markyboy156
markyboy156's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 11 months ago
Joined: Oct 15 2017 - 8:47am
what is better
commsysman
commsysman's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 3 months ago
Joined: Apr 4 2006 - 11:33am

My experience is that the Marantz sounds better.

I also find that the best-sounding receivers are those made by Cambridge Audio and NAD.
Since you are using excellent speakers, I would strongly recommend a Cambridge Audio receiver in order to fully utilize their capability to sound their best.

IMO using a Crown power amy in a high-fidelity system is like entering a garbage truck in a Concours d'Elegance. It has no place in any high-fidelity system and will degrade the sound terribly.

With the excellent power amps of a Cambridge receiver, there is no need for any other power amp anyway.

markyboy156 wrote:

hi

hi can anybody tell me if anyone has tested both the marantz 7010 and denon 4300 using the dali zensor speaker package and can tell me what is the better amp for sound quality which is the better performer overall i have been told that dali speakers suit warmer amps overall so maybe more suited to the marantz partnering i was told the denons are more neutral sounding
i no i have asked many questions on this topic but i defenitly want more opions before on which amp to purchase or maybe even the denon 4400 or marantz 7011 thanks

forgot to add i will using a 11.4 using 4 pb13 ultras i have changed my subs and using a crown 102 power amp

bierfeldt
bierfeldt's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 3 weeks ago
Joined: Oct 26 2007 - 2:30pm

Cambridge receivers for music sound wonderful. For Home theater, they have made some bizarre omissions. If your primary motivation for getting this is multi-channel audio, Cambridge is undeniably the way to go. If it is home theater, I am not a fan unless your speaker placement is almost perfect to THX standards.

Excellent room correction will have a much bigger impact on home theater experience than a different amplifier. Cambridge lacks room correction altogether which is a strange choice on their part and limits its appeal. Both the Marantz and Denon have the latest and greatest room correction.

I personally like Marantz better than Denon but am a big fan of both and own products from both companies. They are made by the same company, have the same GUI, same app and very similar feature sets. The biggest difference is that Marantz is slightly warmer in its sound profile.

What sounds better with Dali is a matter of personal taste. I am unfamiliar with Dali speakers but even if I was, it would be what I like, not what you like. Order whichever one you like better from someone like Crutchfield of BestBuy and if you don't like it, you have 30 days to return in and get the other.

caphill
caphill's picture
Offline
Last seen: 5 years 8 months ago
Joined: Aug 18 2015 - 12:07am
markyboy156 wrote:

hi

hi can anybody tell me if anyone has tested both the marantz 7010 and denon 4300 using the dali zensor speaker package and can tell me what is the better amp for sound quality which is the better performer overall i have been told that dali speakers suit warmer amps overall so maybe more suited to the marantz partnering i was told the denons are more neutral sounding
i no i have asked many questions on this topic but i defenitly want more opions before on which amp to purchase or maybe even the denon 4400 or marantz 7011 thanks

forgot to add i will using a 11.4 using 4 pb13 ultras i have changed my subs and using a crown 102 power amp

I've never heard any Dali speakers before but have read good reviews on them. Again, when it comes to speaker choiced it comes down to personal preferences and musical tastes.

That being said, what's your budget on electronics? Are you pretty flexible or do you have to get an av receiver? If you have higher budget I would recommend to get a separate stereo integrated amp that has a HT bypass or passthrough and an av receiver for strictly home theater (surround sound movies). And you can use the stereo integrated amp for listening to stereo music only. A good quality stereo integrated amp would sound better than any av receiver.
Rotel, Rega, Musical Fidelity, Roksan, Cyrus, Parasound Halo make really good sounding and musical sounding integrated amp.

And you can run a pair of analog audio interconnects (xlr or rca) out of your av receiver's preamp out for front L&R channels only to an aux analog audio input or a HT bypass or HT passthrough analog audio input on the stereo integrated amp.

