Marantz SR7500 First Impression and Some Questions (1 Viewer)

[Daman]

Finally i got my Marantz SR 7500 today after a week of wait. Some of you might remember my earlier post asking help on which reciever to buy. I had shortlisted to the HK 635 and the Marantz 7500. I had auditioned the HK earlier at my home and recieved the Marantz today afternoon. Set it up very excitedly. The reciever didnt look as big or feel as heavy as the HK from the first impression. Its in fact a little less in weight than even my Yamaha HTR 5790. Setup was fairly simple and i ran the auto setup and sat down with a few discs i know well.

I was very impressed with the HK i had auditioned earlier and was wondering how the Marantz would fare against it. Well i wasnt dissapointed to say the least!! First i played Eagles Hotel California DVD-A. The thing i noticed with HK was how good and clear the vocals were and how the guitars literally filled the room, Marantz exhibited almost same quality and probably a little better soundstage. In the song Pretty Maids in a Row i was able to pin point the image of guitar on the left side (somewhere between the left front speaker and the side left surround) with the HK(something which the Yamaha never did) but with the Marantz that was even more clear than the HK. Very satisfied with this i popped in LOTR Fellowship and watched a few initial shots, and to my amazement i heard a few sounds and detail which i never heard before with the Yamaha and not even the HK.It feels like a 'Veil' has been lifted from my speakers, literally speaking!!

All in all im very impressed with Marantz,i still have to set up the speaker levels with the SPL meter and im sure its performance will only improve. Though the remote of the unit is a little ugly,it serves its purpose and is more programmable than the HK 635 remote i felt.

Now coming to my gripes - The Reciever doesnt allow PL IIX on top of DTS signals????Pray Why???? When the source is DTS i cant select PL IIX and the reciever displays incompatible message.. i was able to run PL IIX over DTS both on Yamaha and the HK. Wonder why this is so in Marantz. Also am wondering if thats the case then is the Marantz putting out a 7.1 signal still or just the 5.1?? Ill really appreciate if anyone has inputs on this?

Another gripe- when i want to set the individual speaker levels it ALWAYS outputs a test tone.. damn.. how am i supposed to calibrate with my DVE?? If i calibrate with just the test tones ill miss out the factor of DVD player output. Guess ill probably switch back and forth of setting levels and checking with DVE, but thats gonna be a royal pain.

Apart from these 2 factors i totally love the Marantz and how it sounds and am gonna stick with it. My vote for best 1000$ reciever!!

 

[Kevin_F]

Thanks for the review Daman, I plan to purchase the 7500 in a couple of months. I have not listened to it yet, when I went to demo one the store only had the 5500 and I loved that. When I go to purchase, I hope they have the 7500 so I can listen to the difference between the 2. When I was comparing, I compared it to the Denon 3805 and fell in love with the Marantz as soon as I heard it.

Let us know if you find out anything good or bad about the receiver.

to Marantz

 

[Daman]

Thanks Kevin, Youll love the 7500 for sure, if you can live with some of the points i mentioned.. im pretty sure i can but its just irritating sometimes, i wonder what the guys at Marantz were thinking when i think about the 2 gripes ive mentioned above.

I have written to Marantz directly and am waiting to see their response. Will post it up here once i get it.

Another disadvantage- the circle surround 2 is applicable only to 2 channel and pcm sources, not digital. Another thing is that the 7.1 input mode(eg SACD's) is direct, i.e. you cant apply any processing on top of that, unlike that of HK where you can apply Logic 7 etc on top of the analog input.. though my Yamaha is similar to Marantz in this matter.
but again the sound quality is so exceptional that i tend to forget most of these gripes still hoping someone has answers to my queries here on the board.

 

[Kevin_F]

To be honest Daman, some of the gripes that you mentioned, I don't really understand so I am not too concerned with them. Maybe once I get the receiver and begin to play with it, but otherwise, your gripes haven't discouraged me one bit.

 

[Daman]

Aha! All the best then, because even knowing these gripes im planning to live with them
I called up the Marantz tech support guy today morning and he was a total ass as ive experienced with most of the tech support guys. He didnt even understand Why i required PL IIX on top of DTS!! And he went on hold for 5 minutes just to confirm that That didnt help much.. lets hope they reply to my email.

 

[Doug Otte]

I bought the 7400 a few months ago, and while I love it, there are 3 things that bug me slightly. You might want to see if the 7500 has the same limitations.

1) When headphones are plugged in, it automatically switches to the CD input. I wanted to compare 2channel output through the CD input vs. the 7.1 inputs to hear which sounded better, but I can't test it w/ headphones.

2) Selecting the Direct mode on an input doesn't always save it. For example, if I select Direct for the CD input, go to another input, then return to CD, it sometimes remembers the Direct, but sometimes not.

3) It sometimes runs hot. I have my electronics in a wooden armoir under the TV (no other options at this time). If I have to leave for a while, it would be nice to leave it on so it stays warmed up, but it gets so hot in there after about an hour that I'm afraid to leave it on.

These are minor quibbles, but they do sometimes annoy me.

