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Review and Measurements of Marantz AV8805 AV Processor

maty

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You are right!

https://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_input_dts

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) DTS 5.1 English

Channel 1 Channel 2 Channel 3 Channel 4 Channel 5 Channel 6

Peak Value: -0.53 dB --- -0.53 dB --- -0.48 dB --- -2.72 dB --- 0.00 dB --- 0.00 dB
Avg RMS: -23.48 dB --- -23.20 dB --- -18.18 dB --- -27.49 dB --- -26.82 dB --- -26.59 dB
DR channel: 16.38 dB --- 16.11 dB --- 12.10 dB --- 17.57 dB --- 19.90 dB --- 19.66 dB
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Official DR Value: DR17
 

Dimitrov

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Hi Amirm, thank you for the time and effort you put in to review the product and the measurements. I would be very interested to find out how the Marantz range of AV receivers compare objectively.

Almost all hard-core audiophiles claim that "separates" is the way to go for best performance but I'm starting to doubt that belief.
 

maty

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Mamma Mia Here We Go Again (2018) AC3 2.0 English

Left Right

Peak Value: -0.09 dB --- -0.35 dB
Avg RMS: -22.78 dB --- -24.21 dB
DR channel: 17.33 dB --- 16.88 dB
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Official DR Value: DR17

The plugin does not work with DTS-HD.MA.7.1
 

maty

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To finish, film with many shots and some big explosions. I do not watch many action movies.

Sicario, Day of the soldado (2018), DTS 5.1 English

Channel 1 Channel 2 Channel 3 Channel 4 Channel 5 Channel 6

Peak Value: -2.98 dB --- -3.04 dB --- -2.75 dB --- -7.82 dB --- -0.99 dB --- 0.00 dB
Avg RMS: -27.71 dB --- -27.56 dB --- -26.23 dB --- -36.60 dB --- -31.10 dB --- -30.58 dB
DR channel: 18.19 dB --- 17.99 dB --- 16.91 dB --- 21.82 dB --- 23.78 dB --- 23.88 dB
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Official DR Value: DR20
 
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ryanmh1

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OK kere is the Yamaha RX A3080 playing from USB thumb drive. Balanced out. Volume is set to -6dB so Yamaha obviously view 0dB to be 4 Vrms with balanced, which is in line with my expectations.

https://au.yamaha.com/en/products/audio_visual/av_receivers_amps/rx-a3080/index.html#product-tabs
Its $3000 AU about $2000 US

THD is not bad but it is clearly let down by noise. If that noise was under control it would be more like 104dB SINAD

View attachment 22876
Not bad. The noise floor overall, though, is impressively clean. Now what happens if you crank it to 4V so that there is an even basis for comparison? The Denon's issue was largely THD. Based on some of the Audioholics reviews, it seems possible that it might be a lot lower if the outputs are not overdriven. I wonder if the Yamaha would behave similarly.
 
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March Audio

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To finish, film with many shots and some big explosions. I do not watch many action movies.

Sicario, Day of the soldado (2018), DTS 5.1 English

Channel 1 Channel 2 Channel 3 Channel 4 Channel 5 Channel 6

Peak Value: -2.98 dB --- -3.04 dB --- -2.75 dB --- -7.82 dB --- -0.99 dB --- 0.00 dB
Avg RMS: -27.71 dB --- -27.56 dB --- -26.23 dB --- -36.60 dB --- -31.10 dB --- -30.58 dB
DR channel: 18.19 dB --- 17.99 dB --- 16.91 dB --- 21.82 dB --- 23.78 dB --- 23.88 dB
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Official DR Value: DR20

I don't know how the figures are worked out but they still seem low to me as you can go from silence to explosion.
 

RayDunzl

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Blumlein 88

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@amirm, Marantz AV8895 has the mode Pure Direct.

Can you measure with and without PD? With this Marantz and future AV.

As I have been cleaning my incredible noisy electrical grid, I have been noticing more the difference, with music, between having it activated and not. In my second audio system, that is where I can enjoy my music.
On the 7701 Pure Direct was identical except for more jitter.
 

maty

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I was curious. Now, an action series.

Star Trek Discovery (2017) S01E01, DTS 5.1 English

Channel 1 Channel 2 Channel 3 Channel 4 Channel 5 Channel 6

Peak Value: -2.35 dB --- -2.36 dB --- -2.34 dB --- -3.63 dB --- -3.70 dB --- -3.83 dB
Avg RMS: -24.08 dB --- -24.32 dB --- -23.61 dB --- -25.01 dB --- -29.83 dB --- -29.21 dB
DR channel: 15.69 dB --- 15.51 dB --- 15.92 dB --- 13.06 dB --- 19.65 dB --- 18.47 dB
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Official DR Value: DR16

No more DR, I promise.
 

March Audio

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Blumlein 88

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Thanks, that explains the low numbers. Bottom 20 rms averages would make more sense to me.
Before the various official loudness numbers, I would take RMS of the entire track and subtract from peak. You get different numbers, but it is about as useful to ferret out stupid levels of compression. You get into the single digits and its garbage.
 

lashto

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First of all many thanks for those measurements. Very useful and very hard to find anywhere else.

A comparable set of measurements for the previous generation processor, marantz av8802
https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews/receiver-processor/processors/marantz-av8802-processor-review/
And after all those ugly noisy graphs, the reviewer concluded that the 8802 was „the best 11.2 channel receiver of the year“.

