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Review and Measurements of Marantz AV8805 AV Processor

Blumlein 88

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Also.........................................
Analog
S/N: 105 dB (IHF–A weighted, Direct mode)
Distortion: 0.005 % (20 Hz – 20 kHz) (Direct mode)
Digital
S/N ratio — 102 dB
Total harmonic distortion — 0.008 % (1 kHz, at 0 dB)
The AV7701 has the exact and identical numbers in the owner's manual. I suppose I could test it and see if it is all analog or not. The majority of the manual is identically worded in both devices except for the updated sound formats for movies.
 
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Sal1950

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That you would hear such a large difference in SQ and nothings in the numbers to explain it.
Such a large difference should be attributable somewhere and I'm doubting it boils down to only the difference in DACs or HDMI/USB
 

Bjorn

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No. The multichannel analog inputs of the Marantz are not digitized so we are comparing two different connection configurations that also differ in which of the two devices does the single D/A conversion.
Ok. Didn't know any processors did that. Interesting. And it still does surround processing?
 

Krunok

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I don't know, but I'll ask are you sure that is how it works? A few years back was working on a Denon for someone, and there was no analog straight thru. All analog inputs were sent thru an ADC and then output from the DACs. That particular Denon has a power supply issue on the ADC which made it noisy. Adding a big capacitor and shielding fixed it. Denon and Marantz are made by the same company, but not necessarily identical of course.

Doing measures of the analog inputs/outputs would of course be a good idea.

I would expect analog straight thru is done pretty much the same as is with my Rotel RSP-1066 processor/preamp. As you can see analog multi-input is also bypassing the AD/DA stage. Here are the schematics:

Capture.JPG
 
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Kal Rubinson

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That you would hear such a large difference in SQ and nothings in the numbers to explain it.
Such a large difference should be attributable somewhere and I'm doubting it boils down to only the difference in DACs or HDMI/USB
Ah. I agree but the reason I posted those specs was in support of the statement that the analog inputs were not digitized.
Ok. Didn't know any processors did that. Interesting. And it still does surround processing?
No. There are multiple instances of this statement in the manual: This cannot be set when the input mode is set to “7.1CH IN”.
 

Krunok

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And it still does surround processing?

No surround processor does any processing on multi analog input except volume control as signal coming to analog multi input has already been processed for surround. :)
 

Frank Dernie

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FWIW, I have an Anthem Statement D2V and my preferred Anthem ARC setting is OFF.
I have an Antimode 2.0 and prefedr it off too.
My pro room acoustics friend did spend a long time with mlssa moving the speakers around to minimise the amplitude of room modes, though, and not many people would be happy with their speakers being placed where mine ended up in their sitting room.
I do have RC on when watching films in 4.0 surround though.
 

Sal1950

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I have an Antimode 2.0 and prefedr it off too.
My pro room acoustics friend did spend a long time with mlssa moving the speakers around to minimise the amplitude of room modes, though, and not many people would be happy with their speakers being placed where mine ended up in their sitting room.
I do have RC on when watching films in 4.0 surround though.
Frank,
I just wonder how non-standard your positioning is, how did it affect imaging?
I can understand how positioning for FR can make huge improvement but there are other things to take in consideration during setup.
Just curious.
 

Frank Dernie

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Frank,
I just wonder how non-standard your positioning is, how did it affect imaging?
I can understand how positioning for FR can make huge improvement but there are other things to take in consideration during setup.
Just curious.
It is only unusual in how far into the room the speakers ended up. They are only slightly asymmetrical left to right.
I didn't concentrate on image during the setup, just wanting clean bass. I hate boomy or absent bass.
I do get amazing imaging using Q-sound (?) recordings like Roger Water's "Amused to death".
Actually the one time the imaging was poor was after one firmware update to my dual mono Devialet amps. I don't know why, phasing of the digital link between the two probably. It was early days for their dual mono configuration. I reported it and it got fixed pdq.
 

DonH56

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Is seems to be a requirement among audiophiles that digital anything, room correction, class-D amplification, etc. is bad. I miss the old days when technology advances were welcomed instead of abhorred, denigrated, and shunned. Now it feels like the only good advance is one that recreates old technology in a new way (or not).
 

