Marantz SR7001 and Protect Mode?

First let me say that I work in the Pro audio video business and have been doing so for 25 years. I am having a problem and figured I would ask to see if anyone here has had this happen to them. I just recently upgraded the home theater system in my living room. My receiver is the Marantz SR7001 and the speaker system consist of the following. Jamo C809 towers, Jamo C80 center, Jamo C80 surrounds, and a Jamo C80 sub.

The problem I am having is with the Marantz receiver. From time to time it is going into protect mode and shutting down for no reason. Most of the time it happens within five minutes of turning it on otherwise it will play all night with no problem. The second thing I have noticed is it is usually at very low volume when it shuts down. I have checked the speaker wires for shorts and there are no problems. I even tried a cheap set of AR speakers that my wife had before we got married and it does the same thing so that pretty much rules out the speakers. I contacted the dealer where I purchased the unit and he said they have not had any problems with Marantz which I expected him to say.

Yesterday morning it did it twice to my wife before I got out of bed so I disconnected the unit and boxed it back up and took it back to the dealer to have them check it out. I am pretty sure there is an internal problem with this receiver. The biggest problem is that it does not do it all the time. The other thing that makes no sense is I have never had it shut down at higher volumes. I have owned the receiver for five weeks now and it has probably happend about 20 times. I figured I would ask around here and see if anyone else has seen anything like this and if so, what was the problem?

I've owned 5 different Marantz receivers and have been quite happy with all of them, so nothing to report on that front. I would ask that the dealer swap out the unit with a new one and they can send that one back. I would expect no less from a good dealer if they are able to reproduce the problem, and even if they are not, they should be at least willing to do the same or give you a loaner while yours is being serviced.

I have an SR-8400 that goes into protect mode randomly. It's about two years old. It works most of the time, but I have to pull the plug out of the back and plug it back in to get it to work again. It's very annoying. I plan to send it in after summer is over and I don't need the three zones it provides (ie: I need tunes on the patio!!).

I am sorry to hear about the same problem with a newer model

Good luck,

Pat

I talked to the dealer today and so far he can not duplicate the problem. That is usually the case with a problem such as mine. I told him to just keep the unit and went out this afternoon and picked up an Onkyo TX-SR605 to put in the rack until the problem with the Marantz is solved. According to him Marantz will not take a unit back until the problem can be duplicated by the dealer and that if he could not duplicte the problem then there would be nothing he could do. In the mean time the Onkyo is working flawlessly and when I get the Marantz unit back I will put the Onkyo in the bedroom for a small 5.1 system.

I am pretty disappointed with the overall situtation and if I get the unit back unrepaired I am going to contact Marantz directly and see if I can get something done on my own. I also plan to put a mini DV camcorder in the living room and videotape the receiver every time I turn it on until I get the problem on video tape. At least I will have documented proof that a problem exist if I have to take this further up the chain.

I will say this much. The Marantz sounds better than the Onkyo that has replaced it. Not that I expected a $400 receiver to sound as good as a $1300 one but there is a pretty big difference between the two! It is very noticable when playing music. The C809's really have a much warmer sound on the Marantz.

Sorry to hear about your problem. I agree with these guys. The dealer should go to bat for you. This isn't a cheapo amp! $1300 clams is a pretty decent piece of gear and should not be going into protect mode! What a great idea to video tape it!
My prepro crapped out and the rep in Canada said sure send it in, and it is more than a year old.

make sure speaker b is turned off if your using it for a second zone. Make sure you have your cross over set at 80 and not set to mix or both on the bass. If you have it set to mix/ both it will send a full range signal to your mains.

I currently have my SR7400 at a service center for the same issue and they are also saying that the problem can't be duplicated. The folks over at avsforum suggest that it may be a power supply issue, a heat issue or a problem with the optical inputs, however, nobody at avsforum has been confirmed any of these being the cause.

The service center has ran the unit for 24+ hours with no issues. They are now using a heat lamp to see if heat is the issue. The next thing I will have them try is using the optical input to see if this will cause an issue.

Supposedly this issue has been discussed numerous times at avsforum with no resolution. I am just starting to search through audioholics to see what I can uncover.

mcon618 said:

I currently have my SR7400 at a service center for the same issue and they are also saying that the problem can't be duplicated. The folks over at avsforum suggest that it may be a power supply issue, a heat issue or a problem with the optical inputs, however, nobody at avsforum has been confirmed any of these being the cause.

The service center has ran the unit for 24+ hours with no issues. They are now using a heat lamp to see if heat is the issue. The next thing I will have them try is using the optical input to see if this will cause an issue.

Supposedly this issue has been discussed numerous times at avsforum with no resolution. I am just starting to search through audioholics to see what I can uncover.

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I don't use optical inputs, so that certainly isn't my problem. I use digital coax. My unit almost always does this when I first turn it on. Instead of the usual one click when you bring it out of sleep or whatever, I'll get two, then the dreaded "click click click click" etc. Then I have to unplug it to get it to stop. It doesn't seem to happen when it is already on, although it did do it last night in the middle of a movie. That was the first time.

