Hi lucifer4620,
I own a marantz SR7009 as a start and lately I change it to the Yamaha RX-A3080. Since I got the gears, I can tell you more on what I heard and what I felt. By the way, I start playing with AVR since last 10 years ago. Didn't change much AVR, but changing a lot of cable, speaker, amp and source.
Ok, this will be long , where should I start. maybe I will start with the marantz SR7009 first.
#) I used to hookup SR7009 direct to the speaker when I first started off. That time I am still ok with the sound because I have nothing else to compare with. But after hearing some demo from the audio showroom, I started to feel that there was a problem. The problem was really about amplification that is not strong enough. Everything kind of sound very light. All the details was there, but u just feel that it is not full enough, and not rich enough of the sound. So I change a lot of speaker (warm, high sensitivity and etc),it is still the same. The sound may change because different speaker has their own characteristics, but it doesn't mean that by lacking "warm" sound, replace a speaker of having "warm" sound will give you "warm" sound and solve the issue. It won't work that way. For example I thought the sound was light, so I bought a Klipsch RP-280F that has higher sensitivity driver, and thought that all the "light" issue will be solved. But that is not the case. Its louder but its still sound light. So I added an external amplifier to it and I finally solve the issue. By using pre-out + external amplifier, it really totally solve the issue. That is also the case with Yamaha RX3080. But RX3080 is better than Marantz SR7009 in term of the amplification. Much stronger, sound more full, and sound more solid and heavy weight. But still dont be too carry away by it, when I try out the Pre-out and XLR, the sound is almost the same as what "marantz pre-out + amplifier". I try to switch between speaker. I tried all type of sound, and all possible way. I can tell you as long as you use pre-out, the quality of the sound with this two AVR are the same.
#) Before talking in details of the marantz SR7009 and RX-A3080. in general this is the Biggest different I got, and by far, no one has ever comment in the internet. I manage to find some guy commenting in amazon about RX-A3080 that has the same experience than I do. Its about playing music. With marantz, I change between different sound mode (neural, dts music, dolby music, multi-channel),they just sound great. The sound balance between the "background music" and the "vocal" is very balance. I can hear the vocal loud and clear. at the sametime I can hear the background music (bass, drum, saxophone...etc) all very balance with the vocal. what I mean balance is the sound level. But with Yamaha RX-A3080, this is not the case. No matter how I tune it, I always get the background music not same level with the vocal. The vocal is always tend to cover up the background music. Dont get me wrong, I can still hear the background music very details, but just that the vocal sound louder than it. So I try to play with the DRC and YPAO preset setting, YPAO Front, AI and all sort of setting in the equipment. Its all the same. The vocal is always overwhelming than the background music. I try to increase the volume to 0db (that is really loud),and listen it outside my house, and I can obviously hear the vocal loud and clear but not the background music. Even my neighbour has the same feeling as what I do. You see, this is not a bad things, I think this is just how Yamaha sound signature is as compare to marantz SR7009 that I have. Yamaha like to focus on getting the vocal out more. I think they emphasis a lot on the mid frequency between 800Hz to 1.5Khz. With my marantz, I never ever able to crank the volume up to 0db, because the background music will be so loud (but my klipsch can still take it without any issue). This is exactly what my neighbour told me "With my marantz, at his house, when I play a music, even thought is a slow type music, every detail of the music, from vocal to music instructment can be heard clearly without distortion , and the sound is so effortless to push out. But with Yamaha, all I can hear is the vocal and not much on the background music instructment, such as the guitar pluck is not as solid as the marantz". My neighbour is staying opposite me with at least 20m to 30m away. The only way that I can create the sound of marantz (the way I like it) is to turn off all the sound processing , using YPAO through , and manual increase the PEQ (either in Yamaha or in your source). The PEQ side, u need to push up 500K and 2K. And Lower than the 1K by 3db. This only can help but won't 100% solve the issue.
