Marantz AV 10 - Initial Impressions (1 Viewer)

[sfyalek]

My new Marantz AV10 arrived earlier today. Fedex gave me a delivery window of 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM. Since a direct signature was required, I spent my entire morning at home waiting, [forgoing a tempting motorcycle ride] but the orange and white truck finally appeared in my driveway, around 1:50 PM.

For general balance, I typically limit my time in the HT to about 2 hours per evening, usually 5 - 7 PM. Remembering the experience I had with the Anthem AVM70 back in March, I initially decided I wouldn't have time to both setup and enjoy the AV10 today and resolved to wait until tomorrow to unbox it. Being the tech nerd and home theater degenerate I am, however, I quickly succumbed to my addiction and headed down to the HT.

I'm not going to comment on sound quality or anything of that sort just yet as I've had literally an hour or so of actual listening time and it wasn't meant to be a critical session. I'm also going to resist any urges to heap too much praise on the AV10 right away as I did that with the AVM70 [some totally deserved] and ended up ultimately not liking the overall package offered by Anthem.

Enough qualifying, here are my initial impressions thus far.
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The AV10 is double-boxed by Marantz and arrived in perfect condition. It is quite a bit heavier than the AV7702MKii it is replacing.

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The remote is elegant and a huge improvement over previous iterations.

View attachment 194141Sadly, the Audyssey mic and cheesy paper tripod have been retained. I wasn't expecting a UMIK 1 but this mic and tripod seem oddly out of place for a flagship product.
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OK - Here is the AV10 installed. Physical installation was completed in minutes but that is the case with virtually any AV processor thanks to the shelves I've recently installed. Once physical installation was complete I moved on to the part where I figured there might be trouble, the logical setup and speaker configuration.

The Marantz setup assistant in my AV7702 MKii was the best I'd seen and a large part of why I found the Anthem AVM70's menu system [despite that products many positive attributes] completely unacceptable. The AV10 improves on previous generations in every way, making logical setup an absolute pleasure. Anyone familiar with Marantz or Denon receivers/processors will have no trouble at all. I'd suspect even the unfamiliar would find the system quite intuitive and simple to follow.

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Within a little over an hour of opening the box, I had the AV10 ready for Audyssey calibration. The on-screen guide has been enhanced and includes much more comprehensive menus than before but I was able to skip though all of it, giving attention only where needed to get my system calibrated. Once started, the calibration took about 20 minutes.

After that there is an additional section of menus designed to assist in setting up the video inputs. I found these menus to be overkill as you're better off just accepting the defaults and then correcting any anomalies manually. Using the assistant here caused a few blank screens and resets which could have been avoided. I also found it odd the unit assumes it will be connected to a TV and expects an ARC/eARC device by default. I'd think most who buy the AV10 will be using projectors but I could be wrong.

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Once I got everything setup and calibrated, the unit rebooted itself and prompted me a firmware update was available. This process was seamless, taking about 9 minutes as indicated and counted down on the porthole display. By contrast, the Anthem AVM70 took about 30 minutes to complete it's firmware update and that was after nearly an hour spent trying to get it to actually complete.

These are just my initial unboxing and setup impressions of the AV10. For now, color me impressed. The build quality [minus the Audyssey components] of this unit are quite impressive indeed. Both it's weight and girth are closer to what you'd expect in a power amp, not so much a processor. It is also a very good looking unit, aesthetically. I'll be adding more here as I continue to spend time with the AV10.

Congratulations for your new beautiful AV Receiver. Last month, when I bought the Epson LS11000 projector. UPS gave me the delivery window 9am-7pm. I complained about it but that is UPS residential delivery policy. If I want specific 2 hr delivery window, I have to pay $16 extra for setting up a particular delivery window.

 

[JohnRice]

 

[JohnRice]

I had one of those "you gotta be kidding me" moments after setting up the AV10. I can't figure out why, but the "Setup" menu won't display. When I hit it, the TV says there is no hdmi input. I have to try to figure out why that is. So, I ended up adjusting those settings (speaker layout, crossovers, distances, levels) using the front display, which is inconvenient, but not impossible. Through the day, I tried several more times to get the Setup menu to display. Then, as I was looking at the app, I realized there is a "Web Control" section, and all those adjustments are in it. Has that been there with the other Marantz units I have? I don't know. I'll check another time.

