Should I sell my 2-day old Marantz CD5004?

[captrajesh]

I prefer not to deal with some controversial posts on this thread.

@OP, your question is

Should I sell my 2-day old Marantz CD5004?

IMHO, you should not take a hasty decision. If I were you, I'd:

1. Let the CDP burn in for at least 50 hours.

2. Try various permutations and combinations.

3. Try with other equipments (read amps, especially Stereo Amps)

Then decide. I'm saying this because, what you have observed appears to be highly unusual.

 

[deepakgang]

I also suggest to continuously play the CDP and burn in the interconnects etc. Two days probably mean you have used it only for few hours. Give it a nice run and then lets know

 

[spirovious]

spiro - did you find yamaha's bright? did you get a chance to compare with similarly priced avrs from other brands?

Oh GOD,so you didnt read my view in detail?
Here you go-
http://www.hifivision.com/av-lounge/16258-post-your-av-audition-demo-here.html
http://www.hifivision.com/av-lounge/16258-post-your-av-audition-demo-here-2.html

Now Yamaha is not Bright with Tannoy after few days of usage.Its neutral.

 

[s_sachin]

sorry wrong post

 

[Santy]

Two things... You need to get good ICs and allow the DAC inside CDP too burn in adequately. Believe me the sound quality might improve drastically..

BTW your post is getting lot of attention coz what you believe you have experienced is arguably atypical... :d

Sent from my GT-I9001 using Tapatalk

 

[BLASTO]

Should I sell my 2-day old Marantz CD5004?

You should buy a 2 channel amp instead.

 

[Krish82]

Interesting Topic here, I dont know about CDP, But my Mp3's / Cds sound lot better when i play it in my samsung DVD player using optical rather than my computers sound card. I feel the channel seperation is more and sound is more broader. Now you may ask that since you are using optical both the sources may use my Onkyo's DAC. But i have felt it lot many times that sound is cleaner through the DVD player. So check out if there are some internal settings in the BDP player that is boosting some frequencies. By the way what model BDP is it?

 

[manoj.p]

Your Onkyo 609 has Burr Brown 24 bit DAC, which are quite higher end. I am not surprised that you are finding the difference with Marantz very minimal. Although, the Marantz should be sounding similar as well. To compare, I suggest you do following.

• Run the Onkyo in Pure Direct mode. This will turn off all the processing done by Onkyo and it will run strictly as an amp. No Audessey, No THX processing or any other thing.
• Set the Onkyo for pure direct for sony player as well. No processing. The only thing that Onkyo is doing DAC and then passing on to its amp section.
• Connect the analog outputs from the Marantz to Onkyo. Make sure to do level matching before you play, so that the loudness level with Marantz is same as the sony Bluray player. Many times, if one source is louder than other, it makes one believe that its a superior quality.
• Play the music and compare. You can play the same music through Sony player and marantz and do a/b comparison.

There could be one more explanation why Onkyo may be sounding better. How is the Onkyo setup done for Sony bluray player? Are you doing any THX/Audessey/Dolby Pro-logic processing? Anything like Dynamic volume etc turned on? These processing changes some of the frequencies and that can make it sound different. Audessey does the room correction and helps quite a bit with left right imaging and takes care of some of the room modes (although the 609 has very limited implementation). All these can make it sound it better and that could be the difference.

If you do the comparison above, that takes the processing out of question and you are comparing DAC of Marantz vs Onkyo. After comparison, go with what sounds right to you. Don't believe us telling what to hear and what should sound good to you.

Marantz brand is owned by the same company which owns Denon. Many people frown upon the Denon receivers. But when those are marketed as Marantz receivers, they are now quite higher end. Perception has a very big role in Audio industry and affects our hearing a lot.

 

[vraned]

Thanks for all the responses and thoughts folks. Appreciate it.

One question: why do some of you find my experience unusual/atypical? Have you listened to music in a similar setup and found it to be bad?

If I were to take an "audience poll" (a la KBC), then:

1. Trying it out with a dedicated stereo amp and comparing it with my BDP-HDMI-AVR seems to be the way to go.
2. run it in for about 50-100 hrs
3. Use analog out from the CDP to AVR and try the pure direct mode

While I do hear strong opinions about AVRs being lousy for stereo etc., the stereo SQ from the setup I have (BDP-HDMI-Onkyo 609) ain't bad at all. I haven't heard all AVRs that are around in the world to make a judgement, but can only speak about my setup. In fact, some of my friends who have Rotel/Krell/B&W setup were very surprised with the SQ using the AVR/BDP combo. That said, if a dedicated stereo amp is going to knock the socks off the current SQ, then its definitely worth a shot.

