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Marantz SR7015 8K AVR Review

Mr.XO

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I also prefer Marantz look, and that's one of the reasons I tried two prepros before switching back to Denon.

Since you mentioned using Audyssey flat, or the graphic EQ feature for two channel use, I don't know if you have seen the graphs I posted, they showed how much improvements could be made using the Editor App, especially when used with Ratbuddssey. That's just in terms of flattening the response, so that you can customize the response to your taste. If you are brave, you can use the combo to try making your own sound signature, just for fun experiments, and doing it that way should be far superior (in terms of flexibility, and less chance to make things worse) than playing it with the graphic EQ.

Ratbuddssey ?!!
I'm still not sure if I fully understand the XT app... I'll need to take a course somewhere... lol!

But thanks for sharing such info, which otherwise I'd never know...

Marantz or Denon I'm glad that with Sound United you don't have to switch apps based on brand, else the $20 for the app would be wasted if I was to switch over to Denon all of a sudden.
 

azmike

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I am incredibly depressed in my decision to purchase this (apparent) $2300 paper weight that arrives tomorrow. No, wait - all the pretty colored lines are beautiful but instead of placing my faith solely in them, I'll see if my ears are in agreement.
 

Martin_320

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I am incredibly depressed in my decision to purchase this (apparent) $2300 paper weight that arrives tomorrow. No, wait - all the pretty colored lines are beautiful but instead of placing my faith solely in them, I'll see if my ears are in agreement.

Geez, I must be looking at a big paperweight too! I never realized that's what it is. Silly me.
But hang on - I'm also hearing this great sound in my room. Can't be coming from that surely? Must be my imagination...
 

Charles

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Geez, I must be looking at a big paperweight too! I never realized that's what it is. Silly me.
But hang on - I'm also hearing this great sound in my room. Can't be coming from that surely? Must be my imagination...

There is potentially an answer to what the cause of the warm sound may be. A few years ago a high current amp that produced a great transient response was considered to have a better musical sound, an airy or open or clear sound. The thought being that the ability to catch the transients of music which are produced by a number of instruments at note beginnings gave the music a live sound which could be mean a realistic or open or even airy sound. It turns out that in another Marantz review that used a square wave to check for fidelity to a complex wave the Marantz square wave had a significantly faster rise time than many other amplifiers but it also had some overshoot at the top which are caused by the summation of higher harmonics which form a part of the square wave spectrum. That is a fast transient response will by nature have higher harmonics. The evaluator asked the Marantz engineers about this and why they didn't filter out those higher harmonics and they said it was intended and they didn't cause a problem.

The bottom line may be that the Marantz design does work to get the transient response high through a high current power supply and does not filter out harmonics which result from that fast transient response. This would mean that leaving the harmonics gives that warm or maybe an airy sound that sounds more like the live music we've all heard, but at the expense that single frequency tests exhibit higher harmonics.

This also might explain why SACDs sound better to some people, higher harmonics in the recorded music create better transient responses.

Contrary to this cheaper power supplies have poorer transient responses so the design boosts high harmonic frequencies to try and create the high frequency content of transients but adds harshness because it over amplifies parts of the spectrum. That is they're amplifying lower harmonic frequencies to try and give it punch but it doesn't ring quite true. In movies many audio tracks are compressed anyway, especially from the streaming services so they're already loosing transient responses and they further compress the dynamics to reduce bandwidth as well. BUT you don't have anything to compare the movie dynamic sound against, except the music and it often sounds quite compressed.

One more example of this effect is when you artificially cut the playback speed of audio in half it cuts the frequencies in half and sounds like mud. The transient high frequency harmonic sounds are what is significantly reduced. Turning up the gain on those frequencies helps a little but now the sound is not balanced, not natural.

Thus adjusting for poorer transient responses due to cheaper power supplies by frequency compensation adds some less natural harshness to the sound and becomes tiring to listen to, as other have commented comparing Denon to Marantz.

The Marantz 6015, 7015 and 8015 receivers appear, from pictures to have a large power supply transformer that's missing from lesser Marantz pictures and Denon doesn't show pictures at all, maybe for a reason. And Marantz may be quiet about this, more of a trade secret type of thing. Anyway I was also becoming committed to buying a Marantz until I ran across this review but maybe there is something to the better sound from poorer measurements.
 

