Marantz AV7701 Prepro Official Owner's thread - Page 3

Ah, I see, yes. The link to avland was provided because they provided the "tentative" details. But before that, there were plenty of European reports mentioning the AV7701 and AV8801 after D&M invited them in Valencia. So unless one false source was copypasted again and again on all the sites, it was reliable info... Me, I actually believed the event took place in Valencia!

European models sometimes have different model numbers than those used in the USA which is why the CEDIA notice absolutely confirmed the USA model would be the same number as well.

not really sure why anyone thought it would have xt32... if they did, they are continuing to stick their heads in the sand about the relationship between denon and marantz units...

nope, xt32 will run with the same amount of processing power as xt... that's not the issue... it's simply product differentiation... if i was d&m, i'd only put it on my top model too...

as far as why a "new" 7701 rather than keeping the 7005... see the second sentence of paragraph 1...

Not according to Audyssey:
Audyssey room correction technology comes in four solutions: MultEQ XT32, MultEQ XT, MultEQ and 2EQ. While they are all built on the same core science, each is designed to operate within the constraints of the available DSP processing power.

^^^

you are reading more into that statement than is there... chris k. has stated on many occasions that xt32 does not require any more processing resources than xt...

Than I am even more stupid than I thought I was. Please explain to me what the quote (copy-paste from Audyssey website) means.

It's likely meant to be taken in a broader context ... how the version of Audyssey is processed depends on the processing power of the AVR using it (rather than comparing one version to another). A good example is that the same version of Audyssey will run faster on a current model AVR using a faster processor vs. one from several years ago using a slower/dated processor.

When one is in Asia buying DSP's or CPU's by the hundreds of thousands, my understanding, there's little in price difference and after the costs of engineering and design (development/manufacturing costs) are taken into consideration, divided by a 100k finished units, there can't be much difference in the delivered purchase price.

To me, it's like buying a new $200k house with upgraded plumbing and electrical; bigger water supply lines, more outdoor spigots/outlets, security lights, upgraded wiring/outlets with heavier gauge wire and additional separate circuits on the sound wall. Overall, this may add maybe two, three or four thousand dollars to the final construction costs or about two percent of the final sale price. But for convenience, the final product is head-n-shoulders above standard residential construction standards of today.

Hey Ford, use better parts and charge me $2k more for the truck and give me a better finished product. Hey, Marantz, charge me fifty bucks more and give us a better feature ladened product. I know, "Silly rabbit!"

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Edited by BeeMan458 - 9/8/12 at 9:26am

Exactly what purpose does it serve to keep XT32 on their high end models that most people can't afford. The are just cutting off their nose to spite their face! Onkyo will pull a lot of people from Denon to Onkyo. Lets see Denon 3313 and Onkyo 818 are the same price but The 818 has XT32,that is a pretty easy decision. Why would you buy a Denon unless your a koolaide drinking fanboy?

My decision was between the Denon AVR 1713, the 2313Ci and the Marantz SR5007. I came from the SR600x series and find the SR5007 serves our purposes just fine. I'd gladly pay fifty bucks more but I'm sure not going pay $1,200.00 more to get the XT32 feature. As a budget minded shopper, that money went to a b-stock RC-64 II center channel and the monetary leftover difference will go to upgrading our paired subwoofers. I'm sure D&M has taken my above into their marketing strategy but it's beyond me to understand how they expect to make up the difference (depending on licensing fees) that the fifty bucks in development/manufacturing costs make.

The list on a Denon, AVR-4311Ci is $2,100.00 and for the difference, we upgraded our center channel and with the money left over, we'll apply that towards a pair of upgraded subwoofers for a net difference of, $1,141.00 and a huge improvement in overall sound quality. The point, there's only so much money in the home theater budget and I find it hard to believe that D&M makes a huge profit in higher end sales over their middle-of-the-road product sales, the majority of the buying public purchases. Let's see, a high end AVR or a much better center channel and improved subwoofers? Let's see, which one?

FWIW, our budget forced me to compromise our subwoofer budget (SVS, PB12-NSD vs Martin Logan Depth i) as we ain't rich, sooooooo, siiiiigh, I compromised to a lower standard. Boo, hoo.

In the fickle world of love, SVS is my new subwoofer love but if someone whats to throw us a pair of cherrywood Martin Logan, Depth i's for the same price, I'm your Huckleberry.

