Reviewing Marantz AV7005 and MM7055

[Frans]

Here's my small review of my new system of the AV7005 / MM7055! Introducing:

THE SYSTEM!

TV: Philips Aurea (not new)
Fronts: Phonar P5.5 Veritas Edma Cap+ (new, replacing P3's)
Surrounds: Phonar M3 Edma (not new)
Processor: Marantz AV7005 (new, replacing Marantz SR6003)
Amp: Marantz MM7055 (new, replacing Marantz SR6003)
Vinyl: Marantz TT42 (new)
Discs: Marantz BD7003 (not new)

Whoop, there it is!

It's a.... It's a.... BIG BOY! Congratulations!


Construction and build quality

I replaced my Marantz SR6003, so I'm not sure if I've got a strong opinion about build quality and appearance. Or have I? I'm a sucker for Marantz's design. It's clean. No buttons all over the place. I love how I can hide the display from sight. On Dutch forums people ***** about how illogic it is to hide a display behind a panel. I really prefer the clean look and don't mind opening up a panel. IMO, It kinda adds to the experience of operating this behemoth.

The unit's front is metal. The cheeks on the side are plastic, but very good looking. I did damage a cheek on my previous SR6003, though. Obviously plastic materials scratches more easily. Then again, who flies a R/C helicopter into their €1000 AV receiver? Well, I did.

Never you mind! My room is a strict no-fly zone now!

Installing

This is something I don't really enjoy. Plugging every thing in, connecting speaker wires, triple checking polarity and all that. The experience of finally being able to plugging in XLR cables into my very own HT equipment is... Priceless. My friends agree, though they thought it was cool seeing a lot of fat cables sticking out. The AV7005 is surprisingly light. The MM7055 is as heavy as it is expensive. I love the way it gave me a hernia when I rescued it from its box. Two thumbs up!

I wish the AV7005 had a couple s-video inputs, though. I mean, come on! Composite video? Brrr!!! I decided to upgrade my cable subscription to HD just to get a set top box with HDMI. Problem solved, but I do think it's an oversight. You can go from s-video to composite without issues. Enough adapters on the market too. But not having any s-video inputs sucks. Most "legacy" (read: older) equipment come with SCART connectors. Cheap SCART versions, I mean.

Composite? - Yes.
S-video? - Yes!
Component? - 'Course not.
HDMI? - Wha' you say?

My set top box is no exception. You just can't force me using composite video on a €10.000 HT system! Who's fault is it? UPC (my cable co)'s? Marantz's? Pace (STB)'s? I don't care, it just sucks having to use composite on a Philips Aurea TV! Did I already mention it sucked? My frustration put aside, it's a temporary problem anyway.

Network, USB and iPod functionality

This is an important feature why I wanted to upgrade: The new network functionalities. My first impressions are very good. I plugged in a network cable and within seconds the unit set up itself. I checked out Internet Radio and it found 650-something stations! I was very happy that the unit seems to select channels based on location. In my case the Netherlands. So all those Dutch stations you want are there, along with loads of foreign ones as well. BCC, the Germans, French stations, you name it, really.

The sound quality of the stations are disappointing. 128KB/sec, 192KB/sec. The best ones compare with a FM station, I suppose. Pitch, EQ and compression nonsense included! FM stations here in the Netherlands have a tendency to pitch up songs, boost bass frequencies and compress life out already overly compressed songs. Let's hope bit rates increase as time goes by.

The OSD is awesome. I've read a few opinions here and there about how it looks like a OSD from the 70's. But I'm ok with it. It's clean, responsive and pretty well designed (Yes, I know my interface design. I'm a professional multimedia engineer). I do get confused at the menu's top level. I exited the menu a thousand times already, because there's no visual feedback of the menu level I'm in.

I did find connecting to last.fm illogical. When manually changing the input on the unit to NET/USB and then selecting Last.FM, it won't connect. But, when using "source sel" on the remote and then selecting Last.FM, it does connect just fine. Strange huh?