Martin_320

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To me, any perceived warm sound would have to come from the >10 kHz roll off, and that has no effects on analog inputs/direct mode.

On this point I've listened carefully to try and compare differences in perceived "warmth" (and also the top-end treble) from my Denon DVD-A11 universal player into the AV7705 in Pure Direct via:
(a) the AV7705's high-bandwith pure analog inputs (therefore using the -A11's Burr Brown PCM1790 DACs with Denon's "AL24 Processing Plus";
(b) the AV7705's SPDIF input (therefore using the AVP's internal AKM4458 DACs).

In both cases I played in the Denon -A11 the same CD with rich bass & treble content.

And in summary I couldn't perceive any significant difference between the two :)
 

peng

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On this point I've listened carefully to try and compare differences in perceived "warmth" (and also the top-end treble) from my Denon DVD-A11 universal player into the AV7705 in Pure Direct via:
(a) the AV7705's high-bandwith pure analog inputs (therefore using the -A11's Burr Brown PCM1790 DACs with Denon's "AL24 Processing Plus";
(b) the AV7705's SPDIF input (therefore using the AVP's internal AKM4458 DACs).

In both cases I played in the Denon -A11 the same CD with rich bass & treble content.

And in summary I couldn't perceive any significant difference between the two :)

That's you, and thank you for sharing. I believe you are one of those who would try to take measures to avoided being influenced by hearsay and Placebo effects. That's what I would do in any comparisons, I would also try not to be influenced by bench test measurements either. I think lots of people just would not bother taking much precautions other than level matching, may be try direct/pure direct modes but not more than that. Believe it or not, I have read comments about Denon being warm vs Marantz too, if you search hard enough you would find such odd comments. People just say whatever they felt like to say and at the moment under whatever conditions, yet such comments would likely be taken as guides to someone's purchase decision, because if one opinion got similarly repeated by enough people, it would be taken as facts by a lot of people, I think...:D

I wish a Marantz fan/believer would make me an offer for my >30 lb warm sounding AV8801 (top condition, with original box and everything) that has been idling 99.99% of the time in one of my two channel setup.;)
 

Mr.XO

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Honestly I have fallen in love with the Marantz SR7013!
Since I had thought of doing a compare, I placed an order for X4700H when it went down by $200/- on Amazon but later canceled it.

Now I do find it interesting how SU talks about adding something like HDAM to the latest high end Denons - prescribed by their sound masters in order to fine tune the sound to their own liking! ;)
Product Overview: Denon 110 Year Anniversary Series
 

Mr.XO

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I am incredibly depressed in my decision to purchase this (apparent) $2300 paper weight that arrives tomorrow. No, wait - all the pretty colored lines are beautiful but instead of placing my faith solely in them, I'll see if my ears are in agreement.

Hey @azmike - how are you finding the sr7015?
Just wondering how real customers buying these things regardless of the # in the reviews is finding it.
 

PG55

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I have had my Marantz SR7015 using a 7.1 set up for about 2 months and I am extremely pleased with it. For music I listen to Amazon Ultra HD (up to 192kHz/24bits) using HEOS and the sound is crystal clear with detailed bass lines and very enveloping. There are some songs that when I close my eyes it feels like the musicians are right in the room with me. There is a definite enhanced difference between Spotify at 320kpbs and Amazon Ultra HD at 44 up to 192kHz.

For TV, Movies and Blu-ray it is excellent! The dialogue is clear and the action scenes are very dynamic. The Audyssey XT32 is light years better than my previous SR5012 with the Audyssey XT. It has smoothed out my bass and brought up the mid bass to where I am hearing sounds I haven't heard before.

I am not sure which of Amir's measurements are actually audible and as an average audio video fanatic with little to no training in the measurements I would be hard pressed to criticize the sound out of this receiver.

My 2 Cents-PG55
 

Mr.XO

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I have had my Marantz SR7015 using a 7.1 set up for about 2 months and I am extremely pleased with it. For music I listen to Amazon Ultra HD (up to 192kHz/24bits) using HEOS and the sound is crystal clear with detailed bass lines and very enveloping. There are some songs that when I close my eyes it feels like the musicians are right in the room with me. There is a definite enhanced difference between Spotify at 320kpbs and Amazon Ultra HD at 44 up to 192kHz.