Sal1950

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I do get amazing imaging using Q-sound (?) recordings like Roger Water's "Amused to death".
That's always been a good test for me. If the Qsound tricks were working properly the speakers were set up well for good imagaing with std recordings. Sounds like your in good shape.
Always was my experience that the further from the back wall, the deeper the image could be created. Most likely a sighted bias illusion but it did seem to work.
Now it feels like the only good advance is one that recreates old technology in a new way (or not).
We've been judging amplifiers "goodness" by how much they weighted for so long now it's hard to change. LOL
 

Bghead8che

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So Hometheaterhifi.com reviewed the 8802 w/ some measurements:

https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews/receiver-processor/processors/marantz-av8802-processor-review/

I'm not knowledgeable enough to understand the measurements and results. I'm curious, since the 8805 and 8802 are so similar do the measurements on their site confirm the rather poor results of the review found here? In other words did the Hometheaterhifi test results show good or poor results?

Sound and Vision also tested (albeit not in depth) the 8802 and come up with some excellent numbers on distortion and SNR:

<< Response from the multichannel input to the main output measures –0.13 dB at 10 Hz, –0.04 dB at 20 Hz, –0.01 dB at 20 kHz, and –0.06 dB at 50 kHz. The analog THD+N was less than 0.008% at 1 kHz with a 100-millivolt input and the volume control set to 82.5. Crosstalk with a 100-mV input was –92.21 dB left to right and –93.16 dB right to left. The signal-to-noise ratio with “A” weighting was –130.38 dBrA.—MJP
Read more at https://www.soundandvision.com/cont...ocessor-review-test-bench#DfUWi1QfJ7qUrrKD.99 >>

Overall I am just wondering if these tests confirm the poor results from the review posted here or contradict the results?

Thanks!
 
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amirm

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So Hometheaterhifi.com reviewed the 8802 w/ some measurements:
There is discussion a few pages back regarding the differences in these measurements.
 

peng

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I don't know, but I'll ask are you sure that is how it works? A few years back was working on a Denon for someone, and there was no analog straight thru. All analog inputs were sent thru an ADC and then output from the DACs. That particular Denon has a power supply issue on the ADC which made it noisy. Adding a big capacitor and shielding fixed it. Denon and Marantz are made by the same company, but not necessarily identical of course.

Doing measures of the analog inputs/outputs would of course be a good idea.

Which Denon you referred to? I know the 2017 models do go straight straight though but have the option to go the A to D route obviously. The selector is the NJU72750. I guess you have to select pure direct for the straight route.

Edit: just realize the OP was talking about multi-channel analog inputs of the Marantz, I didn't look at that part.
 

JJB70

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We're you disappointed before you read this?
 

Tks

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As a owner of a Marantz AV8805, I admit after reading the DAC performance data and these posts I am disappointed with my purchase, and feel a bit misled by Marantz.
Are the 2 channel XLR inputs processed by the internal DAC? If so how can the internal DAC be bi-passed for an external DAC on 2 channel music, yet still keeping the 8805 for home theater functionality.

Truth be told, I'd instantly be weary of companies selling multi-thousand dollar pieces of audio gear and not publishing something like measurements. They're kind of morons on top of it because they know their market is filled with people who scoff at the concept of measurements. So publishing measurements would only garner them more customers going by their logic.

So they fail intrinsically, two-fold.

Unless of course they actually realize most people do care about measurments (especially newer customers not exposed to indoctrinated nonsense of their old-time customer base), and know if there are competitors offering the same feature-set + better measurements, they'd be toast eventually once their long time customers start biting the dust.

Sort of reminds me of Harley-Davidson, and how they're hurting in terms of mind-share with the newer generation not looking to them as much as customers from the last couple of decades.
 
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Sal1950

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Do the Marantz’s 2 channel XLR inputs bi pass the internal DAC?
My understanding is Yes, if you use the 2 channel XLR inputs or the 7.1 analog unbalanced, and chose Pure Direct you'll bypass the DAC.
 

Sal1950

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Do the Marantz’s 2 channel XLR inputs bi pass the internal DAC?
My understanding is Yes, if you use the 2 channel XLR inputs or the 7.1 analog unbalanced, and chose Pure Direct you'll bypass the DAC.
Conflicting info. I'l now told that the only way around the DAC for sure is to use the 7.1 unbalanced inputs and Pure Direct / Pure processing options.
 

RichB

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As a owner of a Marantz AV8805, I admit after reading the DAC performance data and these posts I am disappointed with my purchase, and feel a bit misled by Marantz.
Are the 2 channel XLR inputs processed by the internal DAC? If so how can the internal DAC be bi-passed for an external DAC on 2 channel music, yet still keeping the 8805 for home theater functionality.

The simple way to answer this question is to checkout the manual. If anything other than trims is available, they are digitized.
I tried to determine the answer for the AV8801 that I owned. There was no official answer.
However, I was able to enable double bass for the XLR inputs, so these must be digitized for these functions.
A side effect of selecting certain options is that they may be digitized.

The only analog input that are guaranteed not to be digitized are the 7.1 analog inputs.

- Rich
 
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