Marantz DV-8300 in the house (1 Viewer)

[Scott Pierson]

Hmmm.....

Good idea, but I think the Oulaw bass management will be superior to the Marantz bass management settings, and it will be a very different sound (like it was with my Sony before I got the ICBM), therefore, i suspect it will be tougher for me to hear through that radical difference to get to the subtle details.

If I have time I may try it, though. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[ManojM]

Interesting, I have been following the threads of the 8300, with the different observations. I have been holding back a bit on them as I did not want to reveal too much of the review in the magazine, but this review comes out this week anyway, so please allow me to put in my 2 sheckels. I have had the 8300 for about 2 months now, and I was listening to the 8300 tonight with a couple of SACDs, using a Classe CAV-150 amp, and Nautilus 804/805/HTM2 speakers, through a Sunfire processor , and I cannot bring myself to describe the 8300 as having a harsh sound. Although the Nautilus speakers are revealing, perhaps the smooth and slightly recessed top end of the Classe amp is ensuring a lack of harshness in my system. I have never compared the RP91 to the 8300 directly, but I have found the Kenwood 5700 I have to be superior to the RP91 for DVD-A, and the 8300 to be as good as the Kenwood for DVD-A. In fact, I believe that the 8300 is a bit better at DVD-A than at SACD. I actually also like it for CDs, I had here at the same time as the Krell DVD Standard, and although that was phenomenal at 2 channel, the Marantz sounded pretty good too (good enough that although I lost something for two channel when the Krell left it wasn't enough to make me feel bad), and signficantly better than the DACs in the Sunfire. In my opinion, this really is a pretty nice player, and although the video section is not one of my favorites, throw a $500 Philips 962 for video together with it, and you have quite a setup for about $2000.
As for bass management, the Outlaw ICBM is reputedly much superior to any player based solution, and is probably the best solution for those worried about it, or perhaps one can elect to just spend the extra money on full range speakers for the rears...
Interestingly enough, Marantz tells me that this player is selling so well that they cannot keep it in stock, and they haven't even been able to keep a couple of units around to play with for themselves...
Anyway, hope this info helps...

 

[Scott Pierson]

Thanks for the info, Manoj,
I am just puzzled at the differences in the sound I heard in two listening sessions, and am wondering which will prove to be the anomaly. I am going to hang on to this player a bit longer and see what happens with some more listening.
One further investigation about the Marantz speaker distance settings. As I had a SACD playing, I was checking out the setup menu. I navigated to the distance settings and changed them around at random. The audio signal dropped out for an instant at each change--if the setting truly is bypassed for SACD, why would a change in setting interrupt the signal? I put some pretty random numbers in the settings for all the speakers to see if I could tell a difference right away, but I can't swear that I could hear that anything changed--by the time I did this my wife was home and my 18 month old toddler was crawling on me on the couch and trying to grab the remote---doesn't make for serious concentrated (or even half-way serious) listening.
Jury's still out on this for me.

 

[Doug_B]

Scott,

My suggestion to remove the ICBM was merely for test purposes to provide additional data supporting your assertion that the ICBM interaction with the 8300's different speaker distance settings was causing unusual results. As long as you have an 8300 configuration that works fine with the ICBM in place, by all means make use of it.

Interestingly enough, Marantz tells me that this player is selling so well that they cannot keep it in stock,

My favorite dealer has yet to receive any 8300s. Can this be part of the explanation?

Doug

 

[Scott Pierson]

Hi Doug.
I understood what you meant. But I remember how drastic a change adding the ICBM was to the Sony (for the better), and I was just thinking out loud about whether that might hinder my ability to hear the effects of the (possible) delay through the bigger difference in quality caused by the bass management change.
But I think I will try your suggestion this weekend.
As to the fact that your dealer hasn't gotten them yet... my dealer had not gotten them either. I just knew I wanted to try the player so he ordered one for me. It was backordered from Marantz for about three weeks before he got delivery, so I would presume that they might be filling customer orders first before shipping dealer stock.
Take care.

 

[Scott Pierson]

Hello, all.