Doug

 

[Daman]

Hey Doug,Interesting observations, ill check out the direct mode part and see how that works, maybe they have fixed it? I believe the 7400 is also 7.1 reciever right? Can you tell me what happens if you play a DTS ES 6.1 dvd? I mean in terms of signal sent to the rear back surround channels(if u have a 7.1 setup) I was trying with my LOTR dvd today and no sound at all was coming from either of the surround back channels :frowning: I tried marantz tech support and the guy there was really pathetic. Cambridge Soundworks tech guy was better but he still couldnt figure out the problem. The reciever does get hot but i havent had a chance to run it for a long period of time , ill let you know once i probably watch a movie tonight over it.

 

[John Garcia]

The x400 series had a problem with heat, and there is a fix for it supposedly (just an adjustment?). You may want to look into this Doug.

 

[grantG]

Damon, I have the 7400 also. I was just recently making some adjustments utilizing the LOTR Two Towers DVD. Now I have a 6.1 setup with just 1 rear surround back speaker and not 2 back surrounsd. I had no problem getting sound out of the back surround speaker. I will check again. Not sure if this helps you or not.

Also with regards to anyone with the 7400 that gets hot. How long do you have it on before it gets hot? I will need to check mine.

 

[Daman]

Grant, which output have you connected the rear speaker to? I mean the surround back left or surround back right? I will go home today evening and try and fiddle it with some more, i maybe missing something stupid. Have you setup the reciever with MRAC or manually? Maybe ill try resetting the reciever and doing everything from scratch

 

[grantG]

I believe it is set to the Left as instructed if only one speaker. The 7400 does not have the MCAC feature. I set mine with the RS SPL.

 

[Daman]

Thanks Grant, i finally figured out how to get over the main 2 gripes i had. Got help on how to set the individual channel signals with the dvd without the pink noise from AVS forum. Basically need to press the CH. SEL( #2) button to set individual volume levels.
Also i reset the reciever and did the whole setup again and got the signal from rear channels and also was able to scroll through the various surround modes possible by the Surr(#3) button. Thanks again to everyone here for their inputs am a happy and satisfied Marantz owner now!

 

[Kevin_F]

Glad to hear it Daman, if I run into the same problems, no I know who to contact

I will have this thread in case I have some of the same issues, hopefully I won't.

 

[Daman]

You are welcome Kevin, just drop me a pm or start a thread and ill be glad to help you out. The manual wasnt very clear about both these points so it took some help figuring them out
Cheers

 

[Doug Otte]

John & Daman,
The 7400 gets hot at seemingly different rates. If I've watched a DD movie, it sometimes barely seems warm, but sometimes after playing a 2ch CD, it's quite hot. It gets the hottest if it's been sitting in standby for an hour or two. That's probably because the heat just gets a chance to build up w/ the door closed (it's usually open when a DVD is playing), but I have the economy standby mode on, so it seems like it would generate very little heat in standby. I'll check w/ Marantz about possible solutions.

PS John helped me quite a bit when I first got the 7400 a few months ago. Nice to hear from you again, John.

Regards,
Doug

 

[JohnnyG]

I had a Harman/Kardon AVR8000 that got the bottom of the shelf 6" above it hot to the touch, so "hot" is a relative term! It would literally help to warm the basement in the winter!

 

[Daman]

Doug,
It could be possible that Marantz has fixed the heating up problem because last night i watched a whole movie and before that around 2 hours of music cd's as well as dvd-a and it didnt get hot at all. It also might help that the reciever it as the top shelf of the rack with nothing over it to prevent the cooling. You can probably check with Marantz to see if they have a fix for this? My personal experience with their tech support guy wasnt too good but i hope yours is better in case you decide to check with them regarding the heating issue.
Regards

 

[ken.LA]

I just received my SR 7500 yesterday. After some tweaking I finally got it working properly. I don't see the gripe about the remote, have you seen some of the remotes that come with other receivers? I originally ordered a Denon 2805 from Dakmart. I waited two weeks still they had not shipped my unit. I finally decided to cancel my order. I ordered the SR 7500 online although they aren't authorized Marantz dealer it was still 300 off list. They provide you with a 1 year warranty.
Anyway I am very happy with my purchase so far. It sounds much better than my Sony 30 ES

 

[Daman]

Ken, Im as happy as you are with the reciever buddy. I dont have any gripe with the remote, its just how shall i say,.. a bit bulky. Ive seen better looking Yamaha/ Harman Kardon remotes, but functionality wise this guy beats them all and kinda looks cool with the blue light.

If you read my posts correctly,my main gripe was with how poorly the manual explains the settings. I had to go over it 2-3 times to figure out a simple thing.

Anyways everything aside, i calibrated the reciever last night and boy was i blown away after that This is definetly one awesome reciever and i couldnt be happier with the purchase. Three cheers and a big thumbs up to Marantz

 

[Doug Otte]

Daman and ken, I also don't understand the complaints about the remote (the remote w/ the 7500 is the same or similar to the one w/ the 7400). I find it easy to use, and I love the screen. In fact, I had narrowed my choice down to the 7400 vs. an Integra 7.5 (I think that's the number - anyway it was also last year's model). Both seemed to have almost identical features, and were the same price, so I chose the Marantz because of the remote.

And, many others have griped about Marantz's manuals - you have to be a psychic to be able to correctly intrepret some of the info!

Doug