Denon/Marantz vs Yamaha vs Anthem Thread

[AcuDefTechGuy]

This thread is now old. But this topic is never old. Just wanted to update something as of 2022.

Where are these brands made?

$7,500 Anthem AVM 90 is made in Vietnam:

$7,000 NAD made in China:

$6,600 ARCAM made in China:

Denon X6700, X8500, Marantz 8015, AV8805 made in Japan:
Other models are made in Vietnam.

Yamaha made in Malaysia:

$5,500 Rotel AVR made in China:

 

[afelcandy]

This thread is now old. But this topic is never old. Just wanted to update something as of 2022.

Where are these brands made?




$7000 NAD made in China:

Better said : ROTEL

 

[3db]

This thread is now old. But this topic is never old. Just wanted to update something as of 2022.

Where are these brands made?

$7500 Anthem AVM 90 is made in Vietnam:

$7000 NAD made in China:

Denon X6700, X8500, Marantz 8015, AV8805 made in Japan:
Other models are made in Vietnam.

Yamaha made in Malaysia:

I never understood the need to put differential inputs on an AVR. Unless you are living in a noise prone area which most of us are not and most of us haven't bothered to go the seperates routes with differential inputs, their kind of a useless marketing gimmick aimed at the audiophile. Funny thing, audiophiles REGARDLESS of brand think AVRs are junk as there too many sacrifices for one fit all box. I rather the AVR vendors get their sh?t figured out with HDMI then roll out something like differential inputs.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I never understood the need to put differential inputs on an AVR. Unless you are living in a noise prone area which most of us are not and most of us haven't bothered to go the seperates routes with differential inputs, their kind of a useless marketing gimmick aimed at the audiophile. Funny thing, audiophiles REGARDLESS of brand think AVRs are junk as there too many sacrifices for one fit all box. I rather the AVR vendors get their sh?t figured out with HDMI then roll out something like differential inputs.

It seems Yamaha has been putting main L/R balanced Inputs and Outputs on their flagship AVRs for a long time (RX-A3080, RX-A6, RX-A8).

I don't know of another brand of MCH AVR that offers this.

I think depending on your POV, many things could be considered "gimmick" if you never use them.

But the fact is, many people do want or use them for whatever reasons. And if it's important to them for their own personal reasons, why judge them?

For example, in my living room I use BOTH of the L/R RCA and XLR outputs. It is NOT because I have noise issues. It's because of my system requirements. It's a long story which involves my Yamaha MG12 mixer for karaoke and Yamaha's lack of Sub/Bass Management in Pure Direct mode. Long story short - I use both RCA and XLR.

So for me, the XLR outputs are useful, not gimmick.

 

[mtrot]

It seems Yamaha has been putting main L/R balanced Inputs and Outputs on their flagship AVRs for a long time (RX-A3080, RX-A6, RX-A8).

I don't know of another brand of MCH AVR that offers this.

I think depending on your POV, many things could be considered "gimmick" if you never use them.

But the fact is, many people do want or use them for whatever reasons. And if it's important to them for their own personal reasons, why judge them?

For example, in my living room I use BOTH of the L/R RCA and XLR outputs. It is NOT because I have noise issues. It's because of my system requirements. It's a long story which involves my Yamaha MG12 mixer for karaoke and Yamaha's lack of Sub/Bass Management in Pure Direct mode. Long story short - I use both RCA and XLR.

So for me, the XLR outputs are useful, not gimmick.

Yes, my Krell power amp that I use for my front L/R channels has only XLR inputs on it, no rca. So, with most AVR's, I would need to use a set of XLR adapters that I have on hand. I'm now using these adapters to connect my Denon AVR to my Anthem STR preamp in order to use its home theater bypass feature.

 

[lovinthehd]

Yes, my Krell power amp that I use for my front L/R channels has only XLR inputs on it, no rca. So, with most AVR's, I would need to use a set of XLR adapters that I have on hand. I'm now using these adapters to connect my Denon AVR to my Anthem STR preamp in order to use its home theater bypass feature.

Higher preout output via xlr might be interesting for some amps, but unbalanced pre-outs do just fine with appropriate amps.

 

[mtrot]

Higher preout output via xlr might be interesting for some amps, but unbalanced pre-outs do just fine with appropriate amps.

I didn't mean to imply that that is not the case. It's just that my power amp does not have rca inputs on it. So, for me, having XLR outputs on an AVR would be a nice feature, so I don't have to use an adapter or an interconnect with rca on one end and XLR on the other end.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I didn't mean to imply that that is not the case. It's just that my power amp does not have rca inputs on it. So, for me, having XLR outputs on an AVR would be a nice feature, so I don't have to use an adapter or an interconnect with rca on one end and XLR on the other end.

