A complete survey of SR 5200, 6200 and 7200 owners with problems and without. (1 Viewer)

[Chris M]

I was watching Willy Wonka last night and noticed what seemed like 2 layer changes... is this what the audio drop-outs appear like? One of course was a real layer change, but the other is a mystery.
Also, the wife was watching Bedknobs and Broomsticks and a few other movies and noticed this too... she says they're a lot longer than a layer change.
I have a Tosh 2710 and my Marantz 5200.
I'm kinda thinking of upgrading to a Denon 2802, but would rather not spend the money
Thanks,
Chris.

 

[Chris PC]

I must say, the stereo audio quality of the Marantz SR 6200 is very nice. I listened to Rush 'Power Windows' and 'Hold Your Fire' and they sound sweet on my PSB 6T's.

Something else I noticed though. Oh my gosh, is there ever bad isolation. I accidentally hit the wrong input when my Laserdisc player was playing a CD (connected via digital AND analog RCA cables) and I could hear it! It was leaking through. Really loud too, I mean, I was listening at a volume of about 85-80 dB in room and when I hit the wrong input, I could hear the sound coming through from my listening postion. I cranked it up and sure enough, there it was, leaking through. Bad bad receiver!

 

[Chris PC]

Hey its me again! Just can't let this post die!

One thing we could do here also is make sure everyone who has "audio drop out" problems states what DVD or CD player they have and perhaps also whether it is connected via optical or coax. Perhaps we can see if there are some DVD/CD players that are less compatible than others.

Those of you not experiencing drop outs using a DVD player or CD player connected via a digital cable, let us know what CD/DVD player you have!

 

[David_D_C]

Interesting you should mention the "leakage" from input to input.

The first SR5200 I had this problem. I completely forgot about this. I had the TV connected to the TV inputs and I had the TV on. I switched to the CD and to the VCR1 inputs and I could still hear the TV. It was all full of noise and was significantly quieter, but the sound was still coming through. My second unit doesn't do this at all.

Other things about the "drop outs"...

I'm using a Toshiba SD-2700 with the coax connection and in DD mode, when I pause it, or select a special feature or something, it takes 1/2 second or even a full second to "kick in" again. DTS takes a 1/4 of a second to resync; much more tolerable. When I'm playing a CD in the same DVD player using just straight plain old PCM, it seems to keep the PCM locked when skipping from track to track or pausing.

 

[Chris PC]

Yeah, it seems to. It does keep things locked sometimes, or seems to. See, for me, its very inconsistent. When I got my SR 6200 back from repair, I thought it worked, but sure enough, it started to drop out. I only thought it worked because I was playing tracks that did not have music at 0:00. So when just playing tracks through by themselves or when skipping or going back a track, and when pressing the track number and again, even just plain old playing through by itself, it dropped out. I have found it to be inconsistent, but the drop outs are repeatable at a rate of 75%, meaning, if I do what I know will make it drop out, but it shouldn't and doesn't on other receivers, the 6200 will drop out 75% of the time. Arrgghh!

Biggest give away is to find a CD that has sound at exactly 0:00 on more than one track and you can see pretty soon if it drops out or not. Even if the CD has tracks that start at 0:00.5, thats too late and you might not hear the drop out. I have many CD's with music at 0:00, unfortunately for me. I can't be alone. Any track that starts at 0:00 with "BAnng" ends up neing "annng".

Try Rush 'Power Windows' or Rush 'Hold Your Fire'. Annoying as all heck to hear the song start wrong.

Oh well. I am not even sure I can afford to replace this thing, so I was thinking I'll just use the analog RCA cables for now. I have thought about keeping it until Marantz fixes the problems but there are so many, I'm not confident that this won't be a huge waste of time for me. Despite the cost of upgrading, since there isn't much in its price range with the same features, I am shopping for a new receiver.

 

[Patrick Senez]

Chris,
I'm still waiting for answers from my dealer (his Marantz representative). In the meantime, I started my own "quest" for answers from Marantz.
I've send an email through their web page (www.marantz.com) and I've sent another one to their Canadian distributors (www.lenbrook.com).
If I don't get any reply by Friday, I will call them (Lenbrook in Pickering, ON).
I just want a clear answer from them about the issues that some of us have.
Has anybody already got feedback directly from them ?

