Marantz AV8003 and MM8003

I've been waiting to hear about these as well...thanks for the catch. I'm going to guess, however, that they're going to be fairly expensive...

Guys,

Dropped by CES and heard a demo of this combo, unbelievably tight! Transported by their new blu-ray, flagship single chip projector, and amazing Snell's (four of which were di-pole). This will give many units out there a run to their respective drawing boards. Question remains: $3K for pre/pro + any amp, or an Onkyo Pro PR-SC885p for less than half the price + any two amps (bi-amps) for that budget?

///A

Here are some pics.........

Marantz AV8003


MM8003

That looks sharp!

In response to HCFreak...

The price for this pre/pro vs the competition (~$1300 with Intrega DTC-9.8 or Onkyo Pro SC-PR885p) is a $1700 swing (which can fetch you two really good used 200x5 amps...and cables on a stretch). What do you really get to justify that price? And in Marantz' defense, Anthem still has their D2 at ~$5K. Will you hear the difference in all three of these models in "pure mode," if speakers and amps kick ass? In addition, the Marantz scaler is proprietary and not DCDi or Silicon Optix.

Comments welcome,
///A

Any word if this pre pro has THX Loudness plus and Audessy Pro?

Where is the Marantz display at CES. I can't find them in any of the show guides

More photos on engadget

http://www.engadget.com/photos/hands...p-pair/570992/

looks good, second quater seems like a long wait.

They are at Mandalay Bay. They have a dedicated room.

///A

That's freaking large as a pre-pro. It's as big, if not bigger than the SR8002 AVR. Love the complete feature set though, with HDMI 1.3, decoding, and the kitchen sink.

The features for this unit are quite similar to the Denon AVR4308. With Denon being a sister company I am wondering if they have a technology exchange program going on. My only hope is that Marantz goes the extra mile on the audio quality side over its Denon sister. If that is the case it will definately be strong competitor in the pre/pro market. Have to hope the price point does come in around the same price as the Integra DTC-9.8 if so... game on.

More pictures here on engadget:

Marantz AV8003 and MM8003

I boughtan SR-8500 in 2005 and I love it. The sound quality is outstanding for a receiver. But it only has DVI inputs and doesn't do DD+, TrueHD or DTS-MA. I had no choice in 2005, because my old pre/pro died. So I couldn't wait for HDMi switching. Now I want to upgrade. However, I won't rush my purchase decision again.

I've been considering the DTC-9.8, but wanted to wait for CES to see what is coming out. The AV8003/MM8003 combination looks really attractive at first glance. I have an older Onkyo receiver in a second room. Their products are great value and have pretty impressive sound quality for the money. But I have no doubt I'd hear a not subtle difference in sound quality between the DTC-9.8 and the AV8003 with my Apogee ribbons.

Before I decide, I want to know what the complete feature set of the AV8003 is going to be.

Does it have HD Radio? What about Audessey XT Pro room correction? How about Audessey Dynamic EQ? Can it accept and internally decode a DSD stream from an Oppo 980?

I do have one immediate reservation about the AV8003. From the pics posted above, I don't expect it to have more than 5 A/V inputs. I have HD-DVD, Blu Ray, the Oppo 980 (for DVD-Audio and SACD), a DVD-Recorder, a FIOS HD-DVR an HTPC, and a DirecTV HD-DVR. That's 5 sources which output HDMI, and two that output analog video (one composite and one component).

That means I'll have to add an HDMI switch to accommodate all of my sources. I don't mind the small additional cost, but I don't like it. I consider the added cost of the switch as art of the overall cost of the pre/processor. And adding the HDMI switch means more macro programming steps to get the AV8003's remote control to switch the source device's video and audio together.

It is really aggravating to have a $3000 modern pre/processor that has composite and S-Video jacks out the ying-yang, with only four HDMI inputs. What are the CE manufacturers thinking? Who buys a pre-processor at this level and connects a VCR or a Laser Disc player, or a DVD player that doesn't have at least component video outputs? Having all of those legacy jacks takes up a huge amount of real estate on the rear panel, and adds significant cost. It's not just the jacks themselves that add to the cost. There is added internal wiring, more solder connections on PC boards, and the extra assembly and design costs as well.

Why not drop S-Video and composite video from all but one or two of the inputs? Instead of the legacy jacks, why not add a second HDMI controller chip with four more inputs? Even if dropping the legacy jacks didn't cover the cost of the additional HDMI jacks and controller, I'd be willing to pay an extra $200 to have the extra inputs I need built into the receiver.

Doing so would also address future device connectivity.

