Worth upgrading Marantz SR5010...

[Skrimshaw]

Hey guys, I have been reading the forums for a long time but now I need advice.

I am running the Marantz SR5010 as a pre-amp, with the Marantz MM7705. If I upgrade to the Marantz AV7703, will the money be well spent or would I not tell a difference?

 

[PENG]

Hey guys, I have been reading the forums for a long time but now I need advice.

I am running the Marantz SR5010 as a pre-amp, with the Marantz MM7705. If I upgrade to the Marantz AV7703, will the money be well spent or would I not tell a difference?

For the same price the SR7011 is a far better deal as the 7703 won't gain you anything unless you need balance I/O, most people don't. With the AVR, you can expand your surround system simply by adding speakers.

 

[Skrimshaw]

what would you recommend as my next step up from Marantz? I happy with the sound quality, I am not happy with the throw of the sound. Left to right, front to back.

 

[Seth=L]

what would you recommend as my next step up from Marantz? I happy with the sound quality, I am not happy with the throw of the sound. Left to right, front to back.

So you're saying the surround sound is not good enough? I'm not sure what you mean by "throw".

 

[lovinthehd]

That description of "throw of the sound" is new to me too, and wonder what that refers to....

 

[Skrimshaw]

The audio store I frequent use the phrase "throw of sound" to describe the movement of sound from individual speakers. Meaning, if a car drives by in a movie, how well the sound travels from the left to right speaker or if a jet flies by, the sound traveling front the front to rear speakers.

 

[Bucknekked]

The audio store I frequent use the phrase "throw of sound" to describe the movement of sound from individual speakers. Meaning, if a car drives by in a movie, how well the sound travels from the left to right speaker or if a jet flies by, the sound traveling front the front to rear speakers.

Wow. I have not heard that term, but the phenomenon of sound moving around within a movie is a lot more complicated than the receiver in use. I will let the HT gurus weigh in on the particulars of directional sound, but it is unlikely that is something you're going to fix with a new shiny metal box if you are unhappy with how you're throwing sound around the room.

More likely to bring satisfaction would be tuning and adjustment with a known HT adjustment DVD and then some experimentation with speaker location and listening positions. Sound fields are fickle until you get them dialed in.

 

[lovinthehd]

The audio store I frequent use the phrase "throw of sound" to describe the movement of sound from individual speakers. Meaning, if a car drives by in a movie, how well the sound travels from the left to right speaker or if a jet flies by, the sound traveling front the front to rear speakers.

That's in the recording and your speaker setup, not the avr, in my experience. Maybe channel separation specs come into play but I don't think there are significant differences the electronics in general in this respect (perhaps which sound mode/dsp you're using would make a difference).

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I'd absolutely make sure you have your speakers setup before spending any money at all. Just like setting up a 2ch rig for imaging and soundstage, you need to do the same for surround. A little bit of time properly placing speakers will go a lot farther than your dollar at this point.

 

[gzubeck]

Hey guys, I have been reading the forums for a long time but now I need advice.

I am running the Marantz SR5010 as a pre-amp, with the Marantz MM7705. If I upgrade to the Marantz AV7703, will the money be well spent or would I not tell a difference?

Im thinking that your auto calibration is not working very well with your room setup. I owned the 5010 for a whole month before I returned it. The receivers surround decoding went on the fritz in one of the channels. I couldnt get the autocalibration to work well so I just calibrated the db adjustments in the speaker setup manually.