I haven't watched an actual movie yet. I need to address that. At least some selected scenes.

 

[DaveF]

That’s weird. Is your AV10 HDMI out working?

 

[John Dirk]

I had one of those "you gotta be kidding me" moments after setting up the AV10. I can't figure out why, but the "Setup" menu won't display. When I hit it, the TV says there is no hdmi input. I have to try to figure out why that is. So, I ended up adjusting those settings (speaker layout, crossovers, distances, levels) using the front display, which is inconvenient, but not impossible. Through the day, I tried several more times to get the Setup menu to display. Then, as I was looking at the app, I realized there is a "Web Control" section, and all those adjustments are in it. Has that been there with the other Marantz units I have? I don't know. I'll check another time.

I haven't watched an actual movie yet. I need to address that. At least some selected scenes.

8K upscaling probably needs to be disabled, unless you have a capable display.

Browser and app control have been there since [at least] the days of my AV7702MKII.

 

[JohnRice]

That’s weird. Is your AV10 HDMI out working?

Absolutely. Everything works fine. I just can’t get the setup menu to display. As soon as I hit it, the TV complains. When I hit it again to close that menu, the picture comes back. Using the app is actually nicer, but it is puzzling.

 

[JohnRice]

8K upscaling probably needs to be disabled, unless you have a capable display.

As far as I can tell, 8K upscaling isn't even available, since I don't have an 8K display. I also tried completely disabling upscaling.

 

[JohnRice]

Browser and app control have been there since [at least] the days of my AV7702MKII.

OK, you really had me feeling like a dipshit. So I checked. Yes, the app has worked with all the units I've had for the last seven years. They do not have the "Web Control" section in the app that I was talking about. My SR7012 doesn't have it, anyway. The Cinema 60 I have in the bedroom probably does, but I never even noticed, since I've never actually used the app with that receiver. I've never tried the browser control.

 

[John Dirk]

As far as I can tell, 8K upscaling isn't even available, since I don't have an 8K display. I also tried completely disabling upscaling.

I wasn't thinking clearly when I suggested 8K upscaling might be the issue, as the assistant displays in 1080P regardless. Have you checked the "Resolution" setting of the "Monitor" output you're using? It should be set to "Auto."

 

[JohnRice]

I may or may not dig into finding where the problem is. It might be the TV. Since it appears to change resolution when you go to that menu, the TV might have a problem with it. I don't use the assistant. This is the Setup menu, which is different. Though I think you can access the assistant from that menu. It is basically the same set of menus that are in the Web Control section of the app. In fact, the app section might be nicer to work with.

 

[John Dirk]

I may or may not dig into finding where the problem is. It might be the TV. Since it appears to change resolution when you go to that menu, the TV might have a problem with it. I don't use the assistant. This is the Setup menu, which is different. Though I think you can access the assistant from that menu. It is basically the same set of menus that are in the Web Control section of the app. In fact, the app section might be nicer to work with.

Maybe we're talking about different things. The GUI [example below] is useful [but not required] for Audyssey.

 

[JohnRice]

Maybe we're talking about different things. The GUI [example below] is useful [but not required] for Audyssey.

View attachment 254172

We are talking about different things. I don’t use automated room correction. I prefer REW. The menu I’m talking about is where the adjustments from REW are entered.

 

[JohnRice]

This is the Speakers section, within the “Web Control” area of the app I’m referring to. Pretty much all the direct configuration is in that area. The other sections allow simple configuration of pretty much everything in the receiver/preamp.

 

[JohnRice]

Something I only just realized is there is no longer any delay/lip sync setting on the new units. Has that been gone for a while? I'm going from processors that are around eight years old.

 

[JohnRice]

Well... I called it. The AV20 costs $2,000 less than the AV10, just as I predicted.

The AV10 is now $8,000.

 

[DaveF]

Price hike on the AV10?

 

[JohnRice]

Price hike on the AV10?

Price went up $1,000.