It's been a while since my initial reports, so I thought it would be a good time for an update.

I am more and more taken with the sound of this machine. In further listening, I think it compares very favorably as being on par with my Sony 555 ES on SACD. DVD Audio sounds good, too (but again, I am flying blind here), and what I have also discovered, thanks to suggestions previously in this thread, is that I prefer the 8300 DACs for redbook CDs to my Ref 30. It is a touch warmer, and the soundstage has a bit more depth. (These aren't night and day differences by any means, but it is noticeable on direct comparison.) When listening to CDs on the Marantz, it runs through the ICBM, and into the 5.1 input on the B&K, bypassing the B&K's crossover and DAC, just like SACD--the crossover settings on the Outlaw are identical to the settings in the B&K, so I don't think that's a factor in the warmer sound.

Perhaps my initial negative impressions were a result of the machine not being quite burned-in enough. I don't know, but I have not been able to replicate the faults I found at first.

It is interesting that so many people seem to be writing this player off because of the chroma bug (and maybe the price--something I didn't feel too much because my dealer gave me a great price on this unit since I dropped a few dimes on the projector and screen and some other toys at his store this summer)--I have yet to see it. Of course, I've been listening to this player more than watching it--and my current video set-up is a 27" Sony Wega--perhaps not the best for noticing the bug--and I have not watched anything that would lend itself to showing it.

So far the picture seems terrific on the few movies I have watched, easily surpassing my Sony carousel. I may feel differently when I get the upstairs theater finished and hook this up to the front projector and watch something on a big screen. But if I do, I think at this point that I am likely to get a dedicated DVD player with better video and keep this for audio, rather than keep seeking the holy grail of a single all-around player.

Also, to me it makes more sense to have a video player plus an audio player, as opposed to a DVD-Audio-video player plus a SACD player, since I only need one set of 5.1 inputs for the audio stuff, and can run a separate video player through a digital input on the B&K.

Take care!

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Any phase anomalies would only be at or near the crossover point (80 Hz or whatever you have it set to), which is pretty far down compared to where most of the content of music would be... I don't think the harshness you heard could be attributed to that.

 

[John Beavers]

Scott,

I wish you and I lived closer, I'd love to bring over my Marantz 8260 to do a side by side comparison with the 8300. I considered the 8300, but I was most interested in SACD sound quality, and I figured a dedicated SACD/CD player would be the better choice. The salesman did tell me that the only difference between the two players was that the 8300 added video processing (which in general is not the optimum choice for an audio player.) After about 30 hours of use the 8260 has proven to be a very significant improvement over the Sony 9000ES in terms of both SACD and CD playback.

 

[Phil A]

John, the 8260 and 8300 do not use identical DACs.

 

[Brian Fitterman]

The 8260 is an upgrade from the 8300 in terms of Audio Performance (according to Marantz, I have never demo'd the 8260).

 

[Scott Pierson]

Kevin--
If you were responding to my latest post, I did not mean that running the Marantz through the ICBM vs the B&K for redbook cd would account for the harshness I heard in my earliest listeining session. I was trying to say that the "warmer sound" I heard through the Marantz was probably not due to a difference in the crossover settings (i.e. more bass through the ICBM), etc. Neither listening set-up sounds harsh. Indeed, I have not heard the harshness I discribed since that first sesssion.
And remember, "harshness" was, even then, a very loose term. At that point, I was trying to account for what sounded like phase anamolies putting sort of a slightly brighter spin on the sound in some very specific areas. I had changed the speaker distance setting on the Marantz and it seemed to clear up what I heard. I now suspect that it had more to do with the additional week of burn-in time between the two listening sessions.
Hope that clarifies my confusing writing.
Scott

 

[Yumbo]

does it have a screensaver?

 

[Scott Pierson]

Yes.

 

[Yumbo]

Scott,

THANK YOU.

anything else I need to know?

am ordering today from Australia for $1,600.
Onkyo isn't available multi-region.

and I need an SACD player with a screensaver and squeezer (4:3 titles).

 

[Yumbo]

are there any firmware uprgades or workarounds necessary for this player?

thanks again.