Which AVR would you go with ...

[KEW]

Just a couple of points, food for thought only:

1. D&M switched to 4 ohm compatible not by boosting their power supplies, but by providing options to limit the output voltages. If you follow their instructions and limit the output V, you will not get more output into 4 ohms, may even get less. They also must have improved their protective circuity so they became more confident in not ending up with more warranty claims.

2. Regarding the 2008 (edit: 2006-7?) models, something seemed to have happened to that year's models. If you compare the weight of the SR7008 and SR7009 you will know what I am getting at. I am not one who would pay too much attention to weights between comparable models of different brands, but the SR7008 and 7009 are presumable designed by the same people. Both are class AB, same number of channels, and just one year apart, so it is reasonable to expect they weigh the same or almost the same.

Edit: I have the model year mixed up a little, the SR7008 looked fine, it's the SR7007 that was put on diet for some reason. The SR5003 actually is heavier than the SR7007. The 5000 series appeared to have been put on diet a year or two earlier (from SR5006 and later models).

The lighter weight could also be due to the use of lighter material such as plastic, Aluminum, and transformers and capacitors that have higher output to weight ratio, still I am suspicious about the SR7007 in particular.

Thanks!

Do you have any thought on the practical issue of whether the 5008 is less able to drive a wide array of speakers than the 5011?

On the one hand, less warranty claims implies that the 5008 may have more failures if asked to drive lower impedance speakers.

On the other hand "options to limit output voltage" sounds much like the switch on the back of Yamaha amps that Gene (and others) are repeatedly telling people to always leave off because it compromises the performance!

 

[PENG]

For those interested in S&V bench tests, below is a comparison between the SR7005 through 7011 and the Denon AVR-4520CI. I got some of the facts in my post#58 wrong, but below are taken directly from S&V website, not from my memory.

It seems that the Marantz flagship units performed quite consistently on the S&V bench over the last 7 or 8 years, typically a notch or two below the Denon flag ships in terms of 2 channel driven output power into 8 and 4-ohm, 5 and 7 channel into 8-ohm.

At 0.1% distortion:

SR7005:

2 Ch - 121.5W 8-ohm, 200.1W 4-ohms
5 Ch - 91.2 W
7 Ch - 74.6 W

SR7007:

2 Ch - 124.3 W 8-ohm, 205.1 W 4-ohm
5 Ch - 89.5 W,
7 Ch - 70.5 W

SR7008:

2 Ch - 122.5 W 8-ohm, 195.4 W 4-ohm
5 Ch - 101.2 W
7 Ch - 68.8 W

SR7010:

2 Ch - 128.7 W 8-ohm, 201.7 W 4-ohm
5 Ch - 84.3 W
7 Ch - 83.2 W

SR7011:

2 Ch - 138.7 W 8-ohm, 203.5 W 4-ohm
5 Ch - 104.9 W
7 Ch - 75.1 W

AVR-4520CI:

2 Ch - 172.6 W 8-ohm, 237.5 W 4-ohm
5 Ch - 121.8 W
7 ch - 108.8 W

Denon AVR-4520CI

 

[ThunderClap]

So the 5010-11 perform lower than the top Denon of that year ?
3300w vs the 5011


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[PENG]

Thanks!

Do you have any thought on the practical issue of whether the 5008 is less able to drive a wide array of speakers than the 5011?

On the one hand, less warranty claims implies that the 5008 may have more failures if asked to drive lower impedance speakers.

On the other hand "options to limit output voltage" sounds much like the switch on the back of Yamaha amps that Gene (and others) are repeatedly telling people to always leave off because it compromises the performance!

From what I can see, the 5008 and 5011 have the same or highly comparable power supply and amp sections. The 5008 could not be rated for 4 ohm load because it did not have the impedance selector. To benefit from protection against low impedance load, one has to use the selector. If not, then I suspect the risk would be the same.

 

[PENG]

So the 5010-11 perform lower than the top Denon of that year ?
3300w vs the 5011

Top Denon model of that year is the AVR-X7200WA, that is more powerful than the top Marantz model SR7011. The SR5011 ranks two notches below the 7011.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

So the 5010-11 perform lower than the top Denon of that year ?
3300w vs the 5011

In case you haven't gotten the message yet, Denon is more bang (Audyssey XT32/power) for your buck, especially in the USA since we see the X3000 series on sale for $599 brand new and the X4000 series on sale for $799 brand new.