Marantz av10 and amp 10

[Simon1234]

I've just upgraded from my old denon avr 4520ci to the marantz av10 and amp10 and I have questions I'm hoping someone may be able to answer. I'm currently running 9.3.2 but will be adding in ceiling speakers within the month to go full 9.3.6.

My questions mainly are about the amp10.

When connecting the speakers I have connected channel 1 as front left but then I connected channel 2 to say the surround back right. I did this so it's unlikely channel 1 and 2 that I hear share power will be active at the same time allowing greater pull of power to that channel. Does this affect the imagining in stereo mode or put strain on the amp being different loads?

Secondly I've noticed especially on the floor standers that at all levels there is a slight static/ white noise coming from them. I don't remember that from my old denon. Now while I'm just being picky and honestly it's not obtrusive and cannot be heard unless you put your ear right up to the tweeter I just wanted to see if this is normal.

One last question about Dirac. I'm waiting for my inceiling speakers to be fitted before I calibrate using Dirac and wondered if anyone could describe how much better if would be?

System:
Marantz Av10
Marantz Amp10
Focal 836v Fronts
Focal 800c Centre
Focal 816v Surroumd backs
Focal sr800 Front height
Focal sr800 Front wide
Focal sr800 surround
3 x Focal 800 subs in FL/FR/Rear

4x Focal 300 ICA6 inceiling being fitting in 2 weeks.

Simon

 

[TLS Guy]

I've just upgraded from my old denon avr 4520ci to the marantz av10 and amp10 and I have questions I'm hoping someone may be able to answer. I'm currently running 9.3.2 but will be adding in ceiling speakers within the month to go full 9.3.6.

My questions mainly are about the amp10.

When connecting the speakers I have connected channel 1 as front left but then I connected channel 2 to say the surround back right. I did this so it's unlikely channel 1 and 2 that I hear share power will be active at the same time allowing greater pull of power to that channel. Does this affect the imagining in stereo mode or put strain on the amp being different loads?

Secondly I've noticed especially on the floor standers that at all levels there is a slight static/ white noise coming from them. I don't remember that from my old denon. Now while I'm just being picky and honestly it's not obtrusive and cannot be heard unless you put your ear right up to the tweeter I just wanted to see if this is normal.

One last question about Dirac. I'm waiting for my inceiling speakers to be fitted before I calibrate using Dirac and wondered if anyone could describe how much better if would be?

System:
Marantz Av10
Marantz Amp10
Focal 836v Fronts
Focal 800c Centre
Focal 816v Surroumd backs
Focal sr800 Front height
Focal sr800 Front wide
Focal sr800 surround
3 x Focal 800 subs in FL/FR/Rear

4x Focal 300 ICA6 inceiling being fitting in 2 weeks.

Simon

I would just keep it simple and not worry which speakers you connect to which terminals. There is only one power supply and the unit is only 200 watt per channel, two channels driven.

There is one power supply, so if that fails all channels go down. The amps are arranged in pairs on each board, but they are discrete on the boards.

This is not the sort of unit that would tempt me, as you could easily lose all amps in one point of failure on the power supply board.

I just had a five year old Marantz 7705 AVP fail after five years. Turns out there are no parts available after phoning two authorized repair centers. So I bought a 7706, my dealer was good to me a gave me close to a $1000.00 discount. So, this sought of attitude to service is not good enough.

I use just two channel amp, nine of them for 18 amp channels. They are all Quad.

I would personally not risk 14G on an amp 10 and AV10. For that money there should be cast iron guarantee of service for at least 15 years or replacement with current model.

 

[Golfx]

The (slight) hiss you hear ear-to-speaker is common with high sensitivity speakers like focals. It can also be increased by a higher gain between AVP and your external amp. If it bothers you and the amp10 is within the return period you can swap it out for another amp which might not have a hiss. Or you could try a less sensitive set of front speakers.

 

[Simon1234]

Thankyou, that makes sense.

I have floorstanders front and rear. They seem to hiss louder than the surrounds and centre. I swapped around the channels on the amp10 and it didn't chamge a thing so it must be just super sensitive speakers.

It doesn't bother me and it sounds incredible so now i know theres nothing wrong I'll probably leave it. I may play around with the gains from the av10 l, bring the whole system down a dB or two see if that makes a difference.

 

[gene]

I would just keep it simple and not worry which speakers you connect to which terminals. There is only one power supply and the unit is only 200 watt per channel, two channels driven.

