Marantz SR7400 & Yamaha HTR-5790, experience? [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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cmaglio
01-26-2005, 11:41 PM
Well I have decided to move on from this Sony receiver in the light that I just bought some new speakers and want something with an on screen display. I have been debating between the Marantz SR7400 and the Yamaha HTR-5790. Both have some great features, and a reputation for great sound. The Marantz comes with a rather interesting remote, while the Yamaha seems to have more sound fields and automatic setup (Don't know if that is much of a feature though...). Both can be found for about the same price as well... Anyway, if anyone has any personal experience with either of these two receivers, your advice is much appreciated!

drseid
01-27-2005, 03:27 AM
Well I have decided to move on from this Sony receiver in the light that I just bought some new speakers and want something with an on screen display. I have been debating between the Marantz SR7400 and the Yamaha HTR-5790. Both have some great features, and a reputation for great sound. The Marantz comes with a rather interesting remote, while the Yamaha seems to have more sound fields and automatic setup (Don't know if that is much of a feature though...). Both can be found for about the same price as well... Anyway, if anyone has any personal experience with either of these two receivers, your advice is much appreciated!


I own the SR-7400... It is being repaired right now though (after 6 months of ownership).

I guess my take on the SR-7400 is it is somewhat of a gamble... If you get a unit that stays working, it is one of the best receivers anywhere near its price point... It has a great processing chip, plenty of power (for a receiver), component video upconversion and that "interesting" remote control, is the best one I have ever used (and it is super easy to control other products too).

Quite frankly, if it were not for my personal quality concerns, I would recommend the receiver without reservation (especially at the closeout prices it is being sold at now to make way for the SR-7500). Just understand that you may get a dud like I did... Definitely buy from an authorized dealer, because you may need to use the rather generous warranty the unit comes with.

---Dave

kexodusc
01-27-2005, 07:47 AM
I've owned a few Marantz receivers, and they were pretty decent except for a few minor problems. On my second Yamaha now and haven't had anything go wrong yet.
Both of these receivers are pretty decent, though I would argue the 5790 has a few more bells and whistles that can significantly enhance the listening experience, especially during moview. YPAO can actually compensate for room acoustics that a receiver otherswise cannot. The auto-calibration is handy as well, and seems to be a bit more accurate than most inexpensive SPL meters I've used. Yamah is second to none in the DSP category too, if that matters to you. Some of the movie DSP's are great, but I'm not a fan of the music DSP's at all. Quality wise, few would argue that Yamaha isn't tops at this price, but Marantz gear is usually fairly solid as well.

Sound quality wise, both are decent, don't think you'll find a winner there. Yamaha still can't make a half decent remote IMO. Pick which features are important to you, find a good price, and enjoy.

cmaglio
01-27-2005, 11:32 AM
I was looking into buying a refurbished 7400 from an authorized dealer (will have to check the Marantz warranty for refurb products) I am not sure if that could be somewhat of a blessing to get a unit that has been completely checked over and any failing parts were allready replaced. I have seen a lot of problems with this receiver, but also seen a lot of praise. What particular problems were you having? I have seen they tend to overheat and/or sound drops out during DVD playback...

As for the two receivers, I am thinking the Yamaha has a slight edge. I love that remote on the Marantz, and it also has the Circle SRS decoding. One feature I like about the Yamaha 5790 is that it has tha auto setup. However, if you want to do some of your own tweaking it has a 7 band graphic EQ built into the OSD so that you can tonally adjust each speaker individually. Correct me if that isn't such a useful feature, but it seems pretty neat to me.

drseid
01-27-2005, 04:50 PM
I was looking into buying a refurbished 7400 from an authorized dealer (will have to check the Marantz warranty for refurb products) I am not sure if that could be somewhat of a blessing to get a unit that has been completely checked over and any failing parts were allready replaced. I have seen a lot of problems with this receiver, but also seen a lot of praise. What particular problems were you having? I have seen they tend to overheat and/or sound drops out during DVD playback...

As for the two receivers, I am thinking the Yamaha has a slight edge. I love that remote on the Marantz, and it also has the Circle SRS decoding. One feature I like about the Yamaha 5790 is that it has tha auto setup. However, if you want to do some of your own tweaking it has a 7 band graphic EQ built into the OSD so that you can tonally adjust each speaker individually. Correct me if that isn't such a useful feature, but it seems pretty neat to me.

Problems include video upconversion errors, and analog signal buzzing sound. I only used the 7400 as a pre/pro, BTW.

I personally like the Marantz's decoding by quite a margin over others in its class... Yes, the Circle Surround II was an exclusive feature that also swayed me to Marantz.

The main feature though that causes me to almost always avoid Yamaha (despite their excellent reputation for quality) is their remotes... It is amazing just how important a good remote is to making the receiver pleasant to use (I could say this about any audio equipment remote). Yamaha, as was stated earlier, just does not do remotes well... That is a deal breaker for me, but many others don't care about that, and are quite happy.

As for auto calibration... I like to do it myself, so I could not care about that. Equalizers (excluding the parametric equalizers on some subwoofers) and cheezy sound DSP formats like "Arena" drive me from the room, so again, they don't persuade me to go with one model or another.

All of this said, it depends on what *you* value. Both receivers contain excellent, but different feature sets... It just is a question of which features you want in a receiver. And your risk taking limits...

Good luck,

---Dave