The Official Marantz AV7702MKII Thread!

[solarrdadd]

needing to replace my aging Onkyo 5507 pre-pro, wanting to have the ability to move into ATMOS/DTS:X as well as stepping up in quality overall, I wasn't thrilled with the latest pre-pro with those capabilities from Onkyo.

I was keeping my eye on the Marantz, not wanting to spend for their top of the line AV8802 just couldn't swing it or justify it in my apartment. however, this beast happened, the little brother to the AV8802.

Ladies & Gentlemen, I give you the AV7702MKII








I have this baby connected and calibrated into my system. I'm using XLR for the LCR & Sub with RCA for the other 8 channels. I have it connected with Cat6 to my gigabit hardwired system. I have 8 channels of RCA from my Oppo 105D going to it for audio as well as HDMI for digital video & audio. I have 2 amps connected to it, one 5 channel and one 7 channel. I also have the following connected via HDMI, HD-DVD, PS3, Xbox 360, AppleTV, HD Cable DVR and a HTPC.

so far, I can easily say that I've never owned a piece of gear of it's type so well made and performed so well. this is what it means to have high(er) end gear (to me! ). it's an upgrade that has changed the entirety of my system and all to the positive.

discrete separation of channels is incredible and Audyssey Multi EQ, XT32 has worked wonders on the quality of sound in my HT especially with how the sub now blends in even better than ever. there is a wide variety of connectivity built into this unit and yes, all the bells and whistles are included.

the crown jewel for me is the inclusion of ATMOS & DTS:X. my HT system is currently set up in a 7.1.4 configuration and let me tell you, it's changed my movie watching experience by a huge order of magnitude!

I would love to hear from other people who own this pre-amp on what they think of it, good or bad. I want to hear from people who are thinking about getting it but have questions they want answered from actual users; hopefully we can help get those questions answered.

I do want everyone to be civil, this is not a whipping thread. I have no problem if you hate Marantz or just this particular piece of their gear but be respectful and don't bring the thread down with post after post about how much you hate the brand or this pre-amp.

I want everyone to feel welcome here and have a great time. I open the thread up to your posts. I will post regularly about my experiences with this pre-amp.

so far, I can tell you, it's the best pre-amp or receiver or receiver used as a pre-amp I have ever had. I am looking to upgrade my bedroom from 5.1 to 5.1.2 and I'm already looking at a Marantz receiver solution for that. yes, I'm hooked!

[antennahead]

Great pre-amp. I have the 7702 mkI and love it! My Anthem died and I couldn't wait on the mkII. I totally agree with you on the SQ. It is so clean and transparent, and the XT32 totally tames any room anomalies. I have mine paired with Wyred4sound mAMPS; it's the best sounding system I've ever owned. Price wise I think it's a fantastic bang for the buck.

[solarrdadd]

Originally Posted by antennahead

Great pre-amp. I have the 7702 mkI and love it! My Anthem died and I couldn't wait on the mkII. I totally agree with you on the SQ. It is so clean and transparent, and the XT32 totally tames any room anomalies. I have mine paired with Wyred4sound mAMPS; it's the best sounding system I've ever owned. Price wise I think it's a fantastic bang for the buck.

That is a great testimonial for the Marantz A/V7702xxx line! I couldn't agree more with your posting. For me, I feel like I hit the big time with Marantz.

Keep'em coming buddy. I know there are more of us out there so, please do post about your experience with this pre-pro, the current or the former.

[solarrdadd]

so far, I have one minor complaint in the design/layout of the rear connections area in that there is no USB connection. there is one in the front, but it's behind the drop down door which is nice for incidental use of a thumb drive or an iphone or something. however, if you had an external HD that was full of music that you wanted to keep connected and out of sight, you are out of luck.

that was a missed opportunity Marantz. I can get around that with a network drive, but, not everyone has a NAS or a PC always on to stream music from.

like I said, it's a minor thing, but, still.........oh and by the way, I'm still loving the hell out of this thing.

[antennahead]

Originally Posted by solarrdadd

so far, I have one minor complaint in the design/layout of the rear connections area in that there is no USB connection. there is one in the front, but it's behind the drop down door which is nice for incidental use of a thumb drive or an iphone or something. however, if you had an external HD that was full of music that you wanted to keep connected and out of sight, you are out of luck.

that was a missed opportunity Marantz. I can get around that with a network drive, but, not everyone has a NAS or a PC always on to stream music from.

like I said, it's a minor thing, but, still.........oh and by the way, I'm still loving the hell out of this thing.

I'm thinking you could always plug that external hard drive into your 105 and send it to the Marantz that way..... but I agree with you, a rear USB would have been nice as well. Since we're nitpicking , I also wish the volume level inside the blue round area was bigger so you could see it from a distance, as it is, I leave my door open so I can tell what's going on. I don't use the 7702 as a HDMI switcher, preferring to send my Directv and OPPO 103 video directly to my monitor, hence no "on screen display".

