AV home theater receivers

[maldorf]

i'm looking at getting either a Denon AVR 3312 or a Marantz SR6006. I have owned a nice Denon now for over 10 years and it is still as good as new but I would like to get the new HMDI features and all of the new DOlBY decoding technology. Does anyone own a Marantz? Just wondering how you experience has been with it. Those bands are of course not sold together at the same store so I cant listen to them to compare really.

From what I gather the Marantz is better for listening to music but the Denon is better for home theater.

Any opinions?

 

[BSM E65]

No personal experience with either one, but the Denons always seem to get good reviews. Go to AVS Forum There is more info there than you can imagine. There is probably an individual thread for each model and people will list all of the pros/cons of that unit. Hope this helps.

 

[builder]

No personal experience with either one, but the Denons always seem to get good reviews. Go to AVS Forum There is more info there than you can imagine. There is probably an individual thread for each model and people will list all of the pros/cons of that unit. Hope this helps.

yes that is a great forum for AV. i even have a thread there with pics of my equipment. that was quite some time ago.

i wound up going with a Pioneer Elite and absolutely love it. i am an audiophile and very pickey about how my theater sounds.

if you are picking between the 2 i would probably go with the Denon. if you have a decent theater setup you will love the DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby True HD. amazing lossless audio.

 

[SugarFree]

i wound up going with a Pioneer Elite and absolutely love it. i am an audiophile and very pickey about how my theater sounds.

As a home theater enthusiast, I also couldnt recommend the Pioneer Elite receivers enough. There expensive but there's a reason for it and ya get what ya pay for... I tried to go with cheaper receivers at first and just winded up wasting money by upgrading several times and finially getting what I shouldve in the first place, the Pioneer Elite.

 

[builder]

Maldorf

what else do you have for components?

i found the link to my stuff:
AVS Forum - View Single Post - my first HT

 

[maldorf]

Maldorf

what else do you have for components?

i found the link to my stuff:
AVS Forum - View Single Post - my first HT

I went ahead and got the Marantz. they had it marked down 10% and the price was pretty good. The sr 6006.

I also picked up some Sinclair 460Ts for the front and a 25cc for the center channel. The rear are in walls, Speaker Craft and sound really great so I will leave those alone.

My old speakers are all Definitive and sound real good still so I ended up putting those in the basement with my old Denon.

THe new setup will have 3D and should be a lot of fun for the kids. Just have to purchase some glasses now and movies.

The marantz was a bit more refined than the Denon and did cost a bit more but I think its well worth it.

If you guys havent had the chance to listen to the Sinclair speakers you should, its great Audiophile sound for a fair price. Those front speakers are a great buy!**broken link removed**

 

[maldorf]

Sinclair Audio

Here is a link to a review for the speaker line.

**broken link removed**

The store I bought them at is quite high end so the fact that they carried these speakers there is a testament to the sound they produce. The store caries the likes of Macintosh, Magnepan, Martin Logan, Vanderstein, Arcam and more.

 

[builder]

i have heard good things about Sinclair. nice setup! do you have a seperate subwoofer?

 

[maldorf]

i have heard good things about Sinclair. nice setup! do you have a seperate subwoofer?

Yeah, I have a Carver powered sub. The new marantz is 7.2, so it has a second output for another sub but I dont think i need to add another since the carver is putting out fine right now.

those Sinclairs are great for the price. I think they sounded as good or better than the Focals I listened to and the focals were about $600 more. Only way to know is to listen. Im lucky that we have 2 high end stores about 15 minutes from my home. The stores are just 1 block apart too.

 

[builder]

looks like you have a beauty setup! i love movies and the only way to watch them is with a kick ass sound system....i just picked up the new Star Wars Bluray box set....awesome. just watched episode 1 and the light sabers were vibrating my clothes...:headbang:

cant wait for the Indiana Jones Bluray boxset!

 

[maldorf]

looks like you have a beauty setup! i love movies and the only way to watch them is with a kick ass sound system....i just picked up the new Star Wars Bluray box set....awesome. just watched episode 1 and the light sabers were vibrating my clothes...:headbang:

cant wait for the Indiana Jones Bluray boxset!

Yeah, I got both boxed sets of the bluray Star Wars. You will also really like the Lord of the Rings Boxed set on Bluray. I also picked up Apocolypse now/with Redux and Saving Private Ryan. To me the sound is almost more important than the picture.