As for heat issue, I doubt that causes mine either. It happens when turning on a cold unit.

I vote for the power supply as the cause. I am going to have my friend who is a D&M rep take it into his bench tech in IL soon. I just can't until all the summer patio parties are over

Pat

Thanks for the info - I'm thinking it is the power supply as well.

If the tech can't find any issues I will probably just have him replace the power supply and see if that fixes the problem.

I am pretty sure that heat is not the problem. I have an exhaust fan located in the rear of the cabinet and the interior temperature is always within four degrees of the actual room temperature. The other thing is the fact that it happens when first powering up, usually in the first five minutes of operation.

Patnshan: Thanks for reminding me about D&M. I am a D&M dealer and if I can get no satisfaction from my local Marantz dealer it might be possible that I can get a few strings pulled and get something done.

Talked to the dealer on Saturday morning and it finally crapped out on him Friday afternoon. I asked him what we were going to do about it and it looks like it is going back to Marantz service! I honestly think that it should be replaced considering it has had less than one months use but I am at the mercy of the dealer here. At least I have something in the rack to keep me going while it is gone. I just hope it actually gets fixed and does not stay gone for two months and then come back still broken. I will be very upset if that is the case. Oh well, I'll check back and let everyone know how it went. Thanks for the replies and the help.

I agree with you, budbrande, in that I think that it should just be replaced given that you've had it for less than a month. Don't assume that you're at the dealer's mercy. You might want to go ahead and contact Marantz directly. I had trouble with a dealer here and also assumed that I was at his mercy, until I finally just contacted the manufacturer...and the manufacturer eventually cleared everything up.

budbrande said:

Talked to the dealer on Saturday morning and it finally crapped out on him Friday afternoon. I asked him what we were going to do about it and it looks like it is going back to Marantz service! I honestly think that it should be replaced considering it has had less than one months use but I am at the mercy of the dealer here. At least I have something in the rack to keep me going while it is gone. I just hope it actually gets fixed and does not stay gone for two months and then come back still broken. I will be very upset if that is the case. Oh well, I'll check back and let everyone know how it went. Thanks for the replies and the help.

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Your dealer needs to step up and at least give you a loaner unit. When I sold my 6200 and they didn't have my 8300 in yet due to a delay in shipping, they lent me one of their floor models to use until mine came in.

Got It Back

I picked up the Marantz from the dealer on Friday afternoon. It went to Servicewide in IL for repair and so far I think it is fixed. According to the service center it was a cold solder joint between the main board and some other board although they were not specific exactally which other board it was! It also stated that they adjusted the idle current. I figured I would post this response for the board since it seems there are other people out there that are having the same problem. At least it gives you something to pass on to the service center if you are having it repaired. They also said that there have been more solder issues since lead is no longer used in the solder process. Hopefully I won't have anymore issues. It sounds great again in my living room.

I took the Onkyo out and moved it to the bedroom for a small theater system and it is doing a good job in the smaller room. It is a decent receiver and an excellent buy considering I got it for cost through my work. It just fell a little short on power trying to handle the C809's.

budbrande said:

I picked up the Marantz from the dealer on Friday afternoon. It went to Servicewide in IL for repair and so far I think it is fixed. According to the service center it was a cold solder joint between the main board and some other board although they were not specific exactally which other board it was! It also stated that they adjusted the idle current. I figured I would post this response for the board since it seems there are other people out there that are having the same problem. At least it gives you something to pass on to the service center if you are having it repaired. They also said that there have been more solder issues since lead is no longer used in the solder process. Hopefully I won't have anymore issues. It sounds great again in my living room.

I took the Onkyo out and moved it to the bedroom for a small theater system and it is doing a good job in the smaller room. It is a decent receiver and an excellent buy considering I got it for cost through my work. It just fell a little short on power trying to handle the C809's.

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Mine was delivered to the same place today! I hope they will remember your's when they read my symptom sheet. It seems like the same problem.
I will update when I get mine back as well.
Seems like a QC problem to me.

I agree with the SQ of Marantz. I love my Yamaha, but it doesn't seem to have the muscle or warmth of the Marantz. Different class I think.

Pat

I don’t mean to be a wet blanket, but my 8001 has/had the same issue. I sent it to Service wide as directed by Marantz Tech support. It came back and within five minutes it shut down again.

Same story….it ran for days without shutting down at Service Wide. The problem seams to be related to a cold start. If you are lucky enough for it to not shut down, you will have no troubles for days and days (or longer).

At any rate, Service Wide told me they could not fix the problem because they could not duplicate it and to work with my dealer to get a factory RMA. My unit is now on the UPS truck to Marantz and a new unit is heading my way from my dealer. I hope the replacement does not have the same problems. If it comes with the newest firmware recognizing 6 and 7 channel discrete PCM, I’ll be happy.

My SR-8400 is coming back from ServiceWide via UPS today. They said that they replaced the power supply board????

I did not get the tech to speak with, but I am guessing if they replaced it within a week, they were able to duplicate the problem. I will post back when I get a chance to try it out.

I know that if I just turn it off and on a few dozen times and it doesn't go into fault like it had been, it is probably OK

Pat