AVS Forum banner

Marantz AV8805 15.2 XLR Pre/Pro Official Thread

1M views 9K replies 535 participants last post by  Cleveland Plasma 
#1 · (Edited)

Attachments

See less See more
15
#6,086 ·
Is there a way a way to switch inputs via amazon Alexa with the 8805? I can turn currently turn on my tv (LG OLED 77"), turn on my 8805 but only to the HEOS input and turn on my Verizon FIOS cable box (and change channels) all hands free. I only thing I can't do is switch to the cable box input of the 8805 once it is on, I have to use the remote for that.
 
#6,088 ·
I'm going back to Dirac after having the 8805 around 30 days. I just feel like Audyssey cannot hold a candle to it unfortunately after owning Dirac processors. The reliability is great on Marantz but there is definitely a loss of sound quality unfortunately. I think the 8805 is just held back by Audyssey IMO. You would think by now they would at least find a way, like Dirac and Anthem ARC to implement a better calibration mic. Calibrating with my UMIK-1 probably also makes Dirac even better, as well as Anthems good quality mic.
 
#6,089 ·
Am I the only not not understanding why crossover frequencies are 20Hz apart? Why can't they be 10Hz apart?
 
  • Like
Reactions: audiofan1
#6,090 · (Edited)
I don't own one, but are you sure it isn't actually 10Hz for frequencies 80, 90, 100, and only resorts to bigger steps outside that best-use range?
 
  • Like
Reactions: audiofan1
#6,096 · (Edited)
80 Hz is the frequency used by THX in certified commercial theaters [at least for the surround channels, the fronts may be full range.]
80 Hz is the frequency suggested by Tomlinson Holman's research papers [he's the T and H in THX and also the co-founder of Audyssey]
80 Hz is the frequency used by Dolby Labs in their test facility.
80 Hz is the frequency suggested by A. Grimani who coined the phrase "bass management".
80 Hz is the frequency that must be used in consumer THX processors [but they have manual override]
80 Hz is the frequency the people who mix, master, and produce our movie sound use and for their dubbing stages. [Personally, emulating what the original creators experienced as accurately as I can, aka high fidelity, is my goal, at least within my budget constraints, so I always design systems based on 80Hz use.]
80 Hz is the frequency many people in this forum suggest a user should manually dial in if the found frequency by the room calibration system is lower [however the converse is not true: A found frequency above 80Hz should not be overridden downward to 80Hz]

Frequencies higher than 80 Hz are provided for people who either due to room placement or speaker size constraints can't quite make it down to 80 Hz in their satellite speakers.

Frequencies lower than 80 Hz are provided for people who errantly think subs are our enemies and their main speakers have superior deep bass capability (with less distortion too) hence eeking out as much bass from them is the way to go and we only resort to using a sub because we are forced to by "the man". These same people are why most processors have the absurd option for "double bass" (LFE+Main) despite people in the know clearly explaining it is fundamentally just wrong and creates an inaccurate bass response with an unavoidable bump in the overlapped area.
 
#6,109 ·
I just had our electric company come out and check everything on their end. They had me turn the microwave and dryer on and everything was good on the electric company's end with this house. The next step is to get an electrician out to check the wiring inside at the breaker box, etc.
 
#6,111 ·
During bass heavy parts of program material the power amplifiers are drawing a lot of current. This current draw causes a voltage drop on power line from your service entrance (circuit breaker box) to the wall outlet. The current drawn by the linear power supplies found in most power amplifiers is not continuous, but consists of 120Hz current pulses that are around three times the average current being drawn. These pulses increase the maximum voltage drop.

That is:

voltage drop = current in power line x resistance of power line

voltage at wall outlet = voltage at service entrance - voltage drop

The more current your electronics draw, the higher the voltage drop. If the voltage at the wall outlet drops enough, the voltage to the AVR may drop below the level required by the AVR, and it may turn off.

If your issue is caused by voltage drops in the power line, messing around with back up power supplies to solve the above problem is a "Band- Aid" approach and is not inexpensive. Installing one or more new 20 amp circuits from your service entrance to your electronics would be easiest way to solve this issue, depending on the cost. Adding circuits will divide the current between the circuits and thus lower the voltage drop in each circuit. 20 amp circuits will also use larger wire than your existing circuit is likely using. The lower resistance of this larger wire will further reduce the voltage drop. An added advantage of added circuits is that, unlike a UPS, these circuits don't continuously draw small amounts of power that add to your electric bill.

