My new Marantz 8400 observations.
All right, I've had a little time to play with this guy now so I'll give some impressions.
First off getting this thing has been a nightmare, and when I first saw the box it came in I was scared witless (not much of a scare according to some). The box was obviously battered and had a hole punched through it about the size of a baby's fist. When you put your hand through the hole you were touching the display of the unit. I asked the girl at the post office what I should do about reporting the hole, all she said was, "I don't know, it was like that when it got here." Most comforting. Anyway I took the unit home and got it out of the box. Not one piece of Styrofoam was intact, most were shattered into about 10 pieces, and the one that wasn't was so brittle that it fell apart at touching it. As for the unit itself, not a scratch baby!
The first thing I noted was the solid build quality of the unit. Sure it weighed in a little less than 40 LBS but it is a solid feeling < 40LBS. My Sony receiver weighed in at about 27 LBS, but the weight was uneven, and felt kind of loose if that makes sense. This Marantz is one solidly constructed receiver that screams quality right out of the box.
I had everything unhooked from the Sony and plugged into the Marantz in about 45 Min. including moving furniture and the like. I stopped only once along the way for some listening. After I had all the components hooked up I connected only my front L and R speakers and then turned on the Tuner. Out poured glorious sound, I sat down for a quick listen and was a little impressed. It did sound audibly better, but how much better this wasn't the time to decide, I still had more speakers to set up. I picked up the receiver at 5:30 and by 6:30 everything was tested out and ready to get dialled in. Out comes my S&V HT set-up disc and my Radio Shack SPL Meter. This is where things get eerie. All the speaker settings were almost right on, requiring little or no tweaking. All I had to do was set the rear speakers as being a little closer than the factory settings and all of a sudden everything on the meter is reading as hunky dory. Add to this the fact that my RCA set top DSS box was the factory preset for the Marantz's remote, and the fact that my DVD player and TV were both the first codes that I tried programming, and set-up was a breeze. I had everything pretty much calibrated and programmed by 8:00. I know that there is still more tweaking needed, or at least more tweaking will be done needed or not. But now the time for auditioning has come.
The first thing I threw in was Roger Waters The Wall Live at Berlin. I love this DVD, it sounds fantastic and there are a lot of cameos from some pretty famous performers in it. The sound was noticeably improved from the earlier receiver and seemed to present a clearer warmer, smoother sound, but at the same time everything was more detailed. Female voices especially sounded much better, I don't know how explain it, they just sounded clearer, and were more in the forefront.
The second thing I threw in was a series of movies, DTS mainly, including Blade II, Gladiator, SPR, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. I wasn't really looking for impact, or deep bass. What I wanted was to hear how the dialogue sounded through a barrage of background noise. My main reason for upgrading was the fact that my Sony receiver was lousy at producing voices from the centre speaker. All I can say is HELLOOOO Marantz. Crisp clear and always intelligible sound is now bursting forth from the centre channel. I can now watch a movie at television listening volume without straining to catch what was said. In addition separation is much improved. The girlfriend and I were watching some schlock horror Friday night and the Sound from the rear left made her jump out of her skin, but I didn't jump, not one little bit, well maybe one little bit, ok so it was me that jumped, stop interrogating me, this interview is over. Also actual television watching using DTS NEO 6 is almost as good as watching a movie using the Sony. The bass isn't as strong but the dialogue is much cleaner, I can live with that trade off any day. I can't stop listening to Dianna Krall now, I've heard The Girl in the Yellow room like 8 times in the last 3 days.
Ok, so I love this new receiver. It makes me feel good about my speakers all over again now that I can see what they are really capable of. For once I know what people mean when they are talking about tonal quality in speakers. I can't turn volume up to 3/4 because it would be painful at that volume. At far under half volume this setup is singing.
Here are some things I didn't like (just to be fair). There is no parametric EQ. All you can do is adjust treble and bass for each speaker. There is a HT EQ but it is simply an off or on function (I'd suggest on for sure in a small room like mine). There is no auto calibration. Nit a necessity for me, but I'd like to see how my measurements stack up to a machine. There is no THX certification. Again no biggie for me, but it would be nice. There are two knobs on the front, one for volume one for scrolling through options. The volume knob provides a smooth turning action with resistance that just screams quality, the function jog knob moves easily, and seems little flimsier. Ok I was digging deep for that one, but there is not alot to not love.
This receiver is fantastic, and an incredible buy for everyone that got it on sale like I did.
