDK which DAC chip this one uses, but many AVRs and AV processors use rather premium-ish DACs, yet deliver disappointing results. It would IMHO be hardly reasonable to think, that the manufacturers don't know how to implement them correctly. So, why is that? Cost cutting? General "design laziness"?
I bought one a few years ago. First I bought an expensive AVR furniture piece and much to my dismay, the spot for my even more expensive Denon receiver was not high enough. So I got the slim as a necessity. Then I tried various new speakers and sound bars which sounded pretty bad. Especially the Martin Logan slim as left right and center. So, now, I'm thinking it may not have been the speakers - it may be the Marantz?
OK, worse is also different
I think it’s just laziness on the part of their quality control. It almost looks like they don’t have the ability to measure their equipment. Even a refurbished unit should meet the specifications Marantz published.
I have 1509 in a small bedroom with Elac DBR 62 plus a KEF Q350 as center. Indeed is sounds adequate for my space and requirements, a bit low on power but no other audible issues. Audyssey and AutoEq however work poorly compared with Dirac in other rooms. It's not a new unit so I was quite surprised less than a year ago getting a firmware update. Spotify works perfectly on it.
Yes, I think it might be the ”Marantz house sound ” . The cost of doing it technicaly right is zero, so it must be deliberately. You see the same slow filter in almost all Marantz AVR:s . I also guess that some audiophiles actually prefere the sound of a slow digital filter .
Rather than the engineers, remember that Sound United use a "book" to maintain the historical approach of the different brands they own. This "Marantz sound" is probably described in that brand book, like the porthole. So the performance of products doesn't improve over time. Somebody needs to tell their marketing people that the aspiration to excellence is the thing to value from the earlier days of audio, not the sound quality that they could actually realise back then for their efforts. I suspect the engineers these days first design an excellent product, then try to build in that "sound", or claim to their bosses that the filter adds the sound.
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I'm using a Yamaha RX-S601D (model with DAB digital audio broadcasting instead of AM) since 2016. It's being used for TV only (I use a pair of Genelec 8260 in a separate room for serious music listening) and sometimes some background music from internet radio. It worked without issues so far. The small size was one of the reasons to buy it. Marantz has not been considered because they change the models so often (from NR-1601 to 1609, during the time Yamaha had 3 models 600, 601, 602).