There is one power supply, so if that fails all channels go down. The amps are arranged in pairs on each board, but they are discrete on the boards.

This is NOT true as you can see in my review. The amp will deliver 200wpc with 1 or 7 channels driven into 8 ohms. The supplies are tightly regulated so there's no sag.

Marantz AMP 10 200 Watt x 16CH Amplifier Review!

The Marantz AMP 10 is a 200 watt x 16CH amplifier utilizing the ICE Edge Class D topology with a custom built SMPS power supply. I put the AMP 10 through exhaustive bench tests to gauge its performance.

www.audioholics.com

 

[gene]

Thankyou, that makes sense.

I have floorstanders front and rear. They seem to hiss louder than the surrounds and centre. I swapped around the channels on the amp10 and it didn't chamge a thing so it must be just super sensitive speakers.

It doesn't bother me and it sounds incredible so now i know theres nothing wrong I'll probably leave it. I may play around with the gains from the av10 l, bring the whole system down a dB or two see if that makes a difference.

I run all Perlisten speakers (90+dB sensitivity) and hear no hiss and certainly no static from my AMP 10. Are you using XLR or unbal? Make sure the input gains for each source on your processor aren't turned down below their default dB setting. The AV10 and AMP10 combo produce incredibly low noise and distortion so what you're experiencing is very atypical even with high sensitivity speakers. Swap the channels on the noisy speakers and see if it improves. If it does, it means your amp might be faulty.

 

[Simon1234]

Thankyou gene, it was your review that prompted to purchase this combo.

I have swapped channels and no change, the focals front and rears are 92db sensitive. And the hiss is from the tweeters and you can only hear when your ear is within 30cm. I'm running rca connections but oddly enough when tested in 2 channel stereo there is still a hiss from the rears indicating its more likely the amp10. This hiss seems to be across all channels.

I'll be contacting marantz customer support to get some feedback.

 

[PENG]

I've just upgraded from my old denon avr 4520ci to the marantz av10 and amp10 and I have questions I'm hoping someone may be able to answer. I'm currently running 9.3.2 but will be adding in ceiling speakers within the month to go full 9.3.6.

My questions mainly are about the amp10.

When connecting the speakers I have connected channel 1 as front left but then I connected channel 2 to say the surround back right. I did this so it's unlikely channel 1 and 2 that I hear share power will be active at the same time allowing greater pull of power to that channel. Does this affect the imagining in stereo mode or put strain on the amp being different loads?

No, any such effects will be totally negligible, indistinguishable to humans.

Secondly I've noticed especially on the floor standers that at all levels there is a slight static/ white noise coming from them. I don't remember that from my old denon. Now while I'm just being picky and honestly it's not obtrusive and cannot be heard unless you put your ear right up to the tweeter I just wanted to see if this is normal.

Hard to say not being there, but this is an expensive amp so I would say return/refund it, or at least get them to swap it out with a second unit and see if it would behave the same.

One last question about Dirac. I'm waiting for my inceiling speakers to be fitted before I calibrate using Dirac and wondered if anyone could describe how much better if would be?

Only you can tell, there are people who felt Audyssey sounded better to them but more people would likely say the opposite. I don't trust people's ears because we all perceive sound quality differently, to me if you know how to tweak, and use REW/mic to assist, Audyssey, even the $20 app can do almost as good as DLBC, but if you are not that keen on spending a lot of time, then bite the bullet and get the DLBC license. In my experience, I could get good enough results on paper with minimum tweaking post DLBC calibration. Whether good on paper = good audibly better is again, very much subjective.

System:
Marantz Av10
Marantz Amp10
Focal 836v Fronts
Focal 800c Centre
Focal 816v Surroumd backs
Focal sr800 Front height
Focal sr800 Front wide
Focal sr800 surround
3 x Focal 800 subs in FL/FR/Rear

4x Focal 300 ICA6 inceiling being fitting in 2 weeks.

I guess you like a match set, visually, otherwise I think the AV10 is great, but the Amp10 is a poor value. There is no need to have equal power for all 16 channels and if something goes wrong, you likely will be down. If it's my money, I would calculate/estimate my voltage/current and then choose may amp to meet the need. That could mean using an amp comparable to the amp10 for likely just the LCR, and then a much lower cost amp for the other channels, but it is your money so I guess just the matched look probably make the Amp10 the best choice.

