Marantz AV 10 15.4CH AV Processor Bench Test Results!

[PENG]

This amp sounds great to my ears. I'm not sure why Shane Lee thought it sounded rolled off. My measurements and listening tests don't concur with that opinion.

We should know by now, with respect, Shane Lee, Joe N Tell (less so for him), Andrew Robinson and the likes of them don't hear by ears/brains, but more brains and eyes. That's why!!

 

[TLS Guy]

@gene did you take any measurements to find out if the ADC would limit sampling rate to 96 kHz like they always had been, due to the use of the AK5358A that is now obsolete?

I just wonder if this time they upgraded their lineup to at least a slightly better one that could do 192 kHz. If you had taken any measurements using the analog inputs you would have noticed whether the AV10 downsample to 192, or still just 96.

It matters, for those who have reason not to use analog inputs in dirct/pure direct mode and still want minimal degradation from going through the ADC.

Absolutely no difference between 96KHz and 192KHz except a waste of bits. 48KHz is absolutely as high as you need to go.

 

[PENG]

Absolutely no difference between 96KHz and 192KHz except a waste of bits. 48KHz is absolutely as high as you need to go.

I actually agree with you on this, but I still would feel better if they use ADCs that is capable of higher sampling rate. Those that are limited to 96 kHz, presumably have other negativity inherent with lower bar for the design, to meet he cost target. Those that can do much higher rate typically means they are better engineered to meet higher/tighter specs and therefore likely have better performance. What I am saying is, the highly sampling rate capability is just an indicator, not that it means better quality.

An analogy (sort of) is, I cannot hear differences in sound quality between master contents digitized to 16bit/44.1 kHz vs 24bit/358 kHz, but I always prefer to buy from the likes of HDtracks.com Flac, wave, or whatever file format that are at 24bit/48 kHz or higher, because I found those have a higher chance of offering audibly better sound quality. Such that if I have 50 such files at 16b/44.1K, 10 of them may sound transparent to me, but if I have 50 such files at 24b/48K or better, there would likely be 20 that may sound transparent to me.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

We should know by now, with respect, Shane Lee, Joe N Tell (less so for him), Andrew Robinson and the likes of them don't hear by ears/brains, but more brains and eyes. That's why!!

Oh, yeah, Marantz has that warm sound even if it has the best measurements because measurements don't tell you such things. That's why all AVR, AVP, Amps sound differently to them in Pure Direct mode. And the newer ones (especially if they have better measurements) will always sound better.

And you just need a couple of friends with you to "prove" that it's true.

 

[PENG]

Oh, yeah, Marantz has that warm sound even if it has the best measurements because measurements don't tell you such things. That's why all AVR, AVP, Amps sound differently to them in Pure Direct mode. And the newer ones (especially if they have better measurements) will always sound better.

And you just need a couple of friends with you to "prove" that it's true.

They learnt a lot on how to add credibilty over the years, so lots of time they wouldn't use friends any more, but wives, or even 12 years old daughters, who, would ask what changed, how come it suddenly sounded so much better?

I tried the same trick once, but was told "no difference whatsoever", in no uncertainty terms, even when I thought I definitely heard a difference. So as usual, it depends...