 

[Chris PC]

I also emailed Marantz. Well, I personally brought my receiver to Lenbrook to have it looked at and they fixed the S-video noise problem and did nothing with my dropout problem. In fact, the tech said he could not replicate the problem. Amazing, because I have replicated the problem at home using my Panasonic 5 disc dvd changer and my Pioneer LD player. I have also replicated the problem with my player and a 5 disc pioneer dvd changer at the store on an SR 5200 and an SR 6200. When I picked up my SR 6200 from Lenbrook, I couldn't even be bothered to ask them what they had to say about my problems because I had already resigned myself to getting rid of it. I mean, I left the receiver there for 4 weeks and even the tech couldn't look me in the eye when I asked him why he hadn't been able to fix everything, such as the noise. He averted his eyes from me and said something like, "We have been contacting Marantz and we haven't heard from them". Thats fine. I appreciate that Lenbrook is not responsible for the defect in the marantz, but they were not useful in providing me with honest and useful service. I don't think that "Here is your receiver, we couldn't fix it." Is service as far as I'm concerned. Again, its not necessarily their fault, but at least tell me that you acknowledge the problem. I have no idea how the tech could not replicate the problem. I have a real urge to go over there with my dvd changer and receiver and hook up my PSB 2 B's and make the tech and the service guy hear why I am 99% certain I will return my SR 6200 and buy something else. Marantz is crazy for what they are doing.

Anyways, perhaps I will call Lenbrook and ask for a bit more clarification in terms of my particular receiver and the drop out problem. I might invite the tech to show me how he could not replicate the problem. That simply amazes me. If the SR 6200 only works with Marantz and NAD CD and DVD players, I would be amazed. My Panasonic has no problem with their NAD receiver so it ain't the fault of my dvd changer!

What a waste of money and time. I hope I can see clear to get a system that works one of these days.

 

[ChrisAG]

I'm through waiting and jumping through hoops for this receiver. Since purchasing the 6200 in September I have gone through:

- one repair

- one exchange

- several trips to the dealer

- hookup/unhook receiver four times

- several phone calls to Lenbrook

- one trip out to Lenbrook in Pickering

- vague "we'll look into it" answers from Lenbrook

- two unanswered e-mails to Marantz America

My first unit turned out to be the best - no dropouts, hiss, or pops - but the 'repaired' s-video would go out of sync with bright scenes all too often. The second unit wasn't any better in this regard, but had dropouts and loud pops when changing sources - so loud I was concerned about speaker damage. Even if I were to get another unit without audio problems, I believe the s-video sync issue is symptomatic of the entire line. I didn't buy this thing just to watch composite video.

So, I took it back today and got a full refund.

My research on what receiver to buy begins anew.

 

[Chris PC]

So you just got a full refund and walked away?? Where did you refund the unit? Thats not so bad for you right now I guess. I am looking at bringing my receiver back this weekend maybe and trying to decide what I want from there. I might see about fully refunding it, but the receiver I want is sold at the same store, so I may just trade up the difference in price for something else. Actually, the only other receiver I would buy from there is the Onkyo 797, but I'll see.

Good luck in your receiver search Chris. Are you willing to spend for, say, an Onkyo 797? Where I bought my receiver I was told I could get one for possibly (because they quoted based on the older 787 price) as low as $1700.00. Because I've had a bad experience, I may say I want a full refund unless they can give me a better price on the Onkyo. Their price is as good as I've seen, but I would never be spending that much, if the SR 6200 (which 6.1 vs the Onkyo 696) wasn't such a dog experience for me.

 

[Pete Jennings]

SR-8200. As of yet, 30 hours into ownership, NONE of the problems exist. It's not broken in yet, so...

Pete

 

[Jagan Seshadri]

What Pete? No dropouts? No short-circuits? Lucky man.

I upgraded my 5200 for a Yamaha RX-V1200 (and got a discount on the Yamaha for my troubles). While the 5200 had better powerline filtering built into its supply, the Yamaha does everything else right without _any_ glitches, and I'll take care of the powerline filtering with some ferrite clamps or something.

All is well now. Peace at last.

-JNS

 

[ChrisAG]

Jagan -

I'm considering the Yamaha. How would you compare the stereo sound compared to the Marantz? And what do you mean by powerline filtering - was there interference in the sound with the Yamaha?

Chris -

I dealt with American Sound of Canada in Richmond Hill (strange name). They weren't too bad about it - they wanted me to give it more time but I went there this morning and got a refund, no muss, no fuss. The only other receivers they carry for less than $2k is NAD, which doesn't have 6.1 or even DPL 2 yet.

The guy I deal with at Kromer quoted me about $1700 for the Onkyo 797 and $1100 for the Yamaha 1200 (I think he said 1100...)

 

[Jagan Seshadri]

ChrisAG,

I'm considering the Yamaha. How would you compare the stereo sound compared to the Marantz?

I found that the Marantz had a looser bass. Instead of making a "Bmp" sound it made a "Wumm" sound, although I'm exaggerating the difference for sake of easy comparison.

