Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Update May 6, 2011
I lost the two front speakers again and restored them using the technique on page 115 of the User Guide. The speakers are now working but I'm curious why that is happening; I'm going to contact Marantz technical support and see if they can shed any light on it. If anything interesting emerges I'll post another update. I suppose the most important information I can share at this time is to please use the memory saving instructions on page 115; they're simple and can save a lot of re-setup in the future if you experience a problem.
Update March 14, 2011
A few days ago I experienced a complete loss of my two front main speakers, both left and right. That was a first so I started checking wiring etc. to try and isolate the problem but everything looked good. I then checked the settings on the Marantz and could find nothing suspicious there either. I tried using the tone generation feature but it too skipped over the front left and front right speakers.
In researching the mystery I got to page 115 of the User Guide and read the section on "Resetting the microprocessor." I decided to try that procedure and it worked and restored all of the speakers to normal operation. I had spent several hours on the initial setup and found that work could be saved to memory by following the "Memory Saving" procedure on that page.
I would recommend that you save your settings to memory by following the instructions on page 115 when you have completed setting up your AV7005. If you should experience a similar loss of speakers the resetting procedure described on that page worked well for me and may work for you as well.
I continue to be very pleased with the musicality of the Marantz; I have discovered the "Neural" setting amoung the surround options and have started playing back my two-channel CD's using that setting and am getting fabulous results. It's almost like hearing my older CD collection for the first time.Original review
I have owned a Krell Home Theater Standard preamp processor for many years now; the experience has been both rewarding and disappointing. Rewarding in the sense that the Krell has very good audio qualities, but disappointing in the sense that it was not future proof as represented. This Marantz AV7005 is replacing a Krell HTS 7.1 which has absolutely no HDMI capability and cannot be updated to offer it. This happens to be my second Krell, neither of which could be updated to utilize later developments although both were initially represented as being future proof.
It has been a delight to set up a piece of equipment which has all of the latest bells and whistles and can accommodate the latest cables. Of all of the things important to me, the only things lacking is the ability to decode SACD and DVD-Audio; this, however, is being supplied by the OPPO BD-83SE player which I've attached to the system. With those two correctable exceptions, the Marantz has done everything asked of it and done it very well.
The set up on the Marantz took some time but was not too complicated. If one uses only new equipment with HDMI capability the set up with the Marantz is virtually automatic. If you're trying to integrate some older equipment it takes a little longer but the flexibility is there to integrate most legacy equipment successfully.
I tried using the Audyssey auto setup but found the results were not really to my liking; I wound up using my trusty Radio Shack sound pressure level meter and adjusted the speaker balance and crossover frequency between the subwoofer and the other speakers to the THX recommended standards.
As one of the other reviewers mentioned, the primary use for my system is the reproduction of music; I happen to be a serious pipe organ fan and had the pipe organ in mind when I originally set up my system. As I've mentioned elsewhere, a system designed to reproduce pipe organ has an easy time with the crashes and explosions found in most action films.
With regard to musicality, the Marantz has provided very satisfactory results to date; I cannot clearly detect any major differences between the Marantz and the Krell which cost many thousands of dollars more. A direct A/B comparison might reveal differences but that sort of comparison is not possible.
As of this point I am very pleased with the Marantz which accommodates 3D as well as a first rate 1080P video image and reproduces first rate audio. For the price I have found it to be an outstanding piece of equipment.
Click Here to see more reviews about:
Marantz AV7005 Audio Video Pre-Processor (Black)
Click here for more information about Marantz AV7005 Audio Video Pre-Processor (Black)
