advice on next receiver upgrade

[Feral]

Hi Guys,

I've seen discussions that a separate stereo amp will trump a expensive AV Receiver but i'm not exactly high end so there must be some middle ground where the AVR performance is acceptable. I'd appreciate some opinions to help me decide the way forward.

Current set up is in my sig, I'm running 5.1.2 and had the Q7000i for surrounds. Fine for the old housebut the new room is much bigger and open plan. I've repurposed my stereo L & R into the surround set up and bought a matching centre so the Q7000s are just running RL & RR.

I'd like to run 5.1.4 and I've been looking at the Denon 4400H, I can't see me going down the 7.1.4 route with no walls and I sank all the wiring as part of the refurb and have 2 more cable runs for the 2 extra ceiling speakers but back to the point.

I've tried playing music through the shield and AVR as amp and not happy with the SQ. i've not yet put the SM6 audio outs directly into the AVR and tried to play the music via the SM6 but....would you expect the 4400H to give a similar performance to the CA640A if it's running in 2 channel mode? This would give me one less box to play with.

 

[newlash09]

I used the q7000i with a marantz sr6011 in a 5.1 setup. And it sounded awesome both for music and movies. My room was 11x17ft and I never felt a lack of scale or volume.

And when I shifted to my present place, I replaced the LR q7000i with the concept 40's. Whichever is actually a step backward in sound quality forward me. I either had to use the concept 40's somewhere or sell them as per my better half. So shoved them in my HT.

Honestly I could still sell the concept 40's anyday, and replace them with the q7000i L&R and not consider it a step backwards.

So if your room is of a similar size to mine, you probably can try pairing with a marantz SR 6011 or 7011 and see what you think. I expect you will be happy.

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

+1

I'm spoilt and biased because my last "proper stereo" was an all Cyrus affair with ProAc Studio 140 speakers. Must have cost me £10,000. For more affordable end stuff the difference between AVRs and "proper stereo" amps will be much much less noticeable.

The Marantz 6011, 7011 or the newer -012 models would be excellent choices. Just depends on your budget and don't get fooled into thinking the extra few watts of the 701? will be discernable. It won't be.

 

[Feral]

Apologies for the delayed response, not been online.

Now that Denon and Marantz are the same company is there much difference between the brands as the seem to share the same core functionality, same room correction technology?

I'm going to have a futher play with the setting and put my SM6 directly into the AVR for testing. I'll have to update regardless for 7.1.4 but more a question as to whether the extra channels are worth the investment. Suspect i'll end up auditioning both.

Cheers

 

[Frank Harvey]

Both the Marantz and Denon would be excellent choices. As you say they are similar now so they share a lot of technology which is mainly the processing and functionality for example Heos. It would go more down to personal choice and a demo to compare the two would be recommended.

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

.... Which fascia (knobs on the front), remote and cell phone app you prefer will probably sway your choice more than any perceivable difference in sound.