My Last.FM subscription just increased in value. Recently, the initial hype I had with Last.FM died down and I started thinking wether or not I would continue my subscription. The AV7005, however, has a pretty cool Last.FM interface. Friend's radio channels, Artist channels, all easily selectable via the OSD interface. Skipping songs, "loving" and "banning" them is a breeze. Personally, I like it a lot more than the Last.FM app on my Macbook. I just don't quite understand it for some reason. Bottom line: with the OSD interface I get the most out of my subscription.

I tried connecting a FAT16 formatted external HD and it failed. The HD produced a few weird noises and the unit simply displayed "Connecting. Please standby" - or something like that. I ended up unplugging the HD and giving up.

iPod connection was a breeze though! Plugged it in, and a second later it was selectable in the NET/USB menu. But, I had to restart the unit first (shut down, switch on) to make it stop "Connecting. Please standby"). I guess it really didn't like the external HD a lot. The new iPhone 4 isn't listed in the manual as supported device. But I can tell you guys it works flawlessly. Again, I really dig the OSD interface. They could have made the album art graphic a little bit bigger, though.

If this is a taste of how Airplay is going to work, count me in!! I hope this finally solves my iTunes dilemma! I hate sitting with a laptop on the couch, operating iTunes. Apple's Front row lacks speed and functionality (mostly it's just not very intuitive for some reason). The remote app on the iPhone is nice, but scrolling hundreds of songs can be a *****!

With the OSD interface it's possible to go "up & down" complete pages. There are 7 songs listed per screen. So you don't have to scroll through them all one at a time. This beats the crap out of Frontrow's solution that "glides". I "overslide" the song I'm looking for EVERY single time. Response of the unit could be quicker, though. It's not bad. But you do get that nagging "overshooting" when you press NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT too quickly.

When browsing playlists, there's also another search option available. Press "search" one time for "page up & down", twice for an alphanumerical bar that appears on top of the playlist's songs.This functionality is neat! You can quickly go from A to Z, selecting the letter of choice. What I don't get is the notice "Unsorted list...." when I select a letter. So basically, this functionality doesn't work for me. And where the hell is the "currently playing" option? I have to wait a few seconds for it to display the current song after browsing. here should be a "return" button or something.

So, first impression: very cool and well designed. But it could use a little bit of usability tweaking.

FM Radio

I love that automatic search and store option. It searches the entire FM band and stores all the stations. Marantz's new Preset Channel "memory bank"? - not so good. Presets are stored in 8 "memory banks" A to G, containing 8 slots each. Thus giving 64 memory slots. What's this? A moonrocket? Browsing them is somewhat confusing using the OSD. Why not just "slot #40" instead of "G3" or "A5"? I don't get it. The unit's display itself is very fast displaying RDS station name info. But the OSD does not display RDS station name info at all. Bummer. You see, you have to manually name a memory slot for easy reference. But that is gonna take some time. It would have been cool if the unit would automatically name the OSD memory slots based on RDS information.


Sound quality

Yes please, loads.

"Look mum! I can store the power of an entire solar flare eruption with these two capacitors!"

The AV7005 / MM7055 are impressive and "cool"! No, really. The SR7005 usually broke up in a sweat (meaning it got warm, not hot, but it did get warm). I haven't really pushed the MM7055 yet, but so far it just won't warm up. There are two capacitors clearly visible from the top. The MM7055 manual lists 2 (!!!) 33.000UF / 71volt capacitors. Wow! The power supply takes up a big portion of its guts as well. So people who wonder if the AV7005/MM7055 is worth it over the SR7005? I say YES! You can't beat having two HUGE power supplies (the AV7005's is very impressive as well) instead of "just" one. I haven't found the storage capacity of the SR7005, but I doubt it's 66.000 UF!

I played Seal's "Silence" right after set up. I love it! The new speakers help as well, of course. The sound is much more defined. Sharper, crispier, cleaner: I know a lot exotic metaphors. . On the bass end, "I don't wanna know" by Mario Winans is evenly impressively sounding.

Just looking at the two units screams sound quality. I know, I'm biased. I think I fell in love with an amplifier. That could be illegal, couldn't it?

Sorry for the unscharp image, but I have to share those blue leds. TOO COOL!