(Moderator, I'm not soliciting a purchase in my above; it's humor.)

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Edited by BeeMan458 - 9/8/12 at 9:57am

^^^but a 4311 doesn't actually cost that much. It's more like $1200-$1300...

I understand what your saying and there is nothing wrong with that. But.. you could have gotten an Onkyo 818 for around $850 with XT32.. I'd love a Marantz SR 7005 but For that price I could get an Onkyo 3009 or Denon 4311. I like the looks of the Marantz the best tho..

Thanks for the though. I was only aware of the full list on the unit. Irrespective, our budget is still limited and from my perspective, we got more bang-for-the-buck with the center channel upgrade alone. I fully believe manufactures purposely ignore that they can sell more units (profit) by concentrating on middle-of-the-road priced units. There are billions of people who qualify as middle-of-the-road buyers and I'm sure the number of those with seven figure savings accounts are far less than that. I haven't a clue what's in the marketing think of consumer product companies like D&M. And yes, I know they've thought of this.

Everyone seems to be ignoring the additional cost of licensing XT32 from Audyssey compared to the lower spec versions of multiEQ. That cost is likely orders of magnitude greater than any hardware related cost and is largely driving the product placement of XT32.

Licensing costs were mentioned when I posted:

"I'm sure D&M has taken my above into their marketing strategy but it's beyond me to understand how they expect to make up the difference (depending on licensing fees) that the fifty bucks in development/manufacturing costs make."

Agreeing with you as I haven't a clue what the Audyssey licensing fees are.

A suggestion which addressed this issue, if practical, D&M can issue two units, one with and one without XT32; buyer's choice.

If practical, make it a purchased, online, firmware upgrade.

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Edited by BeeMan458 - 9/8/12 at 11:07am

I don't know what the licensing fee's on XT32 are either,but how does Onkyo do it on the 818 and still be able to sell it for $1199? Also,you can find it quite a bit cheaper than that online..

^^
Link was copied incorrectly, although same link was just posted earlier today in this thread, post #64.

Sorry, I messed up. Believe I did post the correct link in the SR7007 Owners Thread.

Bruce

Just preordered an AV7701 which should arrive in the first half of October. Might make me the first owner

This is Marketing/Product 101. They have higher end models, mid models and lower end models. The Product Manager sits down and within the context of cost, market share, etc... makes a decision on what to include in each model. If they put everything in the AV7701 they would have nothing left to differentiate it from the AV8801. Same with the Denons. It isn't as simple as the underlying costs. Every car company does this, every TV company does this...every company does this. You might not agree with it but this is basic marketing.

He is right and I am well aware them I am buying D&Ms entry level prepro. I would not be surprised if Denon update the AVP-A1 again this way the prepro Lineup would be something like this:
AV7701 - £1500
AV8801 - £3000
AVPA1-4K - £6000

It's highly unlikely the AVP will be upgraded again considering it has been discontinued from Denon's product line.

AV7701 Product Information sheet has been published on Denon Germany's website (in English no less).


Marantz AV7701_ProductinfoWoSPOT_S_PDF_V1_EN_180712.pdf 439k .pdf file

Krobar - I know you have been around a while. Why not go for something with XT32? I am not the fanboy for XT32 that some people here are, but really, if you're buying into Audyssey from something less than XT right now, I would just jump to something with XT32 like the Denon 4311.

Valid point and if I had the additional cash for a PR-SC5509 I probably would have bought it. I run Genelec monitors on long XLR cables so will likely see an increase in noise if I went the RCA which may even outweigh the benefits of XT32. Also as you may have seen with BD/HDDVD I am a first week grey import adopter of new formats so hopefully am only a few years away from 4K BD and a 4K TV and the Marantz being able to switch 4K will be useful at that point.

The 4311 is not the bragain here in the UK that it is in the USA and even at this point in its life will cost me a little bit more than the 7701 although XT32 and Denonlink are both nice to have. What do you think of your 7005? Will you be upgrading to XT32 soon?

It's generally not cost effective to use the Pro Kit on an XT model as it simply allows for more tweaking of XT. At a cost of $700 [$550 (kit) + $150 (license)], you're better served upgrading to an XT32 model rather than going XT+Pro Kit.