new marantz sr7002, sr8002 receivers - Page 3

SR 7002 with 4 HDMI in 2 out will be killer!

Having owned many yamaha,pioneer, marantz & rotel separates.
If your looking for the best mix of sound and features, Marantz is it. Arcam is great for two channel, but not multichannel, and they lack features.
For sound only the rotel can beat marantz, but they lack so much in there avrs, if they would just add two more channels of power, we would be there, and maybe a headphone socket too.
Pioneer and yamaha cannot compete.
The new onkyos are great. If your looking at an all in one avr, look at onkyo or Marantz only.
Denon's are not that great at sound. They are great at features though if that is what your after.

I have a NAD T773 and want to get some HDMI switching now and am looking at the Marantz having heard both a lot both are great and really its a personal choice of what you like comparing NAD to Marantz both are great
I chose NAD as I thought it was nicer sounding to my ears with PSB speakers

to me they are both way above the Denon units especially in Music and really in any audio
this is my ears and what I hear at least and sure others will agree or disagree and who am I to say one is better to me all this stuff is so personal

now I have PSB speakers and NAD and PSB go together since they have parents in common

I will be looking at both for my new receiver and might lean toward the Marantz this time and use my NAD still till I decide and can hear them both in person

as for the reon ? I guess I think that would be cool but then I think why ?

my DVD will go through a denon 2900 or a new HD DVD when I see what the next gen V3 toshiba flagship will kick out and we already have the XA2 to fall back on with the reon in it for upscaling my DVDs
my PS3 does not need it

so only thing that really needs it would be TV ? and HD to me is good enough the way it is and let my TV upscale it if it needs to my PJ is still 720 but will be updated next year my Plasma is 1080P

again just me

yes they have MC-music mode, which is very much like all channel stereo

oh and i hear they will be available in late october...... pre oder with me if your from michigan

Which one you pre-ordering, man?

and if you are not from Michigan lol?

Has anyone compared last year's Marantz vs. Pioneer? I went with the SR 4001 last year because it sounded a lot better than similarly priced Pio.

However, now that I want to upgrade to the 7002/8002, I will have to also look into the Pio Elite offerings (92/94).

I have Klipsch F2 speakers.

Wy no upgrade to the SR6001, and why was the SR9600 dropped?

I am excited for the SR-4002. A nice budget receiver with preouts and 3 HDMI inputs is exactly what I have been waiting for!!!

Maybe they're following last year's pattern. The 6100 was announced later if I recall...

A Marantz rep said the 7002 8002 will be out in October and will have DTS -MA. He said look for updates to their website this week. I have not seen any changes yet.

Has anyone found a place to pre-order one of these yet?

My impression of what they are saying is that HDMI 1.3 will be switched, so if you have a 1.3 video display it will be passed thru; but that all HDMI audio will be passed thru the receiver except new formats (TrueHD & DTS-HD, DTS-HD MA). The three types of HDMI chips, IIRC, are transmiter, receiever, and repeater, with repeater chips being required for receivers or switchers. Basically I think the two lower end models would do fine with any player which decodes to PCM; for example if you had a PS3 and a Tosh A2/A3 and wanted to get TrueHD you could, by having the players decode. You couldn't get DTS HD-MA (not yet, anyway) because currently that codec isn't available for source component decoding by any available player. I expect this will change, but that's the way it stands now. The two higher end models could accept 1.3 bitstreams and decode in the receiver, allowing decode of DTS-HD MA.

Even though I have been in this hobby since the early 90's, sometimes I wonder if I have "tin ears" because I've never heard great differences in sound quality between upper-end receivers from different companies. But in my defense, I can quite easily hear the difference between speakers and those same speakers in different rooms. What am I missing here?

What is it about the Denon that you didn't like in regards to sound quality and what makes Marantz better? I own a Denon, and was planning to get the 5308 later this year, but I am not commited to the brand. Also, Denon and Marantz are owned by the same parent company, so it would seem that they would share technology, no? Both companies feature toroidal transformers, big caps and similar if not the same quality DACs, so I just don't get where the differences would come from.

I just find it hard to draw any conclusions because some say brand X sounds warm and detailed while others say the same brand is not "musical". It would seem, that if there are differences in sound quality between similar and competantly built AVR's that whether one person deems brand X musical or not depends largely on the sound quality of the speakers each person is using.

I'm not challenging you, just looking for a bit more detail on your experiences with different brands and I'm trying to revaluate what it is I should be listening for.

Similarly sized and buily speakers can be ver similar as well.


Nearly a year ago I changed to a Marantz SR7002 over a Denon 4802. The difference on my redbook CD's were pretty significant.

I had always been a Denon head, I am over it now.

The two brands do not have that much in common in reality, no more or less than any other manufacturers.

Now for HT use? I have to agree, I really have a hard time hearing the differences between similarly priced AVR's. But even there, you push the volumes higher, and usually there will be some differences in how the amp sections maintain headroom and dynamics over another.

DACs have gotten very good. I don't know if I could pick out differences between all to much anymore.

I would have to agree that DACs have gotten very good, and in many cases you will find the same DACs consistently used across the various brands and models.

In my mind it is the implementation of the the OPAMPS and the analog stages that make the biggest difference in sound. I would imagine that is where most of the differences in sound occur from brand to brand. I believe that the most of the European brands tend to have a warm, detailed presentation with great feelings of "space" as compared to some of the Japanese brands and I personally tend toward the "European" sound, if you will, as it seems to be more music friendly to my ears.