I will highly recommend the following stereo integrated amp :
* Rotel RA-1592 ($2500). This is Rotel's flagship integrated amp. It sounded excellent, very musical esp for the money.
* Parasound Halo Integrated ($2500). Very good andthe sound is very resolved. Although imo the Rotel RA-1592 is better.
* Musical Fidelity M5i ($2k). Awesome integrated amp.
* Musical Fidelity M6i (!3k). Very good and very musical and has lots of power.
* Rega Elicit-r. ($3k). Very sweet and very musical. This is probably one of my favorite integrated amp for under $4k or $5k but does not have as much power as the Musical Fidelity M6i or M5i or the Rotel RA-1592 or the Parasound Halo Integrated. This would be my first choice and my 2nd choice would be the Rotel RA-1592 ($2500) or the MF M5i or M6i.

And as for your av receiver choice I would highly consider either the Anthem MRX1120 receiver or the Arcam AVR550 receiver or the new Marantz SR8012 receiver. You can use the receiver strictly for home theater or surround sound movies only.

The Anthem is equipped with ARC (Anthem Room Correction) which is very very effective....much better than any Audyssey or most room calibration softwares. The Arcam is equipped with Dirac Live room correction which is also phenomenal and is probably comparable with ARC. The new Marantz SR8012 is equipped with Audyssey Advanced Pro.

With this hybrid 2ch and HT (multi-channels) you get the best of both worlds.

However, if you have lower budget I would suggest that you get a really good sounding receiver for both 2ch music and home theater (surround sound movies). I will recommend the following av receivers:

* Rotel RAP-1582 ($4k). This is a Rotel's flagship av receiver and is probably one of the best performing or sounding av receiver especially for 2ch music. It lacks am/fm tuner or any radio apps and lacks any built-in streaming apps. Basically this receiver is pretty bare bone and lacks bells & whistles found in those lower end Japanese av receivers. No auto room correction software but Rotel provides manual PEQ calibration instead and requires a thorough knowledge and understanding on how to implement its manual PEQ. Your Rotel dealer should be able to come to your place to perform manual calibration for you. I wouldn't mess around with its manual PEQ if you don't know what you're doing. But there's a flaw with this receiver or any Rotel av receivers or av preamp processors and I feel that I will have to warn you about this flaw and it has nothing to do with its sound quality but it's more of its hdmi switching board and firmware or software glitch. It is pretty buggy. But as far as sonic qualities I will give this RAP-1582 receiver two thumbs up. It isn't cheap. The amp section is phenomenal for an av receiver standard. It's rated at 2x150 wpc with two channels driven and 100 wpc with all channels driven into 8 ohms and are measured at very low distortion levels. And these are pure raw clean power I'm talking about and unlike those lower end Japanese av receivers eg Denon Marantz Onkyo/Integra Pioneer Yamaha etc.

* NAD T787 ($4k). Sonically it is probably comparable with the Rotel RAP-1582 receiver. And all NAD av receivers and av pre pros are also buggy just like the Rotel. Their hdmi switching boards are annoying. But this unit performs really well sonically esp for 2ch music. Is equipped with Audyssey auto room correction.

* Arcam AVR550 ($3k). Very good sounding for both music and movies and is equipped with Dirac Live auto room EQ.

* Anthem MRX 1120 ($3500). Its ARC is really good.

* Cambridge Audio CXR200 receiver. Very good sounding and musical. But lacks any room EQ correction. Great for 2ch music and might be difficult to set up for surround sound for movies or HT.

* Marantz SR8012 ($3k). This is a brand new receiver from Marantz and is scheduled to be released in Feb. The specs are very assuring esp for movies or home theater. Equipped with Audyssey Advanced Pro,
This is the most well featured av receiver of all the ones I mentioned above. Loaded with bells & whistles but I always found Japanese av receivers or pre pros are good for movies or HT but not so for 2ch music.

Log in or register to post comments
-->
  • X