My ongoing Marantz SR-6003 review

[Djizasse]

This is my ongoing review for the Marantz SR-6003 (EU).

Before starting the review, I just want you to know what type of user I am. This clearly affects my opinion and experience with the unit.

My user profile:
- I'm at ease with cryptic instructions and displays (love tinkering with the DCX2496's LCD screen, instead of using the software interface)
- I like to read manuals
- I like to tinker with the options until I get what I want
- I don't get along with "user simplified interfaces" because they annoy me by not letting me do what I want
- I prefer complexity and flexibility over simplicity and shortcommings

I'm a newcomer to hifi, keep that in mind.

I only had another receiver, the Yamaha RX-V861, currently powering 4 Tannoy Reveal 6 and one Reveal 66 in my home studio/ofice.

This is my second receiver and it's powering 2 Monitor Audio RS6, one RSLCR and 2 old sony bookshelves as temporary side speakers.
The rest of the setup is a 52" LCD screen, an EP30 HD-DVD player and a PS2 (my wife loves playing DDR).
My room has 6.8m x 3.9m x 2.7m (in feet= 22.3 x 12.8 x 8.9). Running it through a room modes calculator (http://www.bobgolds.com/Mode/RoomModes.htm) showed good results.



Have some pics:



Check the specs here


Aesthetics and layout

To me, this thing is a beauty, with the closed front lid you can only see two big round buttons (input and volume) and one smaller (power). I don't use them, but they're nice. To open the lid you have to press it's bottom, which is not easy to do. I expect it to be very hard for my daughter to open it (3 weeks old).

The LCD is crisp and the led segments are white. Really nice. You can cycle through normal display, display with a big volume level indicator or with the display off. In display off mode, there's a very little logo indicating the display is off. Makes no sense until you realize you need to have a clear indicator that the unit is on.

A very cool thing about the power button is that it will only turn the unit on if this button was used to power it off. If you used the remote to turn it off, the button won't work. To get around this you'll have to open the lid and press the enter button. This could be a very good small child-proof device.

The back of the unit seems to be well layed out. The 3/2 HDMI I/Os are on top and upside down. The digital sound inputs are all together at the center. You have 3 optical inputs and 2 coaxial. Each of them has a number (Digital 1,2,3 (opticals) and 4,5 (coaxials). Note this down when setting the connections. You'll need to know them when configuring the inputs on the input selection menu.

It has a 150W outlet. It can easily power some fans, hdmi switchers, equalizers, etc.. The plastic plug covering it was very hard to get off! I had to really wank it.

The speaker binding pairs (+-) posts seem to spaced according to standards, meaning it's possible to use those double bananas, one for each +- pair. I have to confirm this, but my yamaha implemented this spacing between adjacent channels. I nice touch is the protective film that covers the binding posts area. It helps prevent shortcuts between the post and the chassis.

It has a lot of other inputs that I don't use, so, I won't comment about that.


Initial Installation

Plug the bananas, connect the optical and coaxial cable (making notes on the input numbers), connect HDMI I/Os, and turn it on.
The OSD (tested through HDMI) is simple to navigate and to configure. The output is the #1 by default.

I proceeded to turn off the surround back speakers and the subwoofer. Then I went into the Audissey setup and made the 6 measurements. It took a while to calculate but everything went fine. The distances were spot on. The calculated flat EQ was almost flat, probably due to the nice integration between the room dimensions, speaker placement and speaker response.

I can't comment yet on the sound and the effect the EQ has. Later on I'll measure my room with REW, with and without Audissey. I'll post some graphs.


Source input assigment

I'm very impressed with this one. For a geekish guy like me, to have a input assignment matrix and be able to tweak it to my needs is very neat. The best part is that the sound is not interrupted, this alone helped me to figure out what number corresponded to the current input. As an example, I was trying to find what was the number of the coaxial input connected to the cable box's coaxial audio output. I set the input to DSS and then entered setup, after that I just had to keep changing the digital inputs on the DSS line, until the sound came through.
Making all the sound inputs correspond to the device inputs on the remote was a breeze.
I also took the opportunity to rename the inputs, it was very easy with the displayed keyboard.


Remote
The remote is good looking, easy to work with, but has a few niggles. First the ergonomics. While it is very confortable to have in the hand, there's really no clear back/front distinction. I found myself holding it backwards a few times, until I realized that the light button should always be on the right side.