For example, I expect to be buying a stand-alone Blu Ray recorder in a few years. Hopefully it will implement managed copy through HDMI. I'd really have liked to see at least one input/output with a dedicated HDMI pair on it for the recorder. Or, if the pre/pro had two HDMI controllers, why not allow the second controller's HDMI output to act as a second zone or recording output? Running component video and analog audio cables through walls to send HD video is just not as practical as sending the same signals on one HDMI cable.

In the meantime, I will wait a while and see what the AV8003 looks like.

Check out the upcoming processor and receiver from B&K. They offer 6 HDMI inputs.

Looks promising. I hope this unit truly does retail for $3000, however poket-lint puts the price at £3000:

(Unable to post the link due to forum restrictions)

Source? Pics? Info?

Try here:

B&K Ref.70 & AVR707 News

And here:

Secrets Show Report: CEDIA - 2007

I emailed Marantz yesterday to see if I could get some more details regarding the new AV8003. I was surprised when with in about 10 minutes of sending the email I got a call back from their product manager, which was able to to provide some additional detail.

The AV8003 looks to be a very exciting product:

First I asked about Video Processing. It does not appear that they will be using a HQV chip or Faroudjia. He mentioned they would be using their own video processor. I didn't know what that actually meant if they were planning on using a version of GENNUM VXP processor which is in their projectors or if it was going to be similar to the video processing offered by their DV9600 DVD player.

The AV8003 will be one of the few processors that will be offering not only audio streaming but also video streaming via the network connection. He mentioned that they were able to streaming 1080p content from a NAS device to the processor as though it was another video source, decode it and output it via HDMI. Very cool feature if I understood it correctly.

The AV8003 will be offering Audyssey room EQ the MultEQ version (not the pro version).

Expected release date will be the end of April early May.

I asked about pricing and he said the combination of the AV8003 and the M8003 will be tracking some where in the $5000ish range. He said they have not made any firm decission on price nor had they concluded what the price would be if the units were split up.

Definately looking forward to this product and hope the price is right!

I want it in silver! Haven't heard that there will be color options, though.

Richard

The AV8003 looks awesome in black. If I do buy this processor, I won't necessarily be buying the MM8003 to power my speakers. I plan to go with 3 NAD C272's for my 5.1 setup. I currently have a NAD T763 version 2 and I am happy with the warmth of the NAD sound.

As for the video processing inside the AV8003, it could be ABT-based, as this is what's inside their DV9600 universal player.

Anybody know what the back looks like yet? If it was in the $3K price range, I'd pre-order it if I could. But not at $5K.

More pictures (including shots of the rear panels with connections) here:

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/do...0110/ces17.htm

It's great to see Marantz finally brings surround sound to their Reference Series, which was thus far always stereo only (with surround sound left to lesser series).

I'm curious about this set. Perhaps it's a step up from my 885.

Generally speaking, I would give audio from Marantz the edge in the receiver market. Not features or video processing but quality of audio. With their reference series, I'm hoping they can tie their sonic qualities between the two with enough features to explode onto the market.

If their amp performs well and has enough current, this might be the sleeper combo of the year at that price point. The Denon runs about 9,000 more retail. I can tell you the Marantz won't have as many features but most of our installs and clients don't use half of what is there.

I may take a trip to NJ soon and may arrange to pop in and see what I can find out about them if they let me into the restricted areas .

Richard

Hi Richard

Please do make that trip to NJ and report back to us. I would love to know how the Marantz AV8003 compares to the Cary Cinema 11a in terms of sound and usability.

Thanks in advance and regards...

Ripclaw

I agree with Richard. I love my Marantz SR-8500 for its sound quality. But it has outdated features so I am looking to the new separates as an upgrade.

Interestingly on the features front, the new pre/pro will be first to market that has a built-in HD video streaming interface. It will be able to accept an ethernet cable from your PC as if it were any other 1080i source component, and output the HD video to your display.

Most pundits look at Blu Ray as the winner in the HD format war. Others point to downloads as the ultimate future of HD video sales. At least the Marantz won't need added hardware to accept these HD video feeds if they are actually made available.

In the meantime, I don't know of any HD video content on the web as of yet. From what I've heard, the network's prime-time shows are down converted from HD before they are posted on their web sites. So for now, it isn't a compelling feature.

In response to Arashjahn and to augment sratch17's comment, the built in media player will be a very big deal (at least to me) if I can stream remote HD audio and video to the prepro. Assuming the sound quality of the preamp stage is at least as good as the Onkyo Pro 885 I own now (likely given Marantz's reputation), I would buy the AV8003 in a heart beat. For those who didn't see it, take another look at the image posted above: http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/do...0/ces17_12.jpg

If the Marantz is generating that interface, it's really serving as a media center and prepro rolled into one product. This is exactly what I've been waiting for. The extent of AV Codec support (especially high performance codecs) will be key.