Marantz SR7001 (I have had it!)

[budbrande]

In May of 2007 I purchased a Marantz SR7001 AV receiver to upgrade my home theater system. Two weeks after I purchased the unit I started having issues with the unit going in to protect mode and the only way to make it work was to unplug it and then plug it back in. I contacted the dealer where I purchased the unit and they tried to be helpful and suggest some things that might be wrong but their suggestions were directed towards someone that has no clue what so ever with electronics. (I work in the professional audio/video business and have been doing so for 25 years.)

After two weeks of calling back and forth the dealer suggested I bring the unit to him and see if he could duplicate the problem. According to him they could not send the unit off for service until he actually saw the problem occur. A week and a half passed and I receive a call from the dealer telling me they finally saw the unit go in to protection mode and that they were sending it off for repair. Two weeks later, "end of July", I receive the receiver back from repair and take it home and hook it back up to my system. According to the repair ticket a connection between circuit boards had been repaired and the idle current adjusted. Everything seems to work fine however about two months later it goes in to protect mode and shuts itself down. I reset the unit and had no further issues until around December of 2007 and it happens again. I contact the dealer and tell him what has happened and he states that it is probably an issue with input voltage that is causing the problem.

Fast forward to two weeks ago. It is happening again! About every other day the unit goes in to protect mode and you have to unplug it and plug it back it before it will power up. Over the weekend it finally went in to protect mode and would not power back up until I tried it last night and it finally started working again. I have contacted the dealer as well as Marantz since this is getting insane.

I realize the unit is covered with a three year warranty but for gods sake; do I have to send the stupid thing back every year for the same problem? What about after the three years are up? Not to mention the cost of shipping the unit back to the shop for service which is not cheap! What would you do? I know it is not a problem related to my system or speakers. I have a complete set of Jamo C80 concert series speakers and when the Marantz is away, my cheap little Onkyo SR605 runs the system with no issues! I am just so disgusted with the whole thing not to mention the $1300.00 boat anchor I have sitting in my rack! Sorry for the lengthy post but I need to vent!

 

[Midcow2]

WOW Bummer!

Sorry you are having problems with your Marantz. Normally, Marantz is very high quality.

Keep us informed how your problem resolution goes.

Again sorry you are having problems; it really puts a damper on a good HT systems like yours.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Sounds like a case of bad luck.

And while you're still venting, is this thing made in China or Japan?

I just could not resist the temptation.

Sorry to hear about the bad luck.

That sucks.

Does Marantz have one of those "lemon" warranty where they will just send you a brand new receiver after 3 repairs?

 

[croseiv]

Time for a new receiver I think.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I wonder if the Amp section is faulty, but the preamp section is just fine. In that case, if you have an external amp, it might work just fine.

Of course, I would expect a nice receiver like that to work on it's own.

 

[budbrande]

Just received an e-mail from Christopher in service and according to him all thay will do is continue to repair the unit until it is fixed or replace it if they can not repair it while it is in service. All the same every time I have to return the unit for service it is costing me $25.00 in shipping charges to get it there.

In reality what I should have done is returned the defective unit to the dealer when it was two weeks old and demanded a replacement instead of allowing them to repair. At that point I could have used my credit card company as leverage and in the event I did not receive satisfaction the purchase could have been charged back. As it stands now, I will have $1436.00 in the unit after you factor in the shipping charges to return it for service twice.

 

[Midcow2]

arrg Bummer cost

Just received an e-mail from Christopher in service and according to him all thay will do is continue to repair the unit until it is fixed or replace it if they can not repair it while it is in service. All the same every time I have to return the unit for service it is costing me $25.00 in shipping charges to get it there.

In reality what I should have done is returned the defective unit to the dealer when it was two weeks old and demanded a replacement instead of allowing them to repair. At that point I could have used my credit card company as leverage and in the event I did not receive satisfaction the purchase could have been charged back. As it stands now, I will have $1436.00 in the unit after you factor in the shipping charges to return it for service twice.

I bought a SR8002 for $1299 (no tax or shippng cost) in February from Hypathia Way through PriceGrabber. I didn't realize Marantz sold only through authorized on-line dealers. After contacting Marantz with my serial number i found my AVR was fully covered and fully warranted. I have had Marantz in the past and never had a problem and my new 8002 is awesome.

Again very sorry for the problems you are having ; hope this time resolves it permanently!