Which takes me to the remote light. I wonder when will manufacturers realize that having the keys glow is nice, but totally useless when you want to read the labels below the keys. In fact, with the remote light on it's even harder to read them.

The way of working with the remote could be a hassle for some and a real treat for others. To change input sources you have to press the corresponding source key twice. this may seem stupid, until you program the remote to control all your sources. Then it makes sense. You press the source key to make the remote control the corresponding unit and press it twice to make it the current source. What this means is that you can control any source without interrupting whatever you're seing and listening. The remote can also store macros to facilitate your most common activities. For example: change remote to TV -> turn on TV -> change TV input to receiver HDMI -> change source input to DVD (double press DVD) -> turn on DVD -> wait 10 seconds and press play. Macros can hold 10 key presses.

Some will not like having to press the source inputs twice just to change the current input, but the added funcionality is a real bonus to me. The Harmony 555 might be better, but I havent decided yet. At least the 6003's remote does not need to connect to the internet to make any adjustments!

USB input
It works but it's far from perfect. It reads mp3, wav, wma, aac, but no flac. It can read FAT32 formated usb disks (not compatible with NTFS). It will display files and folders sorted by the order they were created on the disk (remember this when filling your disks, the first folders to copy will be on top). It has no display sort, but when actually playing the files, always plays them in alphabetical order. When a folder is finished playing it jumps to the next folder (unless repeat is on). It will display the name of the artist and track being played on the LCD and you can navigate folders using it, but the OSD is much better suited for this.

The only negative point on USB mode is that marantz forgot to use audio buffers. When you navigate and leave the folder that's playing it stops. What the hell? You can navigate the current folder but can't go to another folder? Maybe a firmware can solve this.

Anyway, it works and if you have your collection sorted in music styles folders (electronica, country, classical, etc) it's very easy to just choose a style, enter the first folder, select the first track and just lay it there playing all the folders in order. M-DAX processes the sound on the low quality files and makes a good improvement on the perceived quality. It sounds very good to me, try it to see if you like it.


Radio Tuner

Normally I wouldn't even mention this, but the receiver's tuner is very good, even with the short FM cable antena suplied. I'm pleasently surprise by this and will start listening to radio once more. Again, the M-DAX thing is really helpfull to get a better sound.


HDMI handshakes

I have my DVD playing a multi channel disc and I turn off my TV (I don't want to look at the pretty pictures or the orchestra playing), for a few seconds the sound is interrupted. The same thing happens when I turn on my TV again. I guess this happens with most (if not all) receivers. I'm glad many disc start playing immediately or the play option is pre-selected making it easy to leave the TV off.


My impressions so far

- a joy to use and looks great off or on (the display is very nice and very usefull).
- very easy to setup and configure (the input matrix - Function Input Setup - is great!).
- very capable remote, switching between source control or input is very easy.
- USB works, but could be improved
- having 3 optical inputs and 2 coaxial is just perfect for my needs
- radio works flawlessly, excellent FM reception
- M-DAX really works for radio and MP3s

I'll be back soon.

 

[chas_w]

Nice start...I'm subscribed and waiting for more.

 

[Djizasse]

I took a few pictures to show some aspects of the 6003's interface.

Pardon the low quality of the camera and the lack of good lighting.

The function rename menu with the included keyboard.

The Function Input Setup matrix all configured for my setup

The screen for setting speaker size and single crossover:

Strangely enough, when there's no video signal this appears when changing volume:

Maybe this also works for analog video inputs. With HDMI it does not appear. I'll try it to see if that's the case.

LCD
The first display mode:

Zon is the renamed input name, the AD5 just means Audio Digital 5.
M-CH Movie is the name of the DSP effect used.
SP-A - speakers zone used (A)
Audyssey - the current Audyssey mode used
Input channels inside the square
PCM and Digital labels

The second display mode, showing the main volume:

When in first display mode, changing the volume will show this display for a second.

The third display mode:

There's only a small DISP logo to indicate that the unit is on.