 

[Simon1234]

I've spoke to the supplier and they are coming to have a listen and we are going to go from there. I've also contacted marantz technical and they have been very helpful and want me to stay in contact with them through out the process.

This system is in my lounge and not a dedicated cinema room and as such I'm limited to how many boxes I can have. A one box solution is ideal for me that's the main reason.

Thankyou all for your thoughts on this. I will post more updates as it continues.

 

[Eppie]

Could the op not simply disconnect the inputs from the Amp 10 and see if the hiss is still there? That should determine whether the noise is from the amp or the AV10.

 

[Simon1234]

Thats exactly what I did. I turned off the amp 10. Disconnected the surround rear right rca from the amp10 and when I turned it back on the hiss was still there.

I've also tried a mains conditioner as well as plugging directly to the mains and no change, I've adjusted the gains on the av10 up and down also no change. Once I removed the rca and the noise was still present and across all channels although more noticeable in the floorstanders I determined it's the amp.

However I still need to know if it's an issue or within tolerance. I'm going to ask for a replacement unit so I can compare if there is a difference. Gene has an amp10 and says there should be very little to no background noise.

As the amp shares one power supply it could be something wrong with the power distribution? Until I have a second unit to compare it's all speculation.

 

[Eppie]

I would agree that trying a second unit is the best option then. If the hiss is only audible from 30cm then hopefully that's not a deal breaker if the operation is normal.

 

[TLS Guy]

I would agree that trying a second unit is the best option then. If the hiss is only audible from 30cm then hopefully that's not a deal breaker if the operation is normal.

That is probably good advice. It may be a "Monday Morning" device like my Marantz 7705. That always had a very slight hiss that was just audible at the MLP in a quiet room. After five years it blew up spectacularly. Done for, no parts available. Anyhow it ha been replaced by the 7706 which has the same SNR spec. as the 7705. However with this unit the room is dead quite at the MLP. If you really stick your ear in a speaker, you can just about make out a faint hiss. With just the Quad amp running you don't hear anything. They are really quiet.

So, I don't know if my experience has any bearing on this. I know one thing, if I had just paid out 7G for that amp, and could hear hiss I would be very upset. I am sticking with my Quads, and would never swap them for any other amp.

 

[TLS Guy]

This is NOT true as you can see in my review. The amp will deliver 200wpc with 1 or 7 channels driven into 8 ohms. The supplies are tightly regulated so there's no sag.

Marantz AMP 10 200 Watt x 16CH Amplifier Review!

The Marantz AMP 10 is a 200 watt x 16CH amplifier utilizing the ICE Edge Class D topology with a custom built SMPS power supply. I put the AMP 10 through exhaustive bench tests to gauge its performance.

www.audioholics.com

I must have read it from a bad site. The amp provides 400 watts at 0.7% THD 2 channels driven, and 200 watts 0.7% THD five channels driven. I don't see a spec for all channels driven. That is from the spec. sheet on the Marantz site.

 

[PENG]

Thats exactly what I did. I turned off the amp 10. Disconnected the surround rear right rca from the amp10 and when I turned it back on the hiss was still there.

I've also tried a mains conditioner as well as plugging directly to the mains and no change, I've adjusted the gains on the av10 up and down also no change. Once I removed the rca and the noise was still present and across all channels although more noticeable in the floorstanders I determined it's the amp.

However I still need to know if it's an issue or within tolerance. I'm going to ask for a replacement unit so I can compare if there is a difference. Gene has an amp10 and says there should be very little to no background noise.

As the amp shares one power supply it could be something wrong with the power distribution? Until I have a second unit to compare it's all speculation.

By now I assume you have experimented enough and know that the audible noise, while very low, is audible with ears near the tweeter. Based on the specs and Gene's test results, this should not be the case, unless your room is really silent. Even if your room noise is in lower than say 15 dB (mine's about 25 dB and it seems quiet to me), you should not be able to hear white noise.

The Amp10's 91-92 dB SNR at 1 watt is certainly not SOTA, most of the Hypex and Purifi amps, even the low cost ones can do better, but again, 91-92 dB is at least comparable to most of the best measured AVRs, and even the recently measured two channel Yamaha R-N2000A, and should be silent to the ears.

It sounds like the dealer won't let you try a second unit without coming over to hear it himself, that's fair, but I would say unless he has really convincing reasons, you should insist on trying a second unit, unless this audible noise does not bother you at all. It is far better to be firm on this and then you can enjoy without having second thoughts down the road.