[solarrdadd]

Originally Posted by antennahead

I'm thinking you could always plug that external hard drive into your 105 and send it to the Marantz that way..... but I agree with you, a rear USB would have been nice as well. Since we're nitpicking , I also wish the volume level inside the blue round area was bigger so you could see it from a distance, as it is, I leave my door open so I can tell what's going on. I don't use the 7702 as a HDMI switcher, preferring to send my Directv and OPPO 103 video directly to my monitor, hence no "on screen display".

I actually like hitting info so I can see the volume level and what's what with the signal for audio. I sit too far away from mine to see the little blue window! I have everything going into the pre-amp. I have an old tv and everything looks incredible through it especially HD CableTV. but, that's my old tv and my old eyes!

also, since you bring it up, I actually do have another grip, when you hit info, you only get info about the audio and nothing about what type of video signal you get in or are sending out. that information is buried deep in a sub, sub, sub menu and why is that? with my previous pre-amp, I just hit display once to see the audio info input and output and then again to see the video info input and output.

that's something that they can remedy with a firmware update, it's very minor. I plan on sending them my suggestion as feedback to think about.

[antennahead]

Not sure if this helps or not, but under the general information section of the owners manual I found this about the video signal info:

Video
Show the HDMI input/output signals and HDMI monitor information for
MAIN ZONE.
HDMI Signal Info.
Resolution / Color Space / Pixel Depth
HDMI Monitor 1 / HDMI Monitor 2
Interface / Resolutions

Is this feature turned on? Check out the "General" section of your menu and see.

[solarrdadd]

Originally Posted by antennahead

Not sure if this helps or not, but under the general information section of the owners manual I found this about the video signal info:

Video
Show the HDMI input/output signals and HDMI monitor information for
MAIN ZONE.
HDMI Signal Info.
Resolution / Color Space / Pixel Depth
HDMI Monitor 1 / HDMI Monitor 2
Interface / Resolutions

Is this feature turned on? Check out the "General" section of your menu and see.

I know what your talking about, but, there's nothing to "turn on". you only see that info when you go into that menu and select show, it means only when your in the menu will you see anything. problem is, it's at least several sub menus deep in the setup menu.

again, not sure why video info doesn't show up with the other info that is given when you press the info button.

on screen info.jpg
this is what you get when you press info and that's it, nothing about the video source for the given input or the output to which ever output your connected to. I figure with all that empty space on the right side of that info square, they could have posted video information, so, it's like, a waste of space that really could have been filled with useful information.

[antennahead]

I guess you can do an info on the Sony to see what resolution it's receiving, but if you are using the scaler in the Marantz you won't see what the original incoming resolution was. My Panny plasma shows what it's receiving. Wish I could be more help but I don't use the 7702 as a video switcher. That's the one area of the unit I am not very familiar with.

[mutelight]

I grew tired of waiting for Emotiva to bring the HDMI upgrade board which will still only add 1 HDMI 2.0 port and then the upgrades for Atmos and DTS-X so I pulled the trigger on one of these.

What really drew me to this processor was every port being HDMI 2.0 when I have a Shield, 4K Blu-ray and, 4K DirecTV receiver, and was tired of having to have direct runs to my TV and then optical, extra HDMI, or ARC to get it all to work. Another bonus is I can sell my Emotiva phono pre-amp.

It was supposed to arrive tomorrow but now it looks like it will arrive Tuesday due to the holiday and then shipping it late.

Nonetheless, I am really looking forward to setting this up and streamlining my main system!

[solarrdadd]

Originally Posted by mutelight

I grew tired of waiting for Emotiva to bring the HDMI upgrade board which will still only add 1 HDMI 2.0 port and then the upgrades for Atmos and DTS-X so I pulled the trigger on one of these.

What really drew me to this processor was every port being HDMI 2.0 when I have a Shield, 4K Blu-ray and, 4K DirecTV receiver, and was tired of having to have direct runs to my TV and then optical, extra HDMI, or ARC to get it all to work. Another bonus is I can sell my Emotiva phono pre-amp.

It was supposed to arrive tomorrow but now it looks like it will arrive Tuesday due to the holiday and then shipping it late.

Nonetheless, I am really looking forward to setting this up and streamlining my main system!

well congrats on your new purchase; Welcome to the Marantz Family! I can tell you that I've been nothing but thrilled with the quality of performance and build with mine. it has made everything, both video & audio shiny and new ESPECIALLY THE AUDIO!

if your going to upgrade to ATMOS/DTS:X you will need another amp and depending on the configuration either a 2, 5 or 7 channel amp. best of luck and please keep us posted.

thank you for posting in my thread!