Looks like this is pretty much the sorry state of the so called „highend“ surround processors. One has to pay $4000 for $40 sound. Actually $40 is quite exagerated since $4 DACs in some of the newer smartphones do measure better.
 
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StandardModel

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I'm the owner of a Marantz SR7011. Like everyone else who reads this, I'm really disappointed by the results I see in this test. Pretensions of excellence without delivering - "All hat and no cattle" as they say in Texas. So be it. My request is that you put up a bar chart like you have for DACs which show the performance of the amplifiers you review by a combined THD and SINO rating (or some other combination you prefer). Maybe I'm lazy but I'd love to see such a list so I wouldn't have to wade through all the dross to get to the best.
 
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Frank Dernie

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I don't have much of a surround sound system but have put together a few bits of used or sale items to use when I watch films.
I had been using an Oppo 105D player, with my TV aerial tuner/recorder thingy connected to one of its HDMI inputs, with a Parasound P7 preamp with the fronts connected to an input configured as pass through on my Devialet amp which is my main stereo setup and 3 Meridian M33 active speakers as centres and rears.
I have a REL Studio sub connected to my Devialet, if I remember to switch it on which helps for films but my stereo speakers are -6dB at 26Hz so I forget often...
After some positive comments here about a Marantz AV Pre I saw a AV 7704 cheap in a sale and since I had received a Sony disc player thrown in with the projector I bought when my Epson kept breaking down I bought it a short while ago. The Oppo often skipped on discs but the Sony didn't but didn't have multi output channels which the A7704 fixes.
Anyway I bought the A7704, connected the tuner and other stuff and the Sony player and moved the Oppo and Parasound out.
Overall it is easier to use but I haven't noticed a big change in performance on films, noise or distortion.
I haven't tried SACD yet.
 
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amirm

amirm

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My request is that you put up a bar chart like you have for DACs which show the performance of the amplifiers you review by a combined THD and SINO rating (or some other combination you prefer). Maybe I'm lazy but I'd love to see such a list so I wouldn't have to wade through all the dross to get to the best.
We have not had enough products for such a graph in the past. But maybe the time is now. I will gather them for the next review...
 

trl

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I'm the owner of a Marantz SR7011. Like everyone else who reads this, I'm really disappointed by the results I see in this test. Pretensions of excellence without delivering - "All hat and no cattle" as they say in Texas. So be it. My request is that you put up a bar chart like you have for DACs which show the performance of the amplifiers you review by a combined THD and SINO rating (or some other combination you prefer). Maybe I'm lazy but I'd love to see such a list so I wouldn't have to wade through all the dross to get to the best.

Very low THD, I don't understand your concern, really: https://www.soundandvision.com/content/marantz-sr7011-av-receiver-review-test-bench.
Also, there's the audio.com.pl test from above that barely shows the 2nd harmonic around -90dB; for a powerful amplifier this is a very good figure. Feel free to search all amps tested by the guys from audio.com.pl and you'll not find much better graphs (this is also due to their testing equipment).

Sometimes measurements are not telling absolutely everything about the output sound. Feel free to test your hearing with some audio files: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...can-we-trust-our-ears.3884/page-4#post-136991. If you can hear the -60dB for the 2nd and 3rd harmonic, then I can create more files for you and see how low can you go. :) I'm sure you'll not be able to hear the 2nd harmonic at 60dB away from the fundamental, so why worry about the -90dB from your amp?

You can anytime connect an external DAC to this receiver if you want better THD specs, although...if you'll use a mic & REW you'll probably not notice any differences. Yes, your speakers are having much more distortions than DAC and amplifier. :)

My ODAC is the most noisiest DAC from my home and this DAC has several tests and measurements that prove that it's a good and transparent DAC. Well, those ODAC measurements are all good and as long as THD is below 0.1% and background noise with at least 80dB away from the listening level I don't think anyone should car much. Amir is measuring audio stuff so we can choose our best price/performance ratio for our home and budget and to find any possible flaws (safety reasons); 1 or 2 dB between the testes devices doesn't really means something to our ears for sure.

P.S.: There are engineers that are looking to create amps with several harmonics added: http://www.pmillett.com/3B7.html and same engineers are building amps with very low THD as well: http://www.pmillett.com/butte.htm.
 

Kal Rubinson

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You can anytime connect an external DAC to this receiver if you want better THD specs
How do you do that? I see multichannel (analog and digital) inputs but no multichannel digital outputs.
 

trl

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From the analogue Audio-IN, just use CD-input or any other input (but Phono). Get a Khadas Tone board and a case, if unsure what DAC to choose, although not sure you’ll hear any difference between the built-in DAC and the Khadas.

L.E.: Kal, perhaps I wasn't understanding the scenario you're thinking of. My answer was in respect with Amir's objective conclusion: "From pure objective performance, the Marantz AV8805 Processor cannot touch 2-channel dedicated desktop DACs which cost less than its shipping cost!". So for 2-channel music playing I guess the internal transport/DAC might be bypassed by connecting a cheaper external 2-channel DAC. For movies, I seriously doubt that we need to worry about AV8805 or SR7011 performance, although I'm sure there are better performers out there (AV8802 seems better, at least for the HDMI input: https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews/receiver-processor/processors/marantz-av8802-processor-review/).
 
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Kal Rubinson

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Kal, perhaps I wasn't understanding the scenario you're thinking of.
I have multichannel DACs. I have multichannel music files. How can I play the latter to the former via the AV8805? (I believe I know the answer.)
 
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