Marantz AV7701 Prepro Official Owner's thread - Page 5

@krobar...

of everything you listed, the xt32 feature towers above all else... it has a significant impact upon sound quality...

it is the one overriding advantage.... nothing the 7701 has can change that...

Hi,


SQ is not my only priority. Out of interest if XT32 is such an important feature what brought you to the decision to buy a 4311 over a much cheaper Onkyo unit with XT32?

^^^reason I did is because 4311 has subEQ which can EQ 2 subs separately, and the 818 doesn't.

Yes, you are correct. The onkyo 818 doesn't have sub dual sub eq. To get this feature, we have to step in to the 1010, 3010 and 5010 era.

I bought the 4311 over the 818 due in part to Onkyo's recent reliability issues. This coming from a former Onkyo owner (805, 885 and 886) all of which had no issues at all. Even though I only have one sub in the future I hope to add a second one. So SubEQ was an important feature to have. There are a few other features that the 4311 has as well so it was an easy choice for me. With the close out price of $1239 I felt it was a better deal than the less expensive 818.

Bill

sorry been away for a bit...

- at the time, there was no "much cheaper" onkyo with xt32 available...
- i wouldn't touch an onkyo with a 100 ft pole...

what are your other priorities, and maybe i can shine some light on "why" i'd choose one over the other... if it's the mythical "great video processing" in the onkyo, you should disabuse yourself of that notion.... while a certain "reviewer" humps the video processing of the onkyo's endlessly, imo/ime that is greatly overstated, and ignores the fact that the unit drops frames (which is an inexcusable error)...

Hi Chris,

Mainly ease of use, GUI, multi room, low noise floor and reliable operation. Would really like built-in DAB and AC3-RF but cant have everything

Coming from my ancient Integra I hope to get improvements all round (Althought I cant see modern processor that feed two independant 7.1 zones or integrated DAB that my RDC-7.1 has). I will also be making use of the Ethernet control (Thinking CommandFusion), should get my 7701 on Thursday.

Got my 7701 last Tuesday and am loving it! Much better GUI and remote than than the 7005. Cleaner, easier to use, etc. Just wanted everyone to know that they are available.

How is the sound compared to the AV7005?

It's in a completely different, and all new, setup, so hard to say. I thought the 7005 sounded great and the 7701 sounds at least that good. If this means anything, the dealer I work with does a lot of McIntosh and Parasound and he was impressed.

Scooped up a 7701 yesterday out of necessity. My 14+ year old Act 3 passed on the day before. So far so good.

Got mine today.

Low noise floor, sounds good and works as advertised.

My unit will play 24/192 Stereo Flac over network but does not play 5.1 files.

Thought I'd add some further thoughts for the few who miught be interested. My own setup is a small rom with Genelec 8030s upfront and 8020s at the rear, they seem to be quite revealing speakers and quite damning of low quality streams.

Sound for surround especially lossless tracks is much better than my old RDC-7.1. Audyssey seems to help expand the soundfield a bit but I wouldnt call it a revelation. As I mentioend earlier the noise floor is low and in general the unit is easy to use. HDMI synch seems unfussy and fast to lock and very much a mature input.

Now for the bad points, 192Khz streaming is NOT flawless. I get popping from the speakers when changing volume with 176khz plus tracks playing (Doesnt occur with lower res) and the whole media player menu system is lethargic when playing 192Khz FLAC. Also this is not the fault of the 7701 but most internet radio streams sound terrible and although Spotify is alot better I still wouldnt call it CD quality.

"HDMI synch seems unfussy and fast to lock and very much a mature input."

Can you tell me which Blu-ray player you're using with the 7701? The handshaking (or the lack thereof) of my Integra DTC 9.8 is one of the major reasons why I'm getting the Marantz.

Thanks.

I want to buy a Marantz AV7701. I heard that you cannot connect it to third party amps like my Sunfire amp with the XLR connections because you will get a hum. Is the Marantz power amps the only one you can use? Looking for info.

This was posted on Amazon's and AV Forum website:
Do not buy this product unless you buy the Marantz amplifiers. That is what tech support at Marantz said. I was replacing an old Anthem pre-amp with the AV7701 and ended up with a product that sent a buzz threw all of the speakers. You would think that using the XLR connectors would help with not having this problem. Tech support told me that my amps were not compatible with the pre-amp and I needed to buy a Hum-X product to eliminate the buzzing or call my amplifier company for help on how to solve the problem. Why would I spend an additional $300 to apply a band-aid to the product. These amplifiers have had three other pre-amps plugged into them with no problem. Even the replacement that I now have doesn't buzz. Marantz... fix the problem and you will have a great product.

no, that's bs...

