Heard/Saw the Marantz AV8003 processor today

[Mr Peabody]

As I sit down with my crow sandwich........

First, let me thank everyone who chimed in with their own experience with the AV8003 and Frenchmon for your input. I started this thread after hearing the AV8003 and i thought it did sound very good in the sound room. This coupled with your further input got me to doing some thinking on my system. I was always wondering how the AV8003 could be so far off and my disappointment was giving me grief. So I got busy today and made some calls, tried some things.

As stated above in another post, my set up didn't have much difference from using the Primare, only the connections, up to this point I went through the Marantz I thought pretty good, so it left the connections. I called the store where I bought it and one guy wasn't much help, they're waiting to pick up some training from CEDIA. Talked to another guy about HDMI and he told me there is a difference in the cable quality and offered to loan me one to try. I thought, "what did you expect him to say". The problem was real though and I had nothing to lose. I picked up a Tributaries Series 7 HDMI cable, and borrowed his SPL meter. And away I went.

Guys, no matter what you read, or from who, THERE IS A DIFFERENCE IN HDMI CABLES. I was not using a $10.00 cable, I had a $40.00 Belkin which said 1.3 compliant. After reading CRAP on the internet about " it's digital either it would work or not" and seeing ridiculous cheap HDMI cables I thought 1.3 and $40.00 would have enough bandwidth. I put the Tributaries in and a Blu-ray disc I watched just last night. I listened to it again, certain scenes before switching cables. The improvement was obvious though, it opened the sound up. I mean most of everything that was making me unhappy went away, the music bloomed out and away from the speakers, the water sounded more natural, the birds and animal sounds were out into the room again, I'm really excited. The Series 7 will cost me a $150.00 and I am happy to take it to them. I actually brought home 2 cables one to go between preamp and BR, the other between pre and TV. I only tried the one between the BR and pre but I already noticed an improvement in picture quality. I can't wait the get the second one in, I expect the video to blow me away. The picture was already a bit sharper with more detail, especially in dark scenes and very bright scenes. Very bright scenes had more color where things were easier to see. I've got high end cables throughout my audio system, I don't know what made me think I could skimp with HDMI.
http://www.hometoys.com/htinews/dec0...es/perfito.htm

For the very first time I put a meter to my system, any system. I have to admit I was not as close as I thought by ear. My center channel which is sitting lower than my mains needed a 2 dB bump and my rears needed almost that. After adjustment the rears sounded alright during the movie but seemed a bit loud on a HD music video channel. I don't like the rears to be overly loud but I figure the meter don't lie, so it must be either a engineering problem or the station. The sub was too loud but I knew that, I was just waiting to get a meter.

I'm still not ready to take the belt from the Primare and give to the Marantz but the Marantz is now making it a much closer call. More importantly the Marantz is good enough to satisfy, ME, now. After all isn't that the goal

In conclusion, anyone who spends the money for HD gear and don't at least try quality cables for themselves is a FOOL because they will never get there money's worth out of that HD equipment. Take it from one who has learned there lesson.

[Edan]

I'm new to these forums but I have been reading this thread for the last few weeks now in anticipation of purchasing the Marantz combo. I have been particularly interesting in following Mr Peabody's feedback, especially after being initially dissapointed with the sound quality. I am happy to hear that a large proportion of the sound quality problems were related to cables. I too have witnessed the transformation that good quality interconnect can provide but have also not been certain as to how this affects HDMI - thanks for this feedback - it is critical to know.

I just received a trial Marantz AV8003 & MM8003. I previously had a Rotel 1068 pre-processor & 1075 amplifier. I am now wanting to make the switch up to HDMI due to HD broadcasts being launched in South Africa a few weeks ago.

Firstly, Mr Peabody, if you can do an Audyssey set up I would highly recommend it, it made a significant difference to sound quality. It will take around 10 minutes (or less if you don't do all six listening positions). I used this purely for EQ settings and then I changed some of my speaker settings such as distance, output levels and size. I found Audyssey incredible for EQ settings but didn't like what it did for the rest.

My first impressions were mixed but it's taken a while to tweak and get right. What truly stunned me is how it brought, what I thought were previously poor quality sound sources, to life; these sources being satellite broadcasts and PS3 MP3 playback. I never ever thought I'd use the PS3 for music, especially using it's optical digital out in the past. MP3 playback thru HDMI and the new combo is now incredible, and SACD playback thru the PS3 is surprisingly good. (I was not able to get mutli-channel SACD playback previously with the Marantz SA15 SACD player as it only supports stereo - a fine player though.)

I was initially expecting more of an improvement with stereo playback but am now happy with it. I think it took a while for my ear to adjust to the additional detail coming thru. It also brings otherwise dull CD recordings to life. (Could have been related to my room acoustics and Auddysey doing it's thing.) I was previously very happy with stereo playback with Rotel equipment and Marantz SACD player but only on a sub-set of disks.

No doubt HD blu-ray sound is excellent; tight and solid. Don't have that many disks to demo but will fix that over time.

If I had to rate the new combo over my previous Rotel gear out of 10:

CD/SACD Playback - Rotel: 8; Marantz: 9.5
Satellite Broadcasts (both stereo and DD5.1) - Rotel: 6; Marantz: 9.5
PS3 MP3 Audio - Rotel: 4; Marantz 9
Blu-Ray - Rotel (only compressed 5.1 available) 6; Marantz 9

One gripe is the remote control, which, while very advanced, does not appear to have direct buttons to change the source. You need to press a sequence of 3 buttons to change the source. (Possibly this can be changed via programmed - I'll work on this in time.) One other grip is that it's not descriptive enough on input streams, e.g. I would like to know what resolution PCM it is receiving.

Mr Peabody, if you do have a chance to set up the Auddysey EQ let us know what you think.

Thanks all for your posts, it's been fascinating to read.