From the folks which I have talked with the Marantz tends to offer a little better sonics (warmth, detail, space) than the Onkyo/Integra, Denon, Yamaha offerings and I am wondering if that would also be the case against the NAD, Rotel products.

I have just about convinced myself on the Marantz just looking for some more "real" world feedback.

The Marantz will be used as a pre/pro mated with a Sunfire signature 400x7 amp driving Dali Helicon 800s and the c200 center.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I'm trying to get a handle on what to listen for. What difference did you hear between the Denon and Marantz on CD audio?

Please excuse my ignorance ~ will soon be buying new 46-50" 1080p LCD. Specialty AV store recommending Marantz SR7001 or 8001 for my HT set-up. I will have HD thru cable box. They say all equipment will run thru receiver. Why does the HD TV signal not run directly to the TV? I will also have regular DVD player (waiting to get BD) and some kind of iPod dock. Anyone have experience with these receivers running Paradigm Millenia speakers? They are recommending the Millenia 20 Trio system since I have a space issue. I like to buy and keep for awhile. Is there any reason I should look at the new SR7002 or SR8002? Thanks for your comments.

The only real benefits to 8002/7002 over 8001/7001 are that the 02s will decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD/MA. However, any of the new upcoming BD/HD-DVD players that handle these formats should also be able to translate them to PCM for sending to the receiver. You SHOULD be OK.

However, I am not one of these frequent upgraders and I tend to keep equipment for years as well. At this point in the game, to be safe, I am only interested in an HDMI 1.3 receiver that can decode Dolby THD and DTS-MA. Hence my interest in the 02s....

You know, I just noticed something disturbing....the 8002 pictured only has six inputs, with only four video inputs. That is just not enough, and rather surprising! I would use up all four video inputs with just basic equipment before even adding in game consoles or other things. STRANGE move here, Marantz.

which picture? i thought i saw what looked like 4 hdmi and 4 component inputs... am i looking at wrong pictures?

just my thoughts on the questions


Toyota / Lexus
best analogy I can give



this I totally agree with and why some nice shops you go to will run dif receivers with the same speakers so you can get a idea
then once you narrow it down to a couple let you compare them at your home
this is why I do like going to places that will allow this kind of service and I am willing to pay more when they are there to help you out

I personally think its personal taste to what you like and some do better with dif kinds of music etc..

one thing I can say is comparing a Pioneer elite I had against my NAD I have now in movies things sound better
using the same speakers PSB Image series 7.1 with a velodyne sub
gun shots sound like shots they have a hit and percussion to them with the NAD where the Pioneer would have a nice sound but not have that quick hard hit like a real gun shot

small details stand out more the sounds in some movies such as Gladiator where the metal is being hit against other metal the sounds are just more realistic and can dynamically go from loud to quiet quicker without sounding just LOUD

hard to say in words as I do not write well but once you hear them in your house with your movies I think the dif can stand out a lot

when I picked out a projector I ended up having 5 go through my house before I found one I liked in my budget


if you can set up with friends that have nice stuff ? to bring gear over to one house and have a fun day of taking notes and comparing

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. I don't mean to derail this thread with talk about components other than Marantz, but the discussion is related because I am also possibly interested in Marantz if I think it will improve the sound quality of my system.

Here's the thing though, I have owned the "flagship" Denon 5800 AVR since it was released about 6-7 years ago and just last year I bought and returned the NAD Master Series seperates (about $6K for the pair). I heard no difference in sound quality between my aging AVR and those much more expensive and supposedly more "musical" NAD seperates. Just recently I plunked down almost $10K on Anthem Statement seperates, and again I heard no substantial difference in sound quality. The Anthem and and NAD may have been a hair smoother, but certainly not worth the price difference in my opinion. And I'm obessive about audio quality, so small but meaningful improvments mean as much to me as the next audio enthusiast.

Oh well, I guess I either won't worry about it, or I'll see if I can spend a bit more time trying different options. It is just hard to get in-home auditions of amps / receivers from the stores in my area.

my thoughts are its important to compare other stuff on threads like this
that is where I gain info about new things to look at

me I quit comparing music as much as I do the sound and dynamics of movies now as that is what I enjoy and where I notice more dif now

my music is now usually streamed MP3 files ? and when I can I put in a CD and sit down and listen and enjoy but with a 3 year old that does not happen much anymore


myself might be like you ? I dont hear as much anymore as far as one blowing away another what I might hear is one sounds dif ! cant put finger on it
maybe one is smoother etc.. but why pay $10k for something I have to sit and really try to hear the dif of I can get for $2k


I think the days of say a $2000 receiver being blown away by $20k separates is gone !
I did interior photography for a living and got to go into some insane homes and many of them had insane systems the owners would show me and I would get to listen to systems that cost $100,000 and more but usually in the $20,000 and up for audio only all the time and I never heard anything that made me flat out blown away over my NAD PSB setup
one house had over 40 flat panels and something like $200k in the HT room alone !!!! man poverty sucks !!!!

I always use car analogies and many cars are now all so good
where MB used to be so above all others and now I think Lexus are nicer
(we just sold our S class so I do know MB)

maybe lexus is like Denon and NAD and some others are more like MB
where really high end audio are like Bentley etc... ???
but given a daily driver I think it would be hard to be Lexus these days

just analogy thoughts

I guess everything is relative...

Still no Marantz website update.

OH man I had to laugh
yeah ours was used though when I bought it

I guess it is all relative though good catch two thumbs up for ya

http://us.marantz.com/Marantz_Receiv...se_-_Final.pdf

How does the 8001/8002 compare with Pioneer VSX-94TXH.