The main volume is perfectly readable from the couch:

 

[Djizasse]

These are the results of the auto calibration:

Audyssey Flat - nice on the front trio, the sides are some old sonys that needed some adjustments:

Audyssey

And the reason for not using better light:

She finally fell asleep listening to Zen TV. This channel broadcasts some nice videos of beautifull scenery.
Included is also the location recordings that seem a little dirty for my liking, having too much noise, which thankfully is just what makes my baby sleep

 

[Lordoftherings]

Great review so far.

This is great Djizasse, very professionally done.

Keeps me highly interested.

Plus you integrate your new daughter into the family equation, which is a true pure direct mode.

Keep it up,

Bob

 

[Djizasse]

Thanks Bob
This is a different approach and the best I can do. I'm more at ease with dealing with interfaces so that's where I'm concentrating my efforts.

Sound quality will be difficult to judge, due to my inexperience and my opinion that it would be very subjective and strongly affected by the listening conditions. Anyway, I still haven't had the chance to turn the knob up. I want to hear if it has the power I want.

But it will be interesting to make some measurements on my room.

So far, I'm very pleased with the way this unit works.

 

[Lordoftherings]

A new Harmony in the Family.

Thanks for your quick reply.

I see what you mean; but you can still give your impressions between your new Marantz and your older Yamaha RX-V861 receiver. I'm sure that you will notice some fundamental audio differences.

* Everytime that I put a new receiver in my system, I can tell right from the bat, the audio differences from the one that I just replaced. So I know pretty much the sound difference of all the receivers that I owned over the years.
And that includes all major manufacturers.

It's not really a question of experience, but it is one of "accustomization" from the prior sound with the sudden change to the newer sound.

You will see (hear) what I'm talking about...

Glad you like your new toy and your new daughter so far.

Bests to your new family,

Bob

 

[chas_w]

I agree that it would be nice to hear your subjective impressions of how it sounds (even if you hear no difference between the 6003 and Yamaha).

Great pics (of both the 6003 and your daughter!)

 

[Djizasse]

And I turned the volume up:


First I had to start with the SW opening theme. Blasting even higher than in the movie theatre. It was loud, defined, clear and very, very emotional
I went on to Matrix (elevator and shopper scenes) and The Two Towers (battle at Helms Deep). Listening way higher than I'm used too I tried to listen to distortion and lack of definition. Could not hear none of it. Excelent results in my first test.
The rest of the week I saw a few DVD movies, listened to my TV through the amp and listened to some music (Multichannel HD, mp3 and FM radio)

I keep changing through the Audyssey EQ modes and preferred Flat. It's subtle, but enough for not hurting my ears at high volumes as the EQ Audyssey mode did.


In a nutshell, it is not comparable to the 861. While the 861 struggled (distortion and lack of clarity) to maintain high volumes, the 6003 has enough power for my Monitor Audios RS6 and RSLCR. In my room it has more than enough power and I think it would also power a larger room as I'm listening at -20, -15 and it goes all the way to +16.
Movies with lots of explosions become more detailed and clear. Big music scores with percussive wind instruments have much more impact. It seems to me that in my listening conditions, the 6003 more dynamic range than the 861.

In movies is not a night and day difference, but more of a sunny vs cloudy. Definitely noticeable.

As for music, I can't compare both, I just don't have that good of a memory.

 

[Djizasse]

I made a few measurements. I used my laptop, a M-Audio Profire 610, and a Behringer ECM8000. I placed the mic upright in a tripod, right at my listening position. 1/3 Octave smoothing:

This was after a six point measurement. I don't make anything of this. Maybe some of you can. I'll have to read the big Audyssey guide.

 

[Lordoftherings]

Excellent impressions.

This is great again Djizasse, your description in your own words is very professionally done. You'll be an excellent audio reviewer.
And I know that I'm right, and that other members appreciate as much as I do, reading your own personal review.

As for your graph (thank you for providing it), I'm not an expert, but I'm sure that you can get better results by using some acoustic room treatments.

And to help you with better techniques on your ultimate goal, have a look at these links (that you might already know):

1. http://www.audyssey.com/faq/index.html

2. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14456895#post14456895
* This 2nd one is the Audyssey Setup Guide.

Thanks again for the great review with your clear and easy to understand very own words.

