Marantz SR7015 8K AVR Review

[amirm]

This is not good for the price. Couple of questions:
1-How much would SINAD improve (or would it?) if a proper filter was allowed as an option?

SINAD value used is the one from the Dashboard that has a 22.4 kHz filtering for measurements. In other words, it already has the filtering that AVR does not have. In that regard, that SINAD is independent of the filter performance. So fixing that won't change its standing.

2- @amirm are there any plans yet for a SR8015?

None are here for testing. A fancy processor is here for testing though!

 

[amirm]

how to explain such disappointing measurements especially when compared with the one of the SR 8015 provided by Audioholics?

The one measurement was really good from that. If true, then it must have a very different implementation than 7015 and hence the reason they offered that one for testing. I could ask them about it....

 

[Dj7675]

SINAD value used is the one from the Dashboard that has a 22.4 kHz filtering for measurements. In other words, it already has the filtering that AVR does not have. In that regard, that SINAD is independent of the filter performance. So fixing that won't change its standing.


None are here for testing. A fancy processor is here for testing though!

Fun

 

[Vasr]

Marantz really is the Oldsmobile of Sound United and must be discontinued before it gets more embarrassing.

Seems like two very different cultures at Denon and Marantz, not sure how much of the difference is in engineering and how much of it dictated by leadership.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I keep imagining an ad campaign. Where Marantz shows some of the measurements of their unit, and those of the Denon. Saying, we engineered our units to sound better. Or some such posh.

 

[restorer-john]

This Marantz is coming out of the very new Anam factory in Vietnam.

Inside the factory showroom upstairs, note the Marantz gear and posters:

more pics here:

Have a look at the entire JBL range of BT speakers on the showroom wall. (zoom in)

https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Anam+Electronics+Co.,+Ltd.+Vietnam/@20.6351355,105.8872685,3a,75y/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipOF4y-TbODSazEvDFMwmHShlp_2xyFHMtcTCGRz!2e10!3e12!6shttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipOF4y-TbODSazEvDFMwmHShlp_2xyFHMtcTCGRz=w203-h114-k-no!7i4032!8i2268!4m12!1m6!3m5!1s0x0:0x488b296adb068f91!2zS2h1IGPDtG5nIG5naGnhu4dwIMSQ4buTbmcgVsSDbiBJVg!8m2!3d20.6378422!4d105.8896124!3m4!1s0x3135c9020e58772b:0xbebcb087e64c93d5!8m2!3d20.6352105!4d105.8871063

 

[Ken1951]

Not connected with this review in any way, but I was lucky enough to meet Saul Marantz and carry in his demo pair of DQ-10s from his Mercedes. A truly lovely gentleman, and I'm sure he'd be profoundly embarrassed that such products carried his name. Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming!

 

[Tks]

Conclusions
Like clockwork, the performance of Marantz SR7015 tracks other Marantz AVRs we have tested. They take the excellent platform used in Denon sister products, and modify them to produce objectively worse performance by good bit.

LOL

 

[Vini darko]

Thing that bugs me the most with avr's is the stupid stickers on the front. The 90's was in the 90's can we just move on please avr manufacturers?

 

[Billy Budapest]

Not connected with this review in any way, but I was lucky enough to meet Saul Marantz and carry in his demo pair of DQ-10s from his Mercedes. A truly lovely gentleman, and I'm sure he'd be profoundly embarrassed that such products carried his name. Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming!

Today’s Marantz doesn’t have anything to do with the original American company—instead, its lineage derives from Marantz Japan.

 

[restorer-john]

Thing that bugs me the most with avr's is the stupid stickers on the front. The 90's was in the 90's can we just move on please avr manufacturers?

They are just for the sales floor. They peel off easily (usually). Unlike the Windows/Intel stickers that really don't want to come off your laptop...

Do you remember when CRT TVs used to have a diagonal static plastic attached features sticker? Some were huge and covered a quarter of the screen.

 

[Vini darko]

They are just for the sales floor. They peel off easily (usually). Unlike the Windows/Intel stickers that really don't want to come off your laptop...

Do you remember when CRT TVs used to have a diagonal static plastic attached features sticker? Some were huge and covered a quarter of the screen.

Yeah I remember

 

[Ken1951]

Today’s Marantz doesn’t have anything to do with the original American company—instead, its lineage derives from Marantz Japan.

Yep. Know this. When I met the man, late 1973 or earlyish 1974 I think, the company was long gone from him, but it's still a shame.

 

[Helicopter]

Thanks for the review. I love my 1970s Marantz receivers. It is good to know from these reviews what they are up to now, as I am firmly in the Denon camp for current AV gear.

I assume part of that heritage has been extrapolated into a Marantz house sound which is intentionally imparted into these products. Not my cup of tea, most especially in an AVR. They must have been at a loss for what to do with the two brands and then somehow come to this suboptimal solution. Hopefully they reverse course.

 

[Xyrium]

I swear, it's the inclusion of the antiquated component outputs that drags these down in performance.

 

[Francis Vaughan]

The market will decide. Making the Marantz branded device identical to the Denon is a waste of their time. Sadly the easiest way of differentiating the product is to change the sound. People buy into this. So in that respect United Sound are not actually wrong. They are up front about it, which is more than you can say for a great many audiofool brands. Not for ASR denizens, but US will sell you the Denon version so everyone should be happy.
The unspoken question is whether there is enough of a change in sound to be perceived, and if so, whether there are enough people who have a preference for this sound to make this a justifiable design choice. That we don’t know.
What we cannot do is assert that anyone who does have such a preference is wrong.

 

[Vasr]

Thing that bugs me the most with avr's is the stupid stickers on the front.

I believe many if not all of them are part of the licensing deal. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the HDMI licensing is cheaper if you put HDMI logo on your box. It adds up for mass-market volume. Once they start doing it then it becomes a negative thing not to put as many as you can for marketing reasons to compete with the others.

It is worse when they stencil in dts, dolby, etc as part of the front plate that cannot be removed. That may also have been licensing mandated. This has been going on for a long time.

What I find more ridiculous are the people who buy these and leave the stickers on (along with the plastic shipping cover on their couches and the dealer advertisement on their cars, etc).

 

[restorer-john]

What I find more ridiculous are the people who buy these and leave the stickers on (along with the plastic shipping cover on their couches and the dealer advertisement on their cars, etc).

We have the "energy star" stickers on whitegoods and many people leave them on for decades! By the time they eventually peel them off, the finish underneath the sticker is slightly a different colour from lack of UV fading. So they have made it worse by leaving them on! Those nickel silver finishes on fridges are prone to that due to the UV lacquer coat.

 

[KaiserSoze]

I swear, it's the inclusion of the antiquated component outputs that drags these down in performance.

To my way of thinking it would make more sense to support old S-video than component video. I'd have to do some research to be sure, but it seems like component video was the go-to for video for hardly any time before HDMI came along. I still have an early digital video camera and separate deck with S-video and I would find S-video occasionally useful. But with either component video or S-video, an obvious question is whether analog video input is converted to HDMI for output, and similarly whether digital video input is converted to component video output for users who use the component video output. I would hesitate to make any assumptions about what it does and doesn't do.

 

[Ron Texas]

Measurements are not so hot. Like most of these AVR's I am ready to faint when I see the back panel. Thank you @amirm for another set of detailed measurements. As the database is expanded it becomes clear what can be done and what can't.