Not only that, but adding these adapters may introduce THD+N and noise. So even if the measured THD+N were 0.0006%, these adapters could potentially increase the THD+N to 0.1%.

 

[Pogre]

Alright gentlemen, this is nice family thread that I started about a good topic of Yamaha vs Denon/Marantz vs Anthem.

Right?? It's such an innocent topic to start with. I can't believe any fanboys would jump in and make a bunch of inflammatory, unsubstantiated dubious claims in a vs thread!

 

[Movie2099]

Trinnov. No debate, no questions. All others are inferior. Fight me! Verbally of course.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Trinnov. No debate, no questions. All others are inferior. Fight me! Verbally of course.

Nobody wants to spend $20K on an AVP that will probably be obsolete BEFORE the warranty period expires.

 

[ryanosaur]

Right?? It's such an innocent topic to start with. I can't believe any fanboys would jump in and make a bunch of inflammatory, unsubstantiated dubious claims in a vs thread!

At least it’s not the big Kum Ba Yah-maha club that other thread turned into! What with everybody happily paying premium price for the cutting edge video technology of 2018 while being promised so much more.
It’s like Emotiva bought Yamaha.

 

[Movie2099]

Nobody wants to spend $20K on an AVP that will probably be obsolete BEFORE the warranty period expires.

That's the great thing about it. It's already been out close to 10 years and it's still not obsolete. Still market leading. Has all the latest sound codecs, fast processor, always upgraded web based app, HDMI 2.1, and more. 10 year warranty. Customer support that is unmatched.

But yes, you are correct. There aren't many out there that would drop that kind of money for Trinnov. Or even StormAudio. Which is right behind Trinnov. I would label them 1A and 1B.

But with the brands you've presented I will choose Yamaha.

 

[Movie2099]

At least it’s not the big Kum Ba Yah-maha club that other thread turned into! What with everybody happily paying premium price for the cutting edge video technology of 2018 while being promised so much more.
It’s like Emotiva bought Yamaha.

Hahaha, so much curse coming from that keyboard.

 

[Pogre]

But with the brands you've presented I will choose Yamaha.

Omg. You're so wrong! About what I haven't sorted yet, but I will! Wrong, wrong wrong!

 

[ryanosaur]

Hahaha, so much curse truth coming from that keyboard.

FTFY.

To a certain extent I'm kidding.
But the 2020 Denon and Marantz receivers do actually have functioning HDMI 2.1. It might not be perfect, but it does work.
The 2021 Yamahas are still locked down.

If you don't need the functionality, cool. Nothing wrong with that. But you still have a year old machine that isn't operating as advertised. *shrugs

I've been hoping they fix it and move on. Cheering for that, dare I say. So far, Yamaha is pulling an Emotiva on that one.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

That's the great thing about it. It's already been out close to 10 years and it's still not obsolete. Still market leading. Has all the latest sound codecs, fast processor, always upgraded web based app, HDMI 2.1, and more. 10 year warranty. Customer support that is unmatched.

But yes, you are correct. There aren't many out there that would drop that kind of money for Trinnov. Or even StormAudio. Which is right behind Trinnov. I would label them 1A and 1B.

But with the brands you've presented I will choose Yamaha.

If you have a Trinnov from 10 years ago, the CPU will be slower than a new $500 PC today.

As for HDMI, I am sure you can replace the HDMI card. But that’s gonna cost you a pretty penny. Actual cost for the latest NVIDIA RTX GPU may be $1K and they'll probably charge you $2K or $3K.

@PENG and I are working on a Dirac-HTPC-AVP that will allow you to upgrade your own Intel i9-CPU, NVIDIA RTX-GPU(HDMI card), Samsung m.2 SSD, RAM from Amazon that doesn't require a second mortgage.

Here is a prototype:

 

[3db]

Right?? It's such an innocent topic to start with. I can't believe any fanboys would jump in and make a bunch of inflammatory, unsubstantiated dubious claims in a vs thread!

Yeah right eh!!! Especially coming from a Yamaha fan boy as myself!! Go figure!! LOL

 

[Movie2099]

If you have a Trinnov from 10 years ago, the CPU will be slower than a new $500 PC today.

As for HDMI, I am sure you can replace the HDMI card. But that’s gonna cost you a pretty penny. Actual cost for the latest NVIDIA RTX GPU may be $1K and they'll probably charge you $2K or $3K.

@PENG and I are working on a Dirac-HTPC-AVP that will allow you to upgrade your own Intel i9-CPU, NVIDIA RTX-GPU(HDMI card), Samsung m.2 SSD, RAM from Amazon that doesn't require a second mortgage.

Here is a prototype:

 

[Movie2099]

Omg. You're so wrong! About what I haven't sorted yet, but I will! Wrong, wrong wrong!

There is ZERO bias in my decision.