For TV, Movies and Blu-ray it is excellent! The dialogue is clear and the action scenes are very dynamic. The Audyssey XT32 is light years better than my previous SR5012 with the Audyssey XT. It has smoothed out my bass and brought up the mid bass to where I am hearing sounds I haven't heard before.

I am not sure which of Amir's measurements are actually audible and as an average audio video fanatic with little to no training in the measurements I would be hard pressed to criticize the sound out of this receiver.

My 2 Cents-PG55

Hey @PG55 - Thanks for sharing your experience as a real owner. I too am enjoying my SR7013.

Yes, the built-in Amz UltraHD music support is just awesome - can really hear / feel the difference when comparing against the same tracks I have on a local music server (CD rips and others) - but glad that HEOS supports DLNA. Not many brands support all this, at least with AVRs. So, kudos to D+M on this front!

Just wish they supported user's custom playlists on Amz as well - new Yamahas seem to do it - see my comment here:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...eo-processor-review.15820/page-12#post-550441
So, it doesn't seem to be an Amz API limitation like I have read at many places - probably coming from D+M - or, the limitation is no more.
But on the Yammy I later realized that their Musicast app downgrades UltraHD to lower quality -- and Airplay is well just that.

Also, same here, no training in the measurements either - but from what I have understood (Thanks to @peng @Helicopter and others), the claim that the sister brand is better because of the #s is only applicable if you disconnect the front mains and use external amps (so use your AVR as a less expensive AVP, etc.) and play deaf loud. No intention of doing that, so both sisters would just sound the same / be on par for my use case. :)

Cheers!
 
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Does the SR 7015 have the option to only switch off the front channel amplifiers when using fronts as pre-out & the other channels driven by the internal amps? I know the Denon X8500 has it.

Thanks.
 

peng

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Does the SR 7015 have the option to only switch off the front channel amplifiers when using fronts as pre-out & the other channels driven by the internal amps? I know the Denon X8500 has it.

Thanks.

The SR7013 can, so it is reasonable to assume the SR7015 can too. Also, the comparable AVR-X4700H can, so I am 99.999999% sure the SR7015 can too.:D
 

Vamsi

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how to explain such disappointing measurements especially when compared with the one of the SR 8015 provided by Audioholics?
Denon AVR displayed a much better homogeneity from the 3700 to the 6700...
Can you share any article for me which detaily shows how to read these graphs. I don't know how to read them.
 

Vamsi

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Can anyone explain me how to read the graphs which are shown in this review.
 

Mr.XO

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The SR7013 can, so it is reasonable to assume the SR7015 can too. Also, the comparable AVR-X4700H can, so I am 99.999999% sure the SR7015 can too.:D

Yes, the SR7013 has it, see attached.
As I recall, it was definitely not that straightforward at first.
 

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mbrules

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the Marantz SR7015 "8K" 9.2 channel Home Theater Audio/Video Receiver (AVR). It was purchased new and kindly sent to me by a member. The SR7015 costs US $2,300 from Amazon including Prime shipping.

Not much to say about the design of the SR7015 as it looks like Marantz AV products for years back:

View attachment 86246

Sorry for the tape. I try to keep test unit as close to new condition as possible so did not take it off and operated the unit using its remote.

Here is the back connections:

View attachment 86247

I sent the measurements you are about to see to Marantz (part of Sound United) and they were kind enough to confirm that they agree with their testing.

AVR DAC Audio Measurements
As usual, we start with our dashboard testing the internal DAC using pre-out on the AVR. I run this test two ways: with the amplifiers on and off. Leaving the amps on usually causes them to clip and drag down the performance of the pre-out:

View attachment 86248

You can see signs of the amplifier getting unhappy with very high harmonic distortion content. I put the unit in Pre-amp mode (in Amp Assign submenu) and these were the results:

View attachment 86249

While we get a 5 dB improvement in noise and distortion, the SINAD which represents both is still a very disappointing 80 dB. This drops the SR7105 in the bucket of "poor" performance with respect to AVRs and DACs tested:

View attachment 86250

Denons using similar architecture are far better and indeed class leading in my measurements as you see above.