 

[Frans]

Listening to Vinyl

Well, it's the first time since 14 years I've been listening to vinyl. I'm 27, so I guess I'm one of those iPod, iTunes & MP3 kinda guys. But I do know good sound when I hear it! I recently bought two brand new LP's from Dire Straits (Love over Gold) and Shawn Mullins (Light you Up). I must say I was extremely impressed with the audio performance of my new Marantz TT-42 turntable. I didn't expect much of it, to be honest. I bought it basically to try out if I still love vinyl like I used to. And I must say it doesn't disappoint.

Sure, there are ticks and pops and the belt drive isn't quite smooth - yet - (rather noticeable pitch changes for the first two hours or so). But otherwise, it's really a blast listening to vinyl. I'm pretty sure most of it is because of the overall experience. Handling an LP, putting the needle down, enjoying the large album artwork... That kind of stuff.

I really understand what people mean by "warmer sound". It does sound "smoother". But the high notes are just as nice as too. Yet it's expensive, cumbersome. I haven't made up my mind yet wether or not it's better sounding than CD. Sometimes it actually does. Sometimes the LP medium clearly falls short.

Still, just having a blast out of it. And that's what it's all about (IMHO). For now, I've settled for the conclusion that both CD and LP aren't perfect.

Ooh yeah, I was talking about the AV7005//MM7055, wasn't I? In short, the pre-amp of the AV7005 does an excellent job. There seems to be little - if any!!! - noise during quiet music passages. I do have to crank up the volume a little louder to -11dB (normally around -25dB in iTunes). But I don't mind.


Audyssey

I'm one of those guys who don't really like giving a metal box control of EQ settings and all that. Well, that was before I tried. I now wonder how good the new XT32 must be, now I tried the AV7005's XT. I think it is a disgrace this high end unit doesn't come with XT32, though. I mean, come on!

Still, I didn't use Audyssey on my old SR6003. I set up everything manually. However, I completed the Audyssey set up a few hours ago on the AV7005 and already I don't wanna go without.

Distance measuring was spot on. It "misread" one of the front speakers with just 10 cm! Looking at that crappy microphone; this is an impressive feat! I was taken aback by the channel level settings of my speakers. FL -8.5, FL -7.5, SW -12, SL 4 & SR -4. Why -4? Why not add 4dB for every speaker to level things out, so to speak. It's no biggy, I don't really care. But it just doesn't make sense, somehow, does it?

Reviewing the EQ setting was a lot of fun. I recently had a professional in my home performing acoustic measurements (for upcoming room acoustic improvements I have planned). I am happy to say that Audyssey's "second opinion" matched up just fine! I have the left front and left surround closer to a wall than the rights. The SW is located between those left speakers. The EQ tackled that just fine. Both left speakers are EQ-ed with less bass and a tad more highs.

Measure all you want. I want to hear it! I listened intensely to Freddie Mercury and Montessat Cabellé's master piece (Barcelona), Dire Straits' "Industrial Disease" and Seal's "If I'm any closer". There's also added detail with the Audyssey Dynamic EQ setting on. I love it. Dynamic Volume could be handy watching TV. Otherwise, I won't touch it.I dunno, I don't really care for it.


Remote

It's ok. Backlit buttons are very cool, of course. I hate having to press the proper source button first. Every source has different options, so for instance you have to press NET/USB to change the remote setting from "AMP" to "NET/USB". I always forget about setting it back when I want to control an AMP-option. I frequently find myself pressing a button 5 or 6 times before I realize why it's not responding. The source isn't set correctly. Grrrr.

Also, I have changed just about every source input name using the OSD source rename function (gotta love the new keyboard function of the OSD they came up with!). But on the remote, these changes aren't made of course. Which is confusing.

The AV7005 introduces so many new functions over the SR6003 that I don't think I could ever set up my Logitech Harmony properly.... God, I might have to ditch that baby! Fat chance, I love controlling my STB with those cool "channel icons" it has.

iPhone App

The Wizz App is cool, but clearly in its infancy. I love setting surround setting the way it does. It's also very responsive and doesn't seem to suffer from that annoying "reconnecting lag" the Remote App for controlling iTunes has. Using both the Remote app and the Wizz App is a pain, even with the iPhone 4 new multitasking feature. So I'm really looking forward to Airplay, in hopes this will solve all of those problems.

Wizz app should definitely have that Remote App built it! That'll be awesome. For now, I'm still stuck using the Marantz remote and a 80 degrees Celsius laptop.