#) Bass during music. This is another issue. Bass for the music is really poor. For audessy, I can just use "LFE+main" to push the bass out to the sub and enjoy it, but with Yamaha, you need to turn on the "extra bass" setting, but u need to control the "subwoofer level" not to be too high, else the bass become too overwhelming and the entire music is all about bass. the "extra bass" just pushes all the "relevant and related" bass frequency it can find in the music. And you dont feel like enjoying music anymore. With audessy (and its only Audessy XT),the bass is not too much and not too little. Just night with every song.
#) Yamaha has too many setting of sound, DSP and bla bla bla. For some, maybe that is good, but for me if the sound setting is universal applied to all source, then I think it's good. The issue with Yamaha is that every source I put in, I need to set different setting that best suit the source. Either a movie, music, lousy source, high-res source,.... Every source I put it in, I need to find the right setting to match the movie. With marantz, I still need to do that, (hai, no setting is 100% for all source),but at least I dont do much setting all the time. If there is a tweet, its always very minor, mostly on the bass or sound mode. But with Yamaha, my remote control always run out of battery because I click too much. And talking about DSP like "Munich hall, stadium or etc", why would anyone like to have their music played as if they are in the stadium or church or ???? Unless you playing opera and you need that DSP to create tat real environment effect, else 99% of the time, you will not use it. I think the Yamaha DSP is really a marketing gimmick that make ppl feel like they own a great sound processing equipment. Honestly speaking I own a creative high-end sound card that do the same thing 10years back. But 99.9% of the time I never even use it. I would turn it own and hear how it sound for awhile but never never turn it on permenantly.
#) Talking about AI. If you are listening to music, NEVER NEVER turn this own or even other Dynamic sound processing feature on. This is what happen. When I listen music, with the AI turn on, the vocal become damn loud and all the background music is being suppressed down heavily. And you can feel very obviously the suppression that create unbalance sound out, like the suddenly the u lower down the volume from 0db to 10db, and constantly through the whole song, you hear the volume of the background music including the bass up/down up/down. In music, what is pleasant is the music must be smooth up and down. That is pleasant sound. But the AI and the Dynamic DRC is really doing more bad than good. But in movie its a different case. turning it on is a good thing, where you can clear some clearer especially ppl talking and some small background noise like bird flying over your sky, the foot step and etc. But again, with the AI, it doesnt solve all the issue in movie. Some time I still can't hear ppl talking clearly too, but the "dialogue level" feature is there to help you. normally I would put 2, which suit for majority of the movie. But that this is different with the marantz. In my old marantz there is something call "dynamic vol" and "dynamic EQ". this two feature, when I turn it on, it will find its way to get the best sound out. All the details that need to be push up, it will push it up nicely. All the details that is too loud, will be bring down nicely. ITs always balance. Even if I turn it on for music, the music still sound great and not issue of "suddenly volume drop" phenomenon happen. Even my wife notice the "sudden drop" sound effects with the Yamaha. A lot of ppl complain about the dynamic EQ and vol, I think it is because the dynamic EQ is set too high. I will always set the dynamic EQ to min instead of max. If I set the dynamic EQ in marantz to MAX, the effect will be the same as Yamaha AI turn on. Sound being sudden up and down...
#) So now, that doest make the Yamaha damn lousy to own? I would say yes/no in a different way. Lets talk bout what I like about Yamaha. First of all the build quality of the machine. Its really tough, and highest build quality compare to my old marantz. How do I know it? With marantz receiver, if I am placing my subwoofer near it, and too much of vibration will use my Marantz to vibrate till the circuit just stop. It will just suddenly stop working. But Yamaha, its just keep vibration beside my subwoofer, and it never stop playing. For the sound quality, Yamaha really produce a better sound quality as compare to my old marantz. It so clean, the bass is much tighter, the vocal can play very very loud without even have any sort of distortion. With marantz, on very very loud volume, I can feel like the vocal is not so smooth anymore, like the a small speaker produce loud sound. And the high frequency is being shape nicely, no over harsh, no irritating high frequency. Even when I increase the setting of "treble level" to 6db, the high frequency still feel very nice control. With marantz, it doesnt control it, it just let it out as much as you want it to be. So most of the time, I will get harsh sound too much with marantz. But as long as I decrease it , then there should be a problem. In terms of sound clarity, Yamaha really beat the old marantz SR7009 out. Marantz is still very very good in it sound, but I can obviously hear a better sound clarity from the Yamaha. And Yamaha has cleaner circuit and component as compare to marantz. When I turn on the volume to the max in marantz, I could hear the strong hiss coming out. But with Yamaha at stop volume, the hiss is very very minimum only.