If you add the circuits such that you have already engaged an electrician, it would also be good to consider adding a whole house surge protector ad the same time, in, or next to, the service entrance panel. Whole house surge protection is included in the 2020 National Electric code for new residential construction. Whole house surge protectors for Eaton or SquareD panels that replace existing 240V breakers are available that are easy to install (depending on your panel) are available for $100 or so plus installation. These protectors provide surge protection and still protect the 240V circuit. Whole house devices that are installed next to the panel are also available for a reasonable cost, but the installation is somewhat more involved.
 
#6,117 ·
I just recently connected my Galaxy S10 phone to the 8805 via bluetooth. Question now when using the Tidal app and playing music HiRes Master file. Am I getting HiRes audio trough the Marantz? Monitor just shows the Bluetooth icon and track info.
When going through HEOS....TIDAL, I'm certain I only get HIFI audio(shows on screen flac 44.1khz/16 bit) even on HiRes recordings.
 
#6,122 ·
~ Firstly, Amazon HD / HEOS does not decode MQA (and I'm glad it doesn't).
~ Rather, Amazon HD / HEOS gives you the true lossless PCM instead :)
~ When the LED on the front of the Marantz AVP shows the status as "96kHz", then that is the actual PCM resolution which it is receiving.
~ However, when Audyssey is engaged, then everything is processed internally at 48kHz.
Note: The LED will still show 96kHz as the incoming stream. (Personally I don't use Audyssey.)
 
#6,126 ·
~ Firstly, Amazon HD / HEOS does not decode MQA (and I'm glad it doesn't).
~ Rather, Amazon HD / HEOS gives you the true lossless PCM instead :)
~ When the LED on the front of the Marantz AVP shows the status as "96kHz", then that is the actual PCM resolution which it is receiving.
~ However, when Audyssey is engaged, then everything is processed internally at 48kHz.
Note: The LED will still show 96kHz as the incoming stream. (Personally I don't use Audyssey.)
This is obviously more complicated than I thought.

First, why are you glad that HEOS does not decode MQA?

Second, I'm not sure I understand where Audyssey fits in here. Are we saying that Audyssey is a digital processor and would be bypassed if I were to feed an analog signal into the 8805 from an MQA streamer? And if this is true, then I would also lose my acoustic room correction?
 
#6,123 · (Edited)
^ I concur: the display is showing the incoming signal sampling rate, not how the processing is being done internally. Engaging (I suspect) any digital signal processing, including how it extracts a signal from analog sources to send to the sub for bass management, is done at 48kHz. According to Chris Kyriakakis, co-founder of Audyssey, this is a decision made by the AVR/Prepro manufacturers to save money on processing chips and not an inherent limitation of Audyssey itself.

There is no good evidence sampling rates higher than this are necessary anyways, because there is no good evidence humans can hear much above 20kHz, at best, and 48kHz can even record up to 24kHz sound, if need be. That is, 48kHz sampling is already better than it needs to be. Hi-Re$ is a marketing scam in my opinion and even Mark Waldrep of AIX records is starting to realize this himself.

---
There are really only three things one needs to know about MQA, besides the fact that it's a money grabbing scheme according to the co-inventor of SACD and DSD/Sonoma, Andreas Koch:

A. It's lossy.
B. They specifically tried to keep that fact from us in their initial advertising. Example:


Only once other technical people exposed the truth that it's most certainly a lossy process did they then admit it and pull their misleading ads. [Their use of these misleading ads speaks volumes as to the MQA company's integrity and trustworthiness in my book.]
C. Since it is lossy, any audible sound difference whatsoever is dubious because we'll never know for sure if what we are hearing is actually just the artifacts of their lossy process.

Cleverly when this was all exposed they argued, paraphrased: "Well, just because our process is technically 'lossy' and degrades the sound as compared to the content on the original master tape itself, that's not what's important. See, our magical process brings you closer to the original sound, in the air, before it even got recorded!" Riiiiiiiiiight. See why that's clever? It is impossible to prove them wrong because the goal sound is indeterminable.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bigguyca
#6,129 ·
So, after researching the topic, my understanding is an MQA renderer (MQA DAC) is required to upscale and filter the decoded MQA signal. If using the AV8805, the output of the renderer to the 8805 must be via analog signal so that the MQA DAC is used instead of 8805's non-MQA DAC.