I am considering adding a pair of the Sinclair Audio in-walls for my back surround. Right now I just have a 5.1 setup. Wondering how much of a difference adding those 2 extra speakers in the rear will make. All of the great new movies I picked up are recorded in Dolby 6.1, so they will have that extra channel of information. I havent seen any true 7.1 yet. On the 6.1 the 2 rear speakers have the same information.

 

[builder]

Yeah, I got both boxed sets of the bluray Star Wars. You will also really like the Lord of the Rings Boxed set on Bluray. I also picked up Apocolypse now/with Redux and Saving Private Ryan. To me the sound is almost more important than the picture.

I am considering adding a pair of the Sinclair Audio in-walls for my back surround. Right now I just have a 5.1 setup. Wondering how much of a difference adding those 2 extra speakers in the rear will make. All of the great new movies I picked up are recorded in Dolby 6.1, so they will have that extra channel of information. I havent seen any true 7.1 yet. On the 6.1 the 2 rear speakers have the same information.

yup got the Lord of the Rings Blurays! amazing sound! if we are going to watch a movie that i have pvr'd off movie central and if it doesnt at least have digital audio i wont watch it...lol

definitely go for the 7.1 setup! you will notice the sound is much more immersive and eliminates any localization you may notice from the 5.1 rear speakers.

 

[maldorf]

I dont get too much localization of sound now since I have bipolars in the rear, but this should really kick ass with 2 more channels in the rear. Here is what I have in the wall now for the side surrounds.

**broken link removed**

 

[wallmonator]

This looks like a great setup; Are you happy with what you got? I read a couple of reviews saying that they had firmware problems and setup issues. Did you have any problems? I am thinking about upgrading my Onkyo and this receiver is in the running.

 

[maldorf]

This looks like a great setup; Are you happy with what you got? I read a couple of reviews saying that they had firmware problems and setup issues. Did you have any problems? I am thinking about upgrading my Onkyo and this receiver is in the running.

The Merantz is on order and not here yet. If I have any troubles I will post, but I dont expect any.

 

[SAcolt45]

I actually do commercial and residential A/V for a living and you've got some pretty nice gear. I will tell you about 2 or 3 years ago Marantz had a run of horrible build quality. It was so bad that we dropped the line. Not sure how their new stuff has been fairing. We had countless DOAs and they were notorious for breaking just outside of their warranty period. I can concur with the others and say that the Pioneer Elite stuff is amazing. I would add the 6th channel if I were you, I recently did and it adds way more dimension with the new remasters and now that Hollywood sound engineers are actually using them in their scores. :star-war:

 

[maldorf]

I actually do commercial and residential A/V for a living and you've got some pretty nice gear. I will tell you about 2 or 3 years ago Marantz had a run of horrible build quality. It was so bad that we dropped the line. Not sure how their new stuff has been fairing. We had countless DOAs and they were notorious for breaking just outside of their warranty period. I can concur with the others and say that the Pioneer Elite stuff is amazing. I would add the 6th channel if I were you, I recently did and it adds way more dimension with the new remasters and now that Hollywood sound engineers are actually using them in their scores. :star-war:

Ive had a Denon now for over 12 yrs and not a single problem. I see that Marantz is owned by the same parent company which also owns Macintosh. The store I bought it all from is family owned and has been in business for over 30 yrs so I think they wouldnt be carrying it now if it were an issue. The marantz is their most affordable line. I wanted to get some Arcam stuff but youre talking major dollars there. The factory warranty of the speakers is 5 yrs, forget what the marantz carries.

 

[SAcolt45]

Yeah I've rocked Denon for years without a single problem. DM Holdings owns them both. Something about the chipsets Marantz used there for a bit, I forget all the details now. I'll check with the Marantz folks when I see them next week at CES and see what's new in their lines. Arcam is the S#@&

 

[wallmonator]

I had no idea they were all the same company; What percentage of their components are they sharing between their lines? Are they completely different or is there a lot of overlap?

 

[maldorf]

Yeah I've rocked Denon for years without a single problem. DM Holdings owns them both. Something about the chipsets Marantz used there for a bit, I forget all the details now. I'll check with the Marantz folks when I see them next week at CES and see what's new in their lines. Arcam is the S#@&

Yeah, come on this thread and let us know what you find out at CES. We have an unfinished room in the basement that I want to make a hometheater someday when we have the money. I plan on doing a projector, Arcam components, and Magnepan speakers all around. I listened to the magnepan's they had and was really impressed with the sound. Only problem with those magnepans is you need an amp that can push at 4 ohms they said, if you really want to power those babies right.