 

[budbrande]

I bought a SR8002 for $1299 (no tax or shippng cost) in February from Hypathia Way through PriceGrabber. I didn't realize Marantz sold only through authorized on-line dealers. After contacting Marantz with my serial number i found my AVR was fully covered and fully warranted. I have had Marantz in the past and never had a problem and my new 8002 is awesome.

Again very sorry for the problems you are having ; hope this time resolves it permanently!

I bought my Marantz locally, "$1299.00 plus tax", and will now have $50.00 in freight after returning it for another trip to service. Honestly, I think I am going to get it fixed and then just put it on E-bay and get rid of it. I will disclose that it has been serviced by Marantz and then offer the receipt where I purchased it so the new owner can get it repaired. (Just under my name thats all!) I have had good luck with my Onkyo in the bedroom so I may look at the NR905 and the SR875 as an option. All I know is I am not getting any more Marantz gear and will be sure to let everyone know what kind of issues I have had in the last year.

 

[mouettus]

I bought my Marantz locally, "$1299.00 plus tax", and will now have $50.00 in freight after returning it for another trip to service. Honestly, I think I am going to get it fixed and then just put it on E-bay and get rid of it. I will disclose that it has been serviced by Marantz and then offer the receipt where I purchased it so the new owner can get it repaired. (Just under my name thats all!) I have had good luck with my Onkyo in the bedroom so I may look at the NR905 and the SR875 as an option. All I know is I am not getting any more Marantz gear and will be sure to let everyone know what kind of issues I have had in the last year.

Would you get rid of a toyota and buy a ford just because you had a case of lemonade?

Marantz builds good units... but like everything in life, there is one that fails every now and then.

edit: oh.... now I click "new posts" and the first thread that shows after yours is this one:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45605 funnay!

 

[budbrande]

Would you get rid of a toyota and buy a ford just because you had a case of lemonade?

Marantz builds good units... but like everything in life, there is one that fails every now and then.

edit: oh.... now I click "new posts" and the first thread that shows after yours is this one:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45605 funnay!

IMHO the Marantz is junk!!! After doing some research I see that I am not alone with this issue. Thee have been plenty of others that have or are having the same issues. The right thing for them to do would at least be to send a call tag and cover the shipping since I have already paid for it once and the issue was not resolved.

 

[bandphan]

IMHO the Marantz is junk!!! After doing some research I see that I am not alone with this issue. Thee have been plenty of others that have or are having the same issues. The right thing for them to do would at least be to send a call tag and cover the shipping since I have already paid for it once and the issue was not resolved.

Sorry for the issues, but as mentioned overall marantz puts out a product free of defect. The dealer where the unit was purchased should stand behind it, and help facilitate communications with the factory. Understanding your upset, bashing a product that has a solid reputation probably will not get the end result your looking for. IMHO you should find out who the factory rep is for your dealers region and contact that person, and let him do some work on your behalf.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Oh my goodness. I just noticed that the Marantz receivers (even SR8002) are made in China now. Heck, even the $2,600 Marantz AV8003 separate pre-pro and the $2,400 MM8003 matching amp are made in China.

The Denon receivers (even 2308CI) and separates are still made in Japan. Will this change soon for financial reasons? All the Denon DVD & BD players are now made in China.

Hmmm. Again, not all Chinese-made products are bad. Some are excellent.

But when things go wrong and people have had bad experiences with some of these components, it just makes you feel better knowing that your receiver was made in Japan rather than China, doesn't it?

Again, some Chinese-made components are excellent quality, but some are really bad as well.

 

[budbrande]

Sorry for the issues, but as mentioned overall marantz puts out a product free of defect. The dealer where the unit was purchased should stand behind it, and help facilitate communications with the factory. Understanding your upset, bashing a product that has a solid reputation probably will not get the end result your looking for. IMHO you should find out who the factory rep is for your dealers region and contact that person, and let him do some work on your behalf.

I just got off the phone with another Marantz service center after a long conversation with one of their head service techs. According to him, "there have been alot of Marantz receivers in their shop over the last couple of years with the exact same problem". It relates to cold solder joints during the manufacturing process which I am pretty sure was the problem they were suppost to have fixed in mine last year. This was a different authorized repair shop than where the receiver went before. He did speak in defense of the shop that previously repaired the unit by saying that due to the fact that there were so many bad joints that the tech could have easily overlooked some during the repair. He also told me that they have had some units back two or three times before they could finally resolve all the issues. Not really what I wanted to here right now!