Conclusion

I love it. I've become a Marantz fan boy. It's not perfect, but close.

 

[Frans]

DSP modes

Back in the days with the SR6003, I used to playback a lot of music in a DSP surround mode. I started out with "Multi Ch Music" but somehow I grew tired of it. I think it's because it sounds nice at first, but gets old rather quickly. Fatiguing even. I found this setting works best at lower volumes, listening to iTunes with a half ear in the middle of the night. At louder volume the surround channels become party crashers. Not pleasant. I like having Freddie Mercury in my room, but not when he's coming at me on all fours.... Mmm, never mind that. The AV7005 sounds better with this DSP mode, but this could be completely psychological... Or because I now have better front speakers. I'm not sure yet.

I loved the way SRS Lab's True Something implementation sounded and I was a little bit worried to find out it wasn't included with the AV7005. I tried Googling for its website, but couldn't find it. What's up with that?

Anyway, the AV7005 doesn't include SRS Labs' DSP setting. So naturally, in those long lonely weeks in which I waited in vane for the postman to deliver my new goods, I detoxed myself using Dolby PLII Music. Fair is fair, it sounds pretty good too.

With the AV7005 music really matters again. Wow, that sounded cheesy didn't it? No, I don't work for Marantz. Not yet anyway ....

Anyway, with the AV7005 I think I've grown tired of overly processed music and got back to good ol' stereo mode. The AV7005 makes it sound that much better. I still like its Dolby PLII Movie setting for cable TV and Multi Ch Music for night sessions at lower volumes. But not during pure listening sessions.


Channel separation

I must say I really couldn't believe my ears. I've read reviews of the SR6003 here on audioholics and I think one of the mentioned downsides was its lack of dynamics. I was surprised they didn't mention its rather poor channel separation ability in both stereo and surround playback mode.

Thank god the AV7005 and MM7055 took care of this. I'm pretty sure the credits should go to the MM7055 for this. I'm curious if the new SR7005 performs as good. But once again, I doubt it. I highly doubt it, this time. Channel separation is awesome and it comes close to the experience of listening to good headphones.


Phonar Veritas P5.5 EDMA Cap +

"Unknown equals unloved" is a phrase in my country. I doubt many people here have heard about Phonar, a small German company that creates these handmade speakers. My pair are modified by a Dutch audio expert called Edwin Maas (EDMA modification). A very unappreciated gentlemen (artist), if I ever met one. He swapped tweeters, changed dampening material and created his own crossover and frequency filters for these beauties. Among other things.

I'm no expert. I was too busy comparing them with others of the same price range (B&W's, Infinitys, Focals, JBL,etc). I've owned a pair of Phonar P3's for 2 years now. It took just 5 minutes of listening at Stassen Hifi (in Tegelen, near Venlo, the Netherlands). I accompanied my parents for their purchase of new speakers and I insisted of hearing the P3 next to the P5. I was sold, I needed to have them too, even though my financial options were slim

Edwin Maas (who works at Stassen Hifi and joined us during the listening session) upgraded the P5 to P5.5 with a new kind of capacitor. An upgrade he calls Cap or Cap+. I don't know what that means. I've seen the capacitor they put in, compared to the standard unit - and it's HUGE!

Boy the P5's are worth the €750 extra per unit compared to the P3. They hold up pretty well against a €26.000 speaker system they set up for comparison. Not quite as good, obviously, but far from justifying doubling the mortgage on my home.

So OK, "Life in Technicolor II (Vocal)" by Coldplay and "Wonderful Life" by Hurts still sounds like the way my mornin' poop looks like (all mashed up and one big pile). But hey! They told me at the university that "garbage in = garbage out". Nice songs, sure, but mastered by a deaf three year old. These speakers really kill badly recorded music. Which is a bummer in some cases. Let me tell you!