You know, I didn't consider the Yamaha's "bright" or the Marantz's "warm" before reading these oft-mentioned descriptions on this forum. But I think that the Marantz was a bit more bass-heavy, albeit slightly plodding.

As for the powerline filtering, NOBODY would ever notice this, as I have a unique situation. See, the bathroom fan at my place is on the same circuit as my electronics (grrr). When someone flicks the fan off, the inductive kick from the motor zooms down the line where it smacks my electronics upside the head. That used to reboot my computer, but a better computer power supply fixed that. My speakers make a soft "thpp" sound when the fan gets flicked off, whereas this didn't happen with the Marantz. But the Marantz had more annoying issues, and besides, I can fix the bathroom fan problem inexpensively.

By the way, the Kromer quote on the Yamaha sounds reasonable.

-JNS

 

[John Garcia]

I asked my local shop to let me come check out the 8200 when they have it all hooked up (they only have it as a static display so far DOH). I asked if they knew if the 8200 and 9200 have the same problems, but they didn't know. Even if they don't have the problem, I don't think I am willing to swing that kind of cash for the 8200.

ChrisPC - have you considered the Denon 2802? Same features, closer price than the 797. I was in the same boat when looking at the 6200, but the 696 didn't have 6.1 and the 797 wasn't available yet. The x802 lineup from Denon had just come out and the nearest comparison to the 6200/7200 looked to be the 3802 at a substantial cost difference for similar power and features, as is the 797. The 2802 has 6.1/ES decoding and 6 ch power, but the power is a little down from the 6200. If it doesn't have dropouts, maybe that would be a solution for you.

 

[Chris PC]

It might be an option but I am not sure I like the bass and treble controls on the Denon x802 series receivers.

 

[Tom Morgan]

I have a SR-7200. I have no problems. Noise is low {I also tested with test disk (Sheffield Labs "My Disk" track 41) instead of testing with sources paused}, s-video is fine, plays CD's from the panny-RP-91 without delay, has lots of power. It has a S/N 129xxxxxx8xx. I have had it since it first came out and have had no problems.

 

[Ayan]

I picked up my SR6200 on Wednesday night.

I haven't had a LOT of time to test things out with it, but this is what I have noticed so far:

1) S-Video noise - well, I'm using the composite video switching, with my Tosh1600 DVD, an RCA VCR, and a Videotron digital cable box (Scientific Atlanta Explorer 3100). I'm finding the unit to be almost unwatchable - any time there is a sharp "flash" on the screen from any of these inputs, the screen rolls/flips vertically (is that a loss of vertical hold?) Watching Prince of Egypt tonight on DVD with some friends, it was pretty embarrasing to have the picture do this 8-10 times through the movie.

2)Audio noise - haven't experienced anything glaring. I'm using an older CD player hooked up with analog cables, so maybe that's why. However, I do notice that I have to really, I mean really, crank the volume to get reasonable listening levels. With music, a "loud" level is 0db to +10db, with a DTS DVD maybe -5db to + 5db, maybe a little higher. I'm using PSB400i fronts (89db sens), PSB Alpha centre, Mission Mod70 mkII rears, Mirage BPS150i sub. The PSBs are 6ohm, dunno about the Missions. Is this consistent with the experience of others?

3) Audio drop outs - I'm experiencing this when using the digital input (ie anything I play on the DVD player), and although annoying I don't find it as aggravating as the video issue. I did notice that the DVD layer change was much more pronounced than its ever been.

Would appreciate any comments or advice.

 

[Ayan]

Oh, forgot about this problem that I haven't heard too many people mention - the sub output seems to be cutting back the loudest sounds, like the bomb explosions during the raid in Pearl Harbour.

In the thread " S&V tests the Marantz SR7200", someone mentions a "wierd dynamic limiter" on the sub out.

It definitely made the explosions a lot less satisfying... has anyone else experienced this????

 

[ChrisAG]

The S-video sync issue when there is a bright flash on the screen is SUPPOSED to have been fixed by now. You should contact your dealer about getting a newer unit, or Lenbrook (on your warranty card) for information on the fix.

I'm waiting for feedback from people with the latest units, or repaired units, to see if the video problem has truly been cured. Otherwise maybe I'll go NAD or Rotel.

By the way, can you list your serial number (but not the last four digits, to protect yourself)? If an update has been engineered into the line, it may show up as a number or letter near the beginning of the S.N.

 

[Ayan]

Hi ChrisAG,

My s/n is MZ01013600XXXX, and the model number is SR6200/U2B.

Note that my video problem has been noticed not with s-video, but with COMPOSITE (ie basic) video. Now I really want to check out the s-video to make sure that works properly!!!

Do you have any thoughts on my other concerns (ie volume, sub out)?

thanks,