Depending on the renderer, the DAC may both decode and render MQA (eg: Bluesound Node 2i). Alternatively, Roon can decode (which is 90% of the process) and then feed the result to an MQA renderer or directly to the 8805.

Depending on the material, many will argue that the result in this case is good enough and does not require MQA rendering. I would figure the biggest difference would be with classical music, whereas digital music would have the least (if any) difference. I am not a listener of classical music. But, since I like to experiment, I will try it both ways.

However, since Audyssey would be bypassed to get the full MQA result, the whole thing may be a wash. But, we'll see.

Any comments for clarification or correction would be appreciated.
 
#6,131 ·
Folks

Anyone know if it’s possible to cut the trigger if headphones are inserted?

I trigger my power amp, but wouldn’t need them on if headphones are plugged in.

I have not found any solution perusing the Manual, searching her or the web, or even perusing the system even documentation.

Thanks
 
#6,136 ·
Hey all...so just bought a brand new 8805. When setting up in rack to test, it turns on, has the blue light around the round display...but no display, just blank. Same goes for the screen that is within the flip down opening, blank.

Any ideas or is this thing toast? We are just about to finish our HT after 3 and a half years...so am pretty bummed if I have to send this back and wait for who knows how many weeks.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.
 
#6,137 ·
Hey all...so just bought a brand new 8805. When setting up in rack to test, it turns on, has the blue light around the round display...but no display, just blank. Same goes for the screen that is within the flip down opening, blank.

Any ideas or is this thing toast? We are just about to finish our HT after 3 and a half years...so am pretty bummed if I have to send this back and wait for who knows how many weeks.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.
Is it possibly in Pure Direct mode?

It would be odd for a new unit to ship in Pure Direct mode but the display is off when the unit is in Pure Direct mode.


If not you can try to reset the unit.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#6,146 ·
Couple of questions form a new owner:

1) Do people have ip scaler on or off? I find having it on means I can get into the menu quicker, what is the disadvantage of having it on? It is attached to my JVC projector and used mainly for my HTPC which outputs in 4k.

2) Is there a ‘better’ way of improving the bass response with app?

3) Should I upgrade to the latest firmware? I.e are there any issues with it.

4) What is better Neural X or DSU?

Thanks
 
#6,147 · (Edited)
1) Do people have ip scaler on or off
My general policy on scalers is

A. The TV video monitor knows best how to deal with an incoming signal that doesn't have the same native resolution as it and how to best scale it for its particular quirks

B. Scalers get better and better year after year yet cheaper and cheaper to produce so ignore price and always assume your best scaler is on your newest device. [Newest year of first production, that is, not necessarily what year you bought your product.] This Marantz was first released in early 2018 I believe.
 
  • Like
Reactions: NM20
#6,160 ·
The last firmware update introduced a bug with the DSU causing stereo signals processed by the DSU to leak the centre channel data into other channels (for me the centre channel data leaks into the Front Side Right and Front Side Left channels). Super annoying. Not sure if it is a DM issue or a Dolby issue but regardless, and unless the bug is fixed quickly, it will cause me to consider some other non-DM processor brand without this problem the next time I am looking to upgrade my 8805.

I understand that a short term workaround is to use DTX rather than Dolby Surround but this is a totally unsatisfactory solution for me.

I am actually shocked that DM released such a buggy firmware update as I believe they may have been aware of this problem before the update was released!
 
#6,161 ·
The official response from Sound United:

We are aware there is a Dolby Surround related bug. Sound United is in contact with Dolby and the two companies are working together to provide a fix for currently affected AVRs, we will provide a further update once the timeline is better outlined. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
 
#6,177 ·
Hey guys, I seem to have HDMI sync issues with projector suddenly. When I change audio mode in the middle of a movie (e.g go from dolby surround to atmos), the projector loses source and resyncs again. This never happened for the 2 years I owned 8805.

‘changing volumes and getting info do show the OSD without any issues... but changing audio mode

what could be the problem? Note that I’m not changing anything with the video input/mode/nothing, just simply changing audio modes.

needless to say it’s freaking annoying.
 
Top