#) Beware of video processing in Yamaha. In Yamaha normally I will set the video to be "bypass". It try to use the video processing in the Yamaha, and it change the colour of the screen. I am using a HTPC with ATI Radeon 460 graphic card, and a Sony 55inch LCD panel. My video output is 12-bits, 4:4:4, RGB full mode, 1080P 60hz. On the windows desktop, the font of the icon is black in color with "bypass" mode. But you turn on the video processing, the font is no longer a black color. You can see in near that it will have multiple color. It doesnt look like a pure solid black anymore. I dont know if this is a feature or just a bug , but I know it change the accuracy of the color and that is not a good thing for me.
#) "Warmer Sound" . If you want a much warmer sound, then adjust your EQ. Or get a class A amplifier. If you connect to the Yamaha directly, I can say it much warmer than the marantz. I dont call it warmer. I call it "more weight" or "more fuller" sound. Similar sound like guitar pluck, for marantz, you can hear that it like using a cheap guitar. But for Yamaha, the guitar pluck has a strong quality to it. Go to the nearest guitar shop, take a low end guitar and a expensive guitar. Just pluck the string, and you will know that the expensive one sound more "solid, fuller, more weight". That is exactly what you call a better sound quality in Yamaha. But if you are using a pre-out....marantz is better in my opinion. Direct AVR amplification, Yamaha not bad. using preout, marantz better. Even the RCA and the XLR of yamaha has noticeable different in my ear. XLR sound even more solid, fuller, more weight to the sound. But its very small different. Unless you repeat the song back and forward in a short period of time, else you won't hear it. If I let you listen to the full 5min song with XLR, and then restart again with RCA, I guess not much of ppl can hear the different. If only when repeat a small portion of the song over and over again quickly, then u will get the different.
Conclusion, This will be the consideration if you are buying the RX-A3080. I sold off the RX-A3080 after just a month of having it. And my next AVR will going to Denon 4500H or 6500H (most probably). I haven't played with it before, but I would like to spend some money in it. If it's not up to my standard, then I would get the AV8805 marantz and never change again. Yamaha is not a bad AVR, just that you need to know what you like and whether the sound signature is off your preference. Its still a highest end AVR and way much cheaper than marantz and denon high-end product. If you like to change setting a lot, then Yamaha might be for me. If you like only to listen to vocal sound, then Yamaha is definitely for you. For me at the moment I will try denon because I believe the technology has change now. With D&M merged together, denon might have the best of marantz. And I heard X4500H before without any external amplification to definitive technology speaker, the sound is very full and rich. Movie was strong too. But I cant say that denon is 100% no problem or damn good, as I haven't got it into my system yet. For me if I say the equipment is better than another one, it should be test in my environment, with the same system , same cable, same source, and over-and-over for many many hours. I will getting the x6500h soon, and maybe then I can tell you the different, but it would be 2 months from now. The only problem now is that I am not sure to get x4500 or x6500. Both in paper are the same expect for the more channel in x6500. Even the weight of x6500H is only 0.9LBS in different. The size of both is exactly the same. But the price of x6500H is a lot more. So that make x4500H as good as X6500H too. Since I am using external amplification, I believe x4500H is no different than x6500H.
Ok guys, hope this help. Sorry for the grammar or typo mistake. I dont have time to correct it.