Sweeping the digital samples to see where the optimal output level is for this AVR we get:

View attachment 86251

We see that the optimal output level is around 0.7 volts which is quite low. If you are buying an external amplifier make sure its sensitive is no higher than 0.7 dB or you will suffer from degradation of the internal DAC and buffer stage in SR7015.

Notice how having the amp on and off makes little difference until you approach 2 volts. The degradation is a function of the buffer/gain stage of the unit. I have indicated the volume level where this degradation occurs (73). So if you are at or below that, you would get significantly better performance (approaching CD's 16 bit dynamic range).

Testing the DAC reconstruction filter shows the same disappointing slow response we see in other Marantz AVRs and Processors:


View attachment 86253

The consequence of this is that if we allow wider bandwidth for the test, THD+N/SINAD suffer greatly compared to the dashboard which uses the audible band:
View attachment 86254

Further evidence is in spectrum of a 10 kHz tone:

View attachment 86255

We see the usual harmonic distortions at multiples of 10 kHz but also very tall spikes at the 10±44.1 kHz as indicated. You won't hear these fortunately but technically it is is not nice to have them.

Another disappointing area is jitter:
View attachment 86257

We tend to think "bits are bits" but clearly the analog output of the unit is impacted depending on which digital source we use: HDMI and Coax. Each has their own induced jitter components which shows lack of design hygiene in producing a clean clock/reference voltage. Fortunately once again audibility is not a problem as levels are quite low.

Linearity is OK for an AVR (but poor for even a cheap desktop DAC):

View attachment 86262

Exponential rise typically indicates noise intruding in the measurement even though I highly filter the output of the AVR for this test.

Finally, 32-tone signal simulating "music:"

View attachment 86263

AVR Amplifier Measurements
I prefer to use analog input for my amplifier measurements because we can then compare the amplifier performance with that of stand-alone amps. But I need to make sure the analog input is not digitized or subjected to other degradations. Fortunately such is the case here if you don't use any digital processing or use Pure mode. Here is analog input:
View attachment 86267

And Coax:
View attachment 86266

Typical of other Denon and Marantz, overall control of distortion and noise is very good:

View attachment 86274

And well above average compared to 120 or so amplifiers of all kinds tested so far:
View attachment 86275

So the rest of the tests will be with analog input starting with frequency response:

View attachment 86270

And signal to noise ratio:

View attachment 86271

That's decent result.

Here is power into 4 ohm:

View attachment 86272

And with allowance for higher distortion and burst power:

View attachment 86273

And 8 ohm:

View attachment 86277

Testing for frequency sensitivity across full power spectrum we get:

View attachment 86278

For a class AB amp, I like to see tighter clustering of the graphs indicating less sensitivity to frequency. As it is, performance drops fair bit at 5 kHz and higher.

Conclusions
Like clockwork, the performance of Marantz SR7015 tracks other Marantz AVRs we have tested. They take the excellent platform used in Denon sister products, and modify them to produce objectively worse performance by good bit. Distortion is sharply increased and extremely slow DAC filtering causes lots of ultrasonic noise, making any intention of playing "high-res" audio moot. Company feels subjectively the modifications improve the sound of the unit. With no controlled listening test demonstrating that, and measurements showing the opposite, I don't think the changes are wise or merited.

Needless to say, I can't recommend the Marantz SR7015. I highly suggest you stick with the Denon counterparts instead.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

We thought we enjoy the fruits of our labor by making eggplant parmigiana using the tomato sauces we had canned and peppers we had frozen:

View attachment 86282

Oh man did that come out great! The flavor was so much better than canned tomatoes. Had not two, but three helpings of it! :D

It was also so quick to make given the fact that the tomato sauce was already reduced during the canning process.

Still recovering from shock of expenses for last year so donations are appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Love Italian home cooking, the best.
I am looking to pull the trigger and buy a receiver, I have almost decided to get the Yamaha Aventage RX-3080 just on their reputation, other reviews and builld quality it weighs 10-15 pounds more than most in it's price range . When I was 16 in 1981 my first amp was a used Yamaha CA 2010. anyway any opinion (s) on the RX-3080 ????
 
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