The cristal clear piercing of the modified Seas tweeters really hit the old spot with Queen's "Is This the World We Created". The guitar and Freddie Mercury's amazing voice just cuts through the air. Once again I should point out that the AV7005's room acoustic EQing by Audyssey really shines in this case too. "Come Together" by the Beatles is another song where these speakers really present their true potential. The sound stage of this ancient recording is simply excellent. With "Sail Away" by Enya the P5.5's are clearly supported by my subwoofer (another Phonar EDMA modified unit). But the room's easily stretched double its actual size. I do advice to get a decent sub to go with them. Their crossover frequency is pretty low, but they do lack that "punch" we all love. These floorstanders are no exception.

All in all, real winners. They don't come all the way from Paris just to check them out for nothing. I strongly suggest you do too, before ordering anything else.

 

[Warpdrv]

Nice review.... Thanks for taking the time...

I'm really sold on this new unit.... Need to replace my old Pioneer receiver/preamp....

Its been a long wait for a nice semi inexpensive product to come along...

On AVS a guy recently posted that the new AV7005 even sounds better then the AV8003... That really says tons to me...

 

[gene]

Frans;

You're hired!

We didn't review the SR6003. We did review the SR6004 and I found the crosstalk performance to be good but not great as you can see in my review:

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/receivers/marantz-sr6004-1/sr6004-measurements

I personally like to see at least 60dB at 20kHz for really good stereo separation.

I am sending you a PM about your review. Thanks for taking the time here to write your experience.

 

[Frans]

Hello Gene,

Thanks! If I knew this would happen I would have spent some more time on writing the review

I tried sending you a PM but it refused sending it, due to your personal settings - I believe. I've contacted you through the audioholics.com/contact form. I hope you have received my message.

Talk to you soon.

 

[gene]

Frans that is odd as I don't see any settings on my end that would cause this.

Please email me at: gds @ audioholics.com

Put: Marantz Review in the subject field.

We can discuss how you can reformat all of this into a more formal review. Some rewriting is definitely necessary if you are up for the challenge. thanks.

 

[GranteedEV]

Indeed, it seems no one can send you PMs!

gene has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her.

If you are trying to send this message to multiple recipients, remove gene from the recipient list and send the message again.

You're not allowed to receiver PMs! It's because you don't have 5 posts yet!?

 

[Warpdrv]

Frans;

You're hired!

We didn't review the SR6003. We did review the SR6004 and I found the crosstalk performance to be good but not great as you can see in my review:

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/receivers/marantz-sr6004-1/sr6004-measurements

I personally like to see at least 60dB at 20kHz for really good stereo separation.

I am sending you a PM about your review. Thanks for taking the time here to write your experience.

Gene, I think this is one of those products that I alot of people would appreciate seeing the numbers on....
Its really one of the first products that is priced right with all the performance needs for separates IMO...

I hope you guys got one coming to see how the measurements look on it....

 

[gene]

Gene, I think this is one of those products that I alot of people would appreciate seeing the numbers on....
Its really one of the first products that is priced right with all the performance needs for separates IMO...

I hope you guys got one coming to see how the measurements look on it....

The AV7005 review will post without measurements but I may request a review sample of the SR7005. IF that measures well you can be assured the AV7005 would only measure as good or better.

 

[jelmer-h]

Very nice review, Frans!

Nice gear you have, i am also in the market for a complete HT-setup.

I have only one question regarding the AV7005.
It's pretty old school, but my TV has only SCART, s-video and composite.

I have read that the AV7005 won't output a menu over composite (monitor out). But from some Marantz rep, i heard that you can use the green (Y)-connector of the component out, as a workaround. In this way, you get a black&white image but WITH the full menus.

Can you test for me if this works all the time, or do you have to specify some setting (like videoconversion Off, etc.)?

Please let me know. I would be convenient to be able to configure this beast out-of-the-box via composite.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Frans]

Hello jelmer-h,

Well, trying things out was a little piece of hell, but a nice physical work out. You see, the backside connections of my wall-mounted Philips Aurea are very hard to reach.

I tried a decent component connection first. I couldn't get it to work, but then I remembered to set "component 2 output" to "main zone" in the "Manual setup" menu section. Next, I unplugged the HDMI output cable, so that there's only one signal for the output (namely the component) to go to. This works without problem. Having the HDMI cable connected will shut off analogue video outputs, so it seems.

Then I tried your suggestion, plugging in the Y-cable (Luminance signal with black & white only) to the composite side of the Aurea. The Marantz rep is correct, this works too!

