Receivers: They come in all flavors and prices...

Any comparisons of the Denon 4520 to the Marantz 8801? I would be using either as a pre-pro...

Kal did a comparison of the Integra 80.3 and the new Marantz. He gave the very slight edge to the Marantz.

Making comparisons between pre pros playing movies is REALLY difficult. I have given up looking for something to replace mine (Integra 80.2) until such time as something significantly better/different comes along. Had Lexicon actually delivered their new piece, that would have caught my attention.

Some of the new higher end SSP's with new room correction are the newer wave (e.g. DiracLive on the APS20i) at $20,000. I am now playing with Dirac ($800.00)on my server and it is great for a two channel system. Trying to compare it to Audyssey (2 channel)but the jury is still out. But my preliminary (very) findings is that it is not enough of a breakthrough for HT to get me to switch SSP's.

Steve: assuming your new room is not perfect after you are finished, Dirac on your server (Mac or PC) would be the cleanest way to go. A friend just implemented it how you would and he loves it. I'm doing the same for my 2 channel listening.

Sorry for wandering OT!!

I've been using a Marantz 8003 for some time now. Absolutely no regrets. The bonus is that music sounds great through HDMi. Whether or not Marantz scheme of using dedicated HDMIs each for audio and video, I have no idea. I didn't like the what Audyssey churned out after calibration with the supplied mic. The bass was overbearing. The dealer and I ended up going old school and did the sub calibrations manually.

JackD201 said:

I've been using a Marantz 8003 for some time now. Absolutely no regrets. The bonus is that music sounds great through HDMi. Whether or not Marantz scheme of using dedicated HDMIs each for audio and video, I have no idea. I didn't like the what Audyssey churned out after calibration with the supplied mic. The bass was overbearing. The dealer and I ended up going old school and did the sub calibrations manually.

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1. The 8003 has significant limitations in applying Audyssey with HD signals.
2. Audyssey isn't as foolproof as a the user's manuals imply.

Kal Rubinson said:

1. The 8003 has significant limitations in applying Audyssey with HD signals.
2. Audyssey isn't as foolproof as a the user's manuals imply.

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Apparently so Kal. Besides, I'm not even quite sure if we got all the details of the set up right. If the world needs anything, it would be better manuals for those of us getting older. Seems like only a few years ago that I didn't even need any manuals. I'd love to know why one day you wake up and your intuition stays in dreamland.

NorthStar said:

Audioguy, your Integra DHC-80.2 pre/pro with Audyssey MultEQ XT32 and Audyssey MultEQ Pro Ready is an excellent unit.
...For Home Theater it is top-notch, IMHO. ...For music; you probably have a dedicated stereo system and separate room for that.

_____________

Jack, I know all the ins & outs of the Marantz AV8003 pre/pro. ...I don't like it, and so are others.
It only has Audyssey MultEQ, bad! ...And it has some 'flaws'. But I don't want to get into this here.
* If you're happy with it good for you, but I'm telling you this; time to upgrade!

- And if you want to know more (you might even know some I'm sure), just start a thread about it (it's a pre/pro, so it would be best in the Surround Processors section of the forums) , and I'll tell you all I know about it (perhaps stuff that you aren't even aware of, yet).
My guess is that you use it more for music than movies, then in that department it ain't that bad at all. ...But ....

Edit: While I was typing on my keyboard and submitted my entry, I just noticed Kal's post above. And he's right; with the Marantz AV8003 you don't have Audyssey with Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA! ...Just not enough 'horse power' (DSP force) to do that! [You have to use PCM] ...And no Audyssey Dynamic Volume, no Dynamic EQ, no MultEQ XT, no Audyssey DSX, ...
Also, no Volume display! ...And a buzzing sound!

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Thankfully no buzzing sounds I was shopping for a purely AV machine since the BAT VK-31 is still in the chain. So I figured, I could scrimp a bit so I passed on the better pre/pros out there. Come to think of it, the 8003 was I think the least expensive non-receiver pre/pro on the local market or at least one of the least. Video was not an issue since I wired the BDP directly to the D-ILA because there are no other video sources in that room. I thank my lucky stars I'm not a videophile too. My wife would REALLY kill me.

I'm set up full range across the front. I've got VR-4SR Mk3s, VR Vision Center - bit of a beast that center is, same drivers as the mains. Nice seamless wall of sound. My in-wall rears are a bit of a dud though. Because of the low sensitivity, you can here even the VK-6200 strain under the load. I opted for a pair of bandpass subs that are quite the bomb. Very little fiddling required since by nature there isn't much you can fiddle with with a bandpass.

You know, come to think of it, I did have an issue. Our home automations sends data through the lighting AC lines. The outlet for the projector was mistakenly included in the system. The data noise ran into the system from the HDMi! When the outlet was removes from the automation lines the buzzing was gone.

Digital hum! Weird!

NorthStar said:

Audioguy, your Integra DHC-80.2 pre/pro with Audyssey MultEQ XT32 and Audyssey MultEQ Pro Ready is an excellent unit.
...For Home Theater it is top-notch, IMHO. ...For music; you probably have a dedicated stereo system and separate room for that.

Click to expand...

Not a separate room but separate components. I do use a DAC from my Music Server into my preamp. (neither the DAC nor the preamp fall into the category of what many on this forum consider high end or even above mid-fi). The preamp is the fairly new Emotive XPS-1 which I purchased because it has an all analog bass management system which allows me to set the low and high pass filters to anything from 50hz to 250 hz. Since I require subs as part of my 2 channel listening, I am limited on the number of preamp options available. While not the equal of any $15,000 preamp, great design and engineering, Internet Direct Marketing, and Chinese manufacturing provide a reasonable combination of factors to be able to produce an amazing amount of quality for $900. I was, quite frankly, blown away on how really really good it is. It more than meets my needs: DEAD quiet, well built, great soundstage, Home Theater Pass Through and great detail (but not from high frequency manipulation), and did I say, DEAD quiet.

The DAC is also theirs. It is not the dCS Scarlatti (by a long shot), but good enough. If I find some money on the street and have nothing else to spend it on, I might consider an upgrade but probably not. I came from a DAC that was more than 10 times the price (Antelope Audio Zodiac Gold DAC + Voltikus Power supply) and I can assure you there in nowhere near 2 times the improvement (for me).

In order to not use the Integra and Audyssey (which, even for 2 channel, is still a very, very, very good piece), I installed DiracLive on my server. I have been saying this for the past 20 years: since the room is easily the largest culprit for adding "distortion" to a system, a $5000 system in a well treated room with the appropriate kind of electronic (time based) room correction can outperform systems costing orders of magnitude more that have not applied those room treatment/digital room correction options. That is not speculation as I had 10 years experience listening to both environments. The PC (and MAC) version of DiracLive may be one of the very best values in audio. The amount of improvement per dollar spent (in 98% of all rooms) would be very difficult to match. HIGHLY recommended. HIGHLY!!!

I am also running the controversial qol device for stereo. For the most part, I love what it does. The only remaining issue I have it is that it will sometimes pull an instrument or vocalist from just inside the speaker and maybe to the rear of the soundstage and place it coming from the speaker. If I can solve that with toe-in or something else, it is a keeper. If not, I would not own it for $400, much less $4000. I have worked too hard in the last 30 years to have speakers be totally transparent. So we shall see.