Bob

 

[Djizasse]

Thanks for the link Bob. It was already bookmarked, I just haven't had the will to read it. Guess that I'll have to read it though.
I must have had the wrong idea about Audyssey, it's really not a "one position EQ", as so, I should not expect a big difference between no EQ and the various EQ modes. Now that I think about it, it would make no sense to EQ for one position, the rest of the room would be worse.
Still, it's interesting to note that the Sonys (rears) were much more corrected than the fronts. Makes me wonder if Audyssey is correcting the speaker response, instead of room+speaker.

Being this as ongoing review I still have a lot to learn and write about this receiver. I haven't made the listening tests to hear the difference between Pure Direct and the EQ modes. I'm also going to change the preset EQ mode to suit my listening position, classic EQ style.

So far I'm just missing the Stereo to 5.1 processing, my 861 has it, I like to use to non critical listening.

Djizasse

 

[Lordoftherings]

Read the links that I gave you, they will help you achieve an even better sound.

And for a small start from me:

Tip #1 -> Do take the full 6 microphone positions from your 6003.

Tip #2 -> Audyssey does not choose the x-overs, your 6003 does, so adjust to taste. But I do recommend you a x-over of 80hz for all your speakers.

Tip #3 -> Set the Low Pass Filter on the back of your sub in the "Bypass" mode, or if not avail, set it to it's maximum position.

Tip #5 -> Set the Phase switch (or rotary knob) on the back of your sub to the 0 degree position.

Tip #6 -> Set the High Pass Filter (if avail) on the back of your sub to it's minimum position.

Tip #8 -> Set the Gain control (volume level) on the back of your sub to about one third (1/3) of it's rotary knob position.

Tip #9 -> Don't be afraid to rerun Audyssey few times to obtain better results. And check from your computer the final curves, just like you did previously.

Tip #10 -> When you take the 6 measurements, try to stay within a narrow area, and always start from the main listening position for your first measurement, then two more on each side, then one in front and two in the rear, or two in front and one in the rear.

A).....................Front.......................B).....................Front...................
......................................................I. ...............................................
...........................4.........................I.....................4.......5..................
...................3......1......2..................I................3.......1.......2..............
.......................6......5......................I........................6.......................
......................................................I.................................................
.........................Rear.......................I.......................Rear.....................

* Just a couple suggestions.

Bob

 

[Djizasse]

Thanks
Now I just need a sub

 

[Lordoftherings]

LOL. Good one...

Thanks
Now I just need a sub

LOL Did not realised that. Anyway, you're ready when you get one.

 

[Djizasse]

System update:
2x Monitor Audio RSFX side/surround speakers, mounted to the side walls, a meter back and a meter up.

This system is complete at least for a while, the sub will have to wait.


I've not been able to enjoy it as often as I want, but that's one of the perks of being a father. My daughter must be the one who listens to it the most. It's all good

Before I continue, just excuse the lack of writing style, I'm a software programmer, not a writer.



I'm absolutely delighted with the system. It's not perfect (will it ever be?) but hell, it's a piece of heaven.

First of all, the power. It has more than enough. I've not been able to enjoy almost ear piercing star wars and lord of the rings epic batlles levels, but I've tested it the odd times and I still have +15 levels to max of ear damaging power. For my room I find it just perfect.

Heat management has not been an issue and it will never be, the receiver is stored in a cabinet with 1" free room to the shelve above it, just the space needed for a silent 25mm computer fan to pull warm air from it. Hey, it's a hack, but it's cheap and it works perfectly.

The remote is functional but I still find myself grabbing it upside down. I would also prefer that the light would last a few seconds, but no, I have to press the side button to extend that period. But this is just a niggle, I keep using it to control everything, the only other remote in the room is for the TV (wife friendlier). It has not even been dethroned by the logitech harmony.

The mp3 player works, but barely, it's the "put it playing and forget about it". It could have been so much better, really, so much better. If I had an ipod I would get the adapter for it.

The tuner is surprisingly good, sometimes I use it just to have a background sound, but I'm still amazed at how it can receive the radio stations so well. The antennae is hanging behind the TV and the thing just works without a hitch. I would trade this for a better mp3 player capability.


As for the sound quality, for me it rocks! Power wise it's a perfect match for my MA Silver system. It all sounds so beautifully, so effortless. And at low volumes the clarity is amazing. I still can't exactly discern between Audyssey and non Audyssey modes, but could not care less.

So far so good. Thank you for guiding me. Our choice for my home has revealed to be a perfect one.