I couldn't get the menu to work using the composite signal "monitor out", just like you mentioned.

...

PS: check if your TV has a decent SCART input that supports a component signal (YUV). This way, you can buy a cable like this one:

http://kabeltje.com/hq-scart-3x-rca-component-15-meter-p-933.html

I have one at home and tried it on my Pace cable-TV set top box (Dutch UPC cable company), but it didn't work. Most cheap video equipment don't support YUV / RGB signals over SCART, unfortunately, but it's worth a try IMHO.

Or try something like this: http://www.svideo.com/ypbprsv1.html

 

[stevenw80]

XLR or RCA?

Hi Frans or any one who can assist

Great review btw

I too just purchased the same setup as yours, and noticed you have gone down the XLR connections between the receiver and amp.

Is there any reason to go with XLR over RCA cables?

If RCA is fine, I guess I need to go with decent cabling since I have bought some good kit equipment. And too that goes for XLR??

thanks in advance!
Steve

 

[GranteedEV]

Is there any reason to go with XLR over RCA cables?

If RCA is fine, I guess I need to go with decent cabling since I have bought some good kit equipment. And too that goes for XLR??

XLR is perfection.. takes away any chance of outside noise or hum being introduced... but RCA does suffice pretty much.

But no, you don't need to go with "decent" cabling. as long as it fits it'll work. 75 ohm RCA is sometimes recommended but even that's not vital.

 

[stevenw80]

Rca

I see, thanks for the education.. Ill connect with RCAs.. cheers Steve

 

[Frans]

Hey guys, for AudioHolics I rewritten my review.

It's online now:
http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/processors/marantz-av7005/

Discuss it here:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70111

I really hope you like it.

 

[Davede]

First things first I guess, Hi all I'm new to both forum and home cinema stuff.

Frans,
I have recently been along to Stassen Hi-Fi and ended up coming away with the pretty much the same speaker config as yourself. Previously I had a Canton Movie cx80 speaker package and a Yamaha RX-V765 A/V reciever and thought it was about time to have a substantial upgrade.
I'm now looking to replace my reciever, unfortunately I can't quite afford the AV7005 and MM7055.
Would you say that tonally Marantz pair very well with the Phonar?
I'm currently torn between the Yamaha RX-V3067 and the Marantz SR7005, any suggetion as to which would be better matched with the Phonar speakers?
Thanks,
Dave.

 

[Frans]

Hey Davede,

Did you already place your order? It's worth a try negotiating the price with the people at Stassen when you buy multiple items. I suspect they get a rather good profit selling Phonars.

As far as pairing Phonar with Marantz, I can only say I'm very happy with it. People say a Marantz sounds "warm", but I can't really say I understand that point of view. I've listened to a Technics amplifier with Philips MFB speakers a lot and the amps in those speakers do color the sound to an extend where its easily audible.

The nice thing about Phonar speakers is you can change the treble setting at the back using a jumper. This way, you can set it to 0dB, +1dB or +2dB. It's worth a try, depending on your room characteristics.

The Yamaha is a very good unit, IMHO. It seems to get very good reviews all around! At Stassen I've extensively listened to the Phonar P3.5 and P5.5 speakers - among others - with a SR7005. I decided to go for the AV7005/MM7055 combination just because I could.

Anyway my best advice to you is, if you have to make a choice between the P3.5 or the P5.5, get the P5.5. Even if it means down scaling receiver-wise. Then again, if you've been at Stassen you probably agree with this

In any case, let me know what you've decided! The Phonar P5.5 Edma Cap+'s are immensely good, so I can't imagine them performing "poor" with a Yamaha or a Marantz, whatever type, really. I really hope this helps!

 

[audiophilehi]

Hi Frans,

I just purchased the Marantz AV7005 and MM7055. I went to hook my speakers and it appears the MM7055 doesn't take spade lugs.

Looks like only Banana or thin gauge wire.

What connections do you have?


Thanks
Paul

 

[Mongao]

MM7055 - does it run too hot ?

Hi all,

I am considering pairing my SR6006 with a MM7055, I only listen to LOUD music, my mains are Polk`s RTiA9`s towers.

Please, would the MM7055 stand the job ?

Thanks,

MOngao