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Help me choose between Marantz SR7008 or Yamaha RX-A2030?

4K views 17 replies 10 participants last post by  Carol Stull 
#1 ·
Moving to a new house and convinced my wife to allow me to massively upgrade our home theater system from my current Denon AVR-591 and Paradigm MilleniaOne speakers with an SVS PB-12 NSD (only thing I'm keeping). Yay!


For speakers I've decided on the new(ish) SVS Prime towers and satellites (for rear surround) and the Ultra center, but now I need some help picking a receiver to power these bad boys.


The receivers I'm considering are the Marantz SR7008 and the Yamaha Aventage RX-A2030. I can get both of them for right around $1,000, and I'm sure they'll both be light years better than my 4 year old Denon. Just want the best sound I can get for my $$$, and thought I'd get everyone's opinion.


Also, I'm not worried at all about "future-proofing" as I won't keep this setup for more than 3 or 4 years tops.


Thanks!
 
#5 ·
The Yamaha AVRs are rated #1 in reliability, Denon is #4 ...
Note that as JD mentioned HDMI 2.0 & HDCP 2.2 will be available this Fall in both Yamaha and Denon AVRs to be introed in the 2nd half of 2015. Note that Yamaha just started shipping their entry level 5.1 AVR RX-V379 ($299) that has HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2, step-up models to follow.


Just my $0.02... ;)
 
#8 ·
The Yamaha AVRs are rated #1 in reliability, Denon is #4 ...
Note that as JD mentioned HDMI 2.0 & HDCP 2.2 will be available this Fall in both Yamaha and Denon AVRs to be introed in the 2nd half of 2015. Note that Yamaha just started shipping their entry level 5.1 AVR RX-V379 ($299) that has HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2, step-up models to follow.


Just my $0.02... ;)



Yeah like I said, future-proofing isn't what I'm going for here, as I know I'll be upgrading again in a few years. I've got at least 4 years before I can convince the wife to let me get a new TV after dropping $2500 on my Sammy F8500 last year. :D





I have never owned a Yamaha receiver, so my opinion here is biased. I currently own a Marantz receiver, which was purchased to replace a Denon. Over the course of a few years I had moved through four different Denon AVRs, increasing the feature set and cost on each successive one. Then I jumped ship and went with a Marantz, and I will never go back to Denon. The Marantz has much more user intuitive menus; features are easy to find and make adjustments to. The Marantz has a dizzying selection of surround sound options. While everyone will say that AVRs have little influence on the sound, I feel that the sound of the Marantz AVR is better suited to my personal taste than any of the Denons I had previously.

Your mileage may vary.



Thanks for the input. I'm REALLY leaning toward the Marantz since it's got Audyssey MultEQ XT32. Everyone around here seems to think that's the bee's knees, so I think that's what I'll go with.


Thanks again everyone!
 
#6 ·
"Just want the best sound I can get for my $$$."

They're comparable receivers. Assuming that each has whatever particular features you want (number of HDMI in and out, etc.), choose whichever one you want. Within a given price band, receivers don't have much effect on what you hear. Room and speakers have much more impact. Pick the cheaper one. Or the prettier one.
 
#7 ·
I have never owned a Yamaha receiver, so my opinion here is biased. I currently own a Marantz receiver, which was purchased to replace a Denon. Over the course of a few years I had moved through four different Denon AVRs, increasing the feature set and cost on each successive one. Then I jumped ship and went with a Marantz, and I will never go back to Denon. The Marantz has much more user intuitive menus; features are easy to find and make adjustments to. The Marantz has a dizzying selection of surround sound options. While everyone will say that AVRs have little influence on the sound, I feel that the sound of the Marantz AVR is better suited to my personal taste than any of the Denons I had previously.

Your mileage may vary.
 
#13 ·
I've only used dialogue enhancer once or twice (Lexicon MC-8) movie had a knackered audio mix, speech was hardly audible.

Not a feature that be a must-have.

It's always possible that YPAO was the problem, and that I wouldn't have felt as much need with Audyssey, but I've ran across several BDs of 80's low budget films that weren't mixed/recorded particularly well, where dialogue enhancement was a nice perk. Maybe not a deal breaker, but beneficial nonetheless. Yamaha's non-dialogue specific enhancer has offered a milder improvement a few times too. I even found some benefit playing The Last of US on the PS4, which has some confoundingly inarticulate dialogue reproduction with characters at a distance. I really hate the way Naughty Dog mixed that game. I guess they feel audibility takes a back seat to realism. The main character's voice also seems too bassy most of the time, even via the Marantz. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but when Audyssey is engaged you can't even make basic adjustments to bass and treble, I believe.
 
#15 ·
Talking about dialogue enhancement, I think Yamaha Dialogue Lift is a true gem. As AVR is targeted at home users where majority have their center speaker placed below the screen, manufacturers should come out with DSP to "lift and align" the center channel sound to the center of the screen. Yamaha nailed it.
 
#16 ·
I'm not sure if it will make a difference to the OP, but the Marantz has 3 HDMI outs vs the Yamaha which has only 2 HDMI out. Helps if you have a projector and 2 TVs.
 
#18 ·
Tnx to all of you that have contributed to this thread as I, too, am considering a new AV receiver that has enough power to drive my 4 ohm Polk LSi15 mains along with
surrounds. My current setup uses a Yamaha RX-V1 receiver but now I'm wanting to jump into a new 4K big screen and update most everything except my speakers. Any
suggestions would be much appreciated - leaning yamaha right now. Tnx in advance.

Carol Stull
 
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