Oppo BDP-83.

Other HDMI devices are a Dune HD media player and Virgin Media Cable box. Switching is very quick and I've not had any handshake issues.


After three days with the AV7701, summary is as follows:
General product good
Media Player / Network Features - TERRIBLE

^^^

not surprising on network features/media player... pretty much every avr/pre-pro is el suckage there... i gave up on that long ago... a 100 dollar box (like an atv) is cheap enough, and doesn't require a virgin sacrifice to get it to work...

For 3 days though this network/media player has managed a sterling level of suckage:
Last FM cannot load as it stalled on unplayable track and now every time I try to start it it the Marantz trys to play the same unplayable track and force quits
Spotify has twice given me 4 or 5 seconds of digital noise and pops whilst chaning volume
176Khz plus tracks are finnicky with cover art load and slight popping occurs whilst changing volume
The noise floor is noticeably worse while on the network input
Last FM signup on the Marantz is broken
The Ipod app actually emulates multiple key press to select menu items so is quite clunky. It does not pick up on changed input names properly and does not offer full control of LastFM

Guess I'm spoilt by my 2-3 year old Dune HD

^^^

lol... i hear you... it's that high quality marantz suckage...

as you are finding out, you are better off just sticking with the dune... i've used the various media options on my various units, if only as "proof of concept" and to satisfy my "i've gotta know how it works" jones... i always have gone back to my good old reliable atv... not worth the frustration to do it any other way...

Well Marantz have now noted down my concerns and have sent the info to the QA team in Germany. Currently I dont have much faith in D&M QA

They did give me an outright answer to the Flac image problem. If you replace the image with a smaller one then various Flac headers and padding remain unchanged and it often wont work. You have to delete the FLAC tag entirely and then create a new one with the smaller image file attached.

Can you elaborate on anything else?

I'd be most interested in comments on the zone2 HDMI output. Or more on the iOS app control. Or anything, really. Anybody find an online manual, yet?

I've been using it for mainly films over this weekend and it has been perfect. Even 12bit colour and weird resolutions (eg. 720P50) are handled fine. I wont be using Zone2 HDMI until I move house in 6 months time, Zone 2 and 3 analogue audio works well. The IOS app is supposedly identical and likely a more mature version of the Android app I mentioned above. For multizone control the Android app works well and with the couple of small exceptions I mention above it is otherwise fine.

If I was deciding between this unit and the Onkyo I would still pick the Marantz, if Onkyo had released an SC5510 it would have been a much more difficult choice.

The Onkyo has better Audyssey and more XLRs. The Marantz has a touch better media player, is cheaper and has 4K input support. Throw me a PM with your E-mail and I will Sendspace the PDF manual to you.

You can also get general Zone 2(HDMI) feedback in the Denon AVR-XX13 Owner's thread (linked in my sig) from the 3313CI owners posting in that thread.

Any thoughts on whether to use the AVR'S i/p scaler or to just output everything native to the TV?

I'm feeding an LG 60PK950 plasma a BD player and DirecTV HD DVR. I'm coming from an ancient Acurus Act 3 so I'm a bit clueless about AVR'S scaling abilities etc. The Acurus had no HDMI inputs so all connections were direct to the TV. If you do indeed suggest using the AVR'S i/p scaler would you suggest auto resolution settings? Thanks guys!

Cheers
David

Whether you use it or not depends on whether you notice any difference using it compared to just letting the source or TV do the job. If used, the "Auto" resolution setting is generally used unless it causes problems by not using a specific resolution.

Thanks guys.

Does anyone know if AV7701 does front A/B speakers. Getting differnt answers from dealer and Marantz, and no manuals have posted yet. The AV7005 does it but I want to make sure Av7701 does it before spending the money. To clarify, I want 2 channe audio to go along with different theater speakers controlled by one unit. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Yes. You can review either the SR7007 or Denon 3313CI to learn more about the features of the AV7701.

Be a little careful with expecting the AV7701 to be the same. For example you cannot output Zone 2 audio over the Surround Back XLR outputs and you can with the 3313CI Surround Back speaker outputs.