Don't get me wrong here. I don't mean to sound as if I am bashing the product, but I am disappointed in the response I received from Marantz especially after I find out that I am not alone with these problems. I expected a little more quality out of a $1300 receiver which is the main reason I bought it. Also, when it works I love the sound quality. That was another reason I bought it. I just want it to work, thats all!

 

[NapaDRB]

I'm not sure if I am remembering correctly, but I wonder if this is related to the switch to non lead containing solder for environmental reasons. I think I remember someone here (TLSguy ?) talking about this.

Either way it still doesn't help your situation.

 

[TLS Guy]

I'm not sure if I am remembering correctly, but I wonder if this is related to the switch to non lead containing solder for environmental reasons. I think I remember someone here (TLSguy ?) talking about this.

Either way it still doesn't help your situation.

Yes! This is just the sort of situation I was worried about. We are likely to see a lot more of this form all manufacturers. We are now 2 years out from this RoHS edict, and I expect an increased frequency of this sort of problem on forums like this. The best hope is that the Chinese will say it is lead free solder when in fact it is not.

Interestingly this problem was discovered in the 1914 1918 war (WWI). They had the same issue, and a military research program showed adding lead to the solder was the cure! Now we are 90 years on and back where we started!

 

[fox]

I'm sorry too to hear about your problems with Marantz. For what it's worth, I have had a cassette deck and 2 CD players, all Marantz, that each caused me problems. No I do not hate Marantz, but my experience has not been positive either. I hope things start going better for you. You need some good news.

 

[anamorphic96]

Yes! This is just the sort of situation I was worried about. We are likely to see a lot more of this form all manufacturers. We are now 2 years out from this RoHS edict, and I expect an increased frequency of this sort of problem on forums like this. The best hope is that the Chinese will say it is lead free solder when in fact it is not.

Interestingly this problem was discovered in the 1914 1918 war (WWI). They had the same issue, and a military research program showed adding lead to the solder was the cure! Now we are 90 years on and back where we started!

That's a good point. Will be interesting to see how bad things get or if it really is a problem.

The interesting thing is these problems we hear about may not be as widespread as people would like to think. Audio forums tend to make things sound worse and exaggerate a manufactures problems. Especially when we consider the thousands upon thousands of receivers that are sold.

One major problem I see amongst enthusiasts is a complete lack of ventilation and cooling for their amps and receivers. I see so many photos of receivers with all kinds of equipment stacked on top and no ventilation it makes me sick. Especially considering the prices of some of this gear.

 

[budbrande]

Update!
I have been speaking with a local Marantz dealer that just happens to do service on the units they sell. I explained what was happening and what had been done so far and here was his reply. "We normally don't service units purchased from other dealers however feel free to bring the receiver in to me and I will fix the unit for you and cover it under the Marantz warranty!" I thought that was very nice of them!!! I'm going to let them keep it as long as they need because the funny thing is so far this week it has not cut off since Sunday! Go figure!

 

[mouettus]

Update!
I have been speaking with a local Marantz dealer that just happens to do service on the units they sell. I explained what was happening and what had been done so far and here was his reply. "We normally don't service units purchased from other dealers however feel free to bring the receiver in to me and I will fix the unit for you and cover it under the Marantz warranty!" I thought that was very nice of them!!! I'm going to let them keep it as long as they need because the funny thing is so far this week it has not cut off since Sunday! Go figure!

Oh!... Murphy's your friend too?!

 

[french]

Update!
I have been speaking with a local Marantz dealer that just happens to do service on the units they sell. I explained what was happening and what had been done so far and here was his reply. "We normally don't service units purchased from other dealers however feel free to bring the receiver in to me and I will fix the unit for you and cover it under the Marantz warranty!" I thought that was very nice of them!!! I'm going to let them keep it as long as they need because the funny thing is so far this week it has not cut off since Sunday! Go figure!

By chance did you buy from Advanced Audio in Cary? IF so, I've been to that store and spoken with the owners. He does not seem to be a guy who would not stand be hind his product.

And by chance did you finally get help from Audio Advice in Raliegh? Its funny how they will help you by covering it under the warranty and Advance Audio wont. Well I hope you get your problem solved and if its the store in Cary, He will never ever get my money.

french