Finally upgrading my receiver

[Tracy Rainwater]

Nothing wrong with an unpacking photo.
I didn't realize it was one of their slimline receivers. You have a lot of placement option with them.

[cpaluda]

Nothing wrong with an unpacking photo.
I didn't realize it was one of their slimline receivers. You have a lot of placement option with them.

Yeah one thing that drew me to that model (other than their SR5010 full height being out of the price range for now) was the size. Looking in the store I wasn't sure the newer full height receivers would fit the space I have right now as I never got around to building a new entertainment center with my Dad. They all looked taller than my old Yamaha. Although looking at specs online it looks like yes they are taller but would barely squeeze in. Wouldn't leave much room for airflow or the wi-fi antennas on the back. The slimline Marantz will fit no problems with the antennas up. One of these days I'll get that new entertainment unit built and it won't be an issue. The Ikea thing I'm still using has about a 7" opening height for the equipment shelf below the top where the TV goes and there's about an inch of airspace above that between the front and back frame pieces.

I'll post a side by side of the old and new tonight when I get home and set it up along with some finished install pics. I didn't get it put in last night because Best Buy was a bunch of jerks. We bought it with my wife's account, I guess she never got her maiden name changed on the rewards account, and so even though I had the original receipt because our last names didn't match they wouldn't release it to me. So it didn't come home until late when she got off work and picked it up on her way home. I really wanted to set it up anyway, but I'd have been up way too late then had no time to enjoy it for a bit after.

[cpaluda]

Ok, finally got everything set up. Pretty impressed. The Audyssey setup seems pretty accurate with the measurements it picked up (distances) and levels. The one thing I thought was odd was that it set my center and surrounds to 90Hz crossovers which is definitely correct, but set my fronts (which are the same speakers) to 150Hz, then the sub at 120Hz obviously leaving a gap in the front L/R's. Not sure as to why it set the crossover so high I manually lowered it to 110 so it was at least below the sub's crossover point but I wasn't sure if I should lower it all the way to the correct 90Hz. Anyway so I said I'd get pics, so here's a few of the new vs. old and the setup which is just our living room with a kitchen to one side.

New Marantz vs. the old Yamaha from like 2002 (or earlier? I don't remember now) My wife didn't want to be in the picture so that's why I'm down so low



Sure do save a lot of wiring going to HDMI lol



Rears



Front



All installed and ready to run the setup

[Tracy Rainwater]

Your photos aren't showing up for some reason. PM me if you need assistance getting them inserted in your post.

As for Audyssey settings, it has set my crossover points a little different than I would have thought. Sometimes I go in and manually make a change or two.

As for airspace, Marantz AVRs don't typically run as hot as others but better safe than sorry. I know David Vaughn and others here use cooling fans for a little extra insurance. I really need to get one for our family room system. I have an older Denon in there now which runs cool. Previously, I had an Onkyo in there which ran really hot. Despite having airspace around it, it cooked the HDMI board which luckily Onkyo repaired out of the warranty period.

[mrhookup]

FYI, DTS X is the coolest one out there right now. Check out what it does. IMHO, I like it better then Dolby Atmos. But, then again, I've always liked DTS better anyway. Let us know how you like your new Marantz.

[cpaluda]

Ok photos fixed.

[Tracy Rainwater]

Looking good. Now you can move that Yamaha into the garage or basement for some tunes while you do manly things, like use power tools...

[cpaluda]

Looking good. Now you can move that Yamaha into the garage or basement for some tunes while you do manly things, like use power tools...

It's actually going to my brother in law. Apparently his is so old it's only 3 or 4 channels from what my wife told me the other day.

[cpaluda]

FYI, DTS X is the coolest one out there right now. Check out what it does. IMHO, I like it better then Dolby Atmos. But, then again, I've always liked DTS better anyway. Let us know how you like your new Marantz.

Yeah I'm interested to check that out when movies with it start showing up. I know Atmos requires the upfiring atmos speakers to work (on my Marantz at least) but there is speculation on whether DTS X on it will be enabled if just a 5.1 setup is available. I'd like to add height or Atmos type speakers to my system though. My room isn't great for configuration, but as you can see in my pics I definitely have room to add some height speakers in and my receiver supports both 7.1 and 5.1.2 (well, it's listed as 7.2 but the sub outputs are internally just split off one signal)

[cpaluda]

So it looks like what I was thinking of was Pro Logic IIz and it seems like it's not very good from some reviews I read. Sounds like what I would want to focus on would be Atmos speakers for sure and I'm guessing it's possibly safe to assume DTS X would be able to use them. I found this page Understanding surround sound formats at Crutchfield that seems to do a good job explaining the various Dolby and DTS formats.