[mutelight]

Originally Posted by solarrdadd

well congrats on your new purchase; Welcome to the Marantz Family! I can tell you that I've been nothing but thrilled with the quality of performance and build with mine. it has made everything, both video & audio shiny and new ESPECIALLY THE AUDIO!

if your going to upgrade to ATMOS/DTS:X you will need another amp and depending on the configuration either a 2, 5 or 7 channel amp. best of luck and please keep us posted.

thank you for posting in my thread!

Thanks, man!

I have been extremely happy with the sonic performance of my XMC-1 but being a gadget and technophile, I wanted all the latest features and this Marantz hits every mark.

Not going to be doing Atmos or DTS:X for some time, I just want to have something capable for when I move and decide to take the plunge. I am well aware I need more amplification since I am using all channels currently on my XPA-5 Gen 2. When I was at GDC I spent a lot of time in the Dolby booth listening to Atmos and watching HDR video (one of my company's games utilizes Atmos and it was great to see them showcasing it). The effect was really amazing however I am not really seeing any good add-on options so I will wait until I move to likely install ceiling speakers, unless some good add-ons come to market.

Just checked the shipping and UPS corrected the date so I shall receive it tomorrow! I am beyond excited and it will bring great enjoyment to the long weekend!

Question for you; are you using the video upscaling capabilities and if so how is it compared to your display's scaler? I have never had a complaint about the scaler in my display but an awesome bonus would be if the Marantz had a good one built in.

[solarrdadd]

Originally Posted by mutelight

Thanks, man!

I have been extremely happy with the sonic performance of my XMC-1 but being a gadget and technophile, I wanted all the latest features and this Marantz hits every mark.

Not going to be doing Atmos or DTS:X for some time, I just want to have something capable for when I move and decide to take the plunge. I am well aware I need more amplification since I am using all channels currently on my XPA-5 Gen 2. When I was at GDC I spent a lot of time in the Dolby booth listening to Atmos and watching HDR video (one of my company's games utilizes Atmos and it was great to see them showcasing it). The effect was really amazing however I am not really seeing any good add-on options so I will wait until I move to likely install ceiling speakers, unless some good add-ons come to market.

Just checked the shipping and UPS corrected the date so I shall receive it tomorrow! I am beyond excited and it will bring great enjoyment to the long weekend!

Question for you; are you using the video upscaling capabilities and if so how is it compared to your display's scaler? I have never had a complaint about the scaler in my display but an awesome bonus would be if the Marantz had a good one built in.

I am currently using the scaler in my SXRD TV because that is just the default of the pre-amp; I haven't changed it. it looks fine to me. the Marantz scaler is probably better than my old tech in my tv, but, I haven't tried using it. so far with the other video technology in the Marantz going to my old tv, it looks even better and that's in comparison to my old Onkyo pre-amp that the Marantz replaced.

[mutelight]

Got it all setup and I am over the moon! Even comparing my XMC-1 and the Marantz using presets and uncalibrated I can hear a difference, particularly in 5.1 content, everything sounds much more spacious.

I was also pleasantly surprised but how good the phono pre-amp in the unit sounds.

Last night I was testing using the TV's scaler vs the Marantz and while the TV has a great scaler, the Marantz appears every better from early testing!

[solarrdadd]

Outstanding! congrats on the new pre-amp! of my personal experience thus far, it does everything it says it can do and then some. keep us posted buddy!

[genkifd]

Originally Posted by mutelight

Got it all setup and I am over the moon! Even comparing my XMC-1 and the Marantz using presets and uncalibrated I can hear a difference, particularly in 5.1 content, everything sounds much more spacious.

I was also pleasantly surprised but how good the phono pre-amp in the unit sounds.

Last night I was testing using the TV's scaler vs the Marantz and while the TV has a great scaler, the Marantz appears every better from early testing!

how does it sound in regards to music?

[mutelight]

Originally Posted by genkifd

how does it sound in regards to music?

I have only had it a few days and have primarily been listening to 5.1 audio sources so it is hard to say at this point. If I had to make an early judgement, I would say the Emotiva has the edge in 2 channel but from early listening the Marantz has more exciting 5.1 performance.

[solarrdadd]

the music I have listened to on mine does sound good, really good too. for me, that's the bottom line. I will say that it has very good separation of channels, produces a large soundstage and one hellova phantom center for 2 channel music.

I just got some new digital downloads both DSD & FLAC so i'll be giving them a listen at home soon on the HT.

[solarrdadd]

just checking in to say that so far, the mkii is working without incident and it still looks great and makes everything go through it look and/or sound incredible!

[antennahead]

I've had my 7702 since November 2014 and it's working perfectly and sounds fantastic!