While the thought of selling it did cross my mind, I don't intend to (atleast at this point) since its a very good CDP. I however used that thought to create a catchy thread name

Thanks

 

[mbhangui]

I also suggest to continuously play the CDP and burn in the interconnects etc. Two days probably mean you have used it only for few hours. Give it a nice run and then lets know

How can you burn in interconnects? There are no moving parts. Just plain simple metallic conductors. Just by passing electricity can we change the properties of metals permanently and that too towards betterment of audio quality? After burn-in does the resistance of the interconnect change? I can understand burn in of speakers (moving parts) and electrolytic capacitors (liquid dielectric). But if there is some physics involved in burn-in of interconnects (pure conductors), can someone throw some light on this?

I am asking this question simply from an academic point of interest and I ask because I find too many posts talking about burn-in of almost every component in the audio chain and to me it veers a bit towards towards snake oil

 

[srinisundar]

How can you burn in interconnects? There are no moving parts. Just plain simple metallic conductors. Just by passing electricity can we change the properties of metals permanently and that too towards betterment of audio quality? After burn-in does the resistance of the interconnect change? I can understand burn in of speakers (moving parts) and electrolytic capacitors (liquid dielectric). But if there is some physics involved in burn-in of interconnects (pure conductors), can someone throw some light on this?

I am asking this question simply from an academic point of interest and I ask because I find too many posts talking about burn-in of almost every component in the audio chain and to me it veers a bit towards towards snake oil

You can read the below links

Cardas Audio

AudiogoN Forums: Interconnect and Speaker Cable Burn In

Take Five Audio - Canada's Online Source For DIY Audio, Parts and Accessories - Cable burn-in

Cable Cooker Burn-in

 

[manoj.p]

I had heard about cable massaging but a cable cooker? That's hilarious! Thanks for a good chuckle..

 

[avidyarthy]

^^ Kinda justification for asking upwards of Rs.5000/m or Rs.1000/IC .. .... for something costing peanuts in mass manufacture. Just the ploy WE use on a daily basis to sell 'our' wares to the brand conscious ... huh.

In Punjabi it is called "chonchlebaazi".

 

[jaudere]

Can someone explain optimization of analogue circuitry for music vs movies. What exactly is different in the amplification?
I changed from a Yamaha avr to marantz stereo amp. I liked the change but i think it was due to different sound signature of the two components rather than avr vs stereo amp.

@OP: I thought that after discussion in the 'Puerile question thread' you would at least try a cdp before buying. But alas, people (including myself) always learn it the harder way.
So if the Sony bdp is working great for your room, use it. But dont throw away the CDP. The depreciation will a
be unjustified. Instead use it to build stereo set up for another room.

 

[vraned]

Jaudere,

Yes, I did audition the CDP before buying it, but had already made up my mind to buy it Yeah, some of us are suckers for good equipment...

Building a stereo setup in another room is a fall back option anyway....

As the next step, I will try out those options mentioned in my earlier post, the first of which being comparing my BDP-HDMI-AVR SQ output to a CDP-Analog-Stereo amp. Will update for sure.

@OP: I thought that after discussion in the 'Puerile question thread' you would at least try a cdp before buying. But alas, people (including myself) always learn it the harder way.
So if the Sony bdp is working great for your room, use it. But dont throw away the CDP. The depreciation will a
be unjustified. Instead use it to build stereo set up for another room.

 

[Hiten]

Can someone explain optimization of analogue circuitry for music vs movies.

Though I am technically illiterate still I will try to explain. There is no way a 100W per channel seven channel amplifier can be enclosed in such a small avr enclosure. for example here is a pic of Rod elliot's audiophile class AB Amplifier which is much loved by Hifi enthusiasts.

What exactly is different in the amplification?

To make the AVR a seven channel 100w unit they use digital amplification which too is very hard to implement. No wonder Audio gurus (Sir Nelson Pass ? I dont remember) says you should by an amplifier by its weight.
Regards

 

[sachin_k5]

Strange, I recently upgraded from a sony dvdp to a dedicated cdp and can hear the difference.

At a friends place who has a sony avr and floorstanders, the music is surprisingly good to hear initially, somehow the avr creates a very different sound effect let say a 'wide' sound with good treble and bass, which is great for get-togethers and back ground music etc. But when you start listening intensely i realised the details are missing. The AVR does some electronic processing.

Listen to the vocals, background instruments, and instrument clarity. Is there a difference in those ?
Did you buy the CD5004 with bill and warranty ?

 

[srinisundar]

I had heard about cable massaging but a cable cooker? That's hilarious! Thanks for a good chuckle..

^^ Kinda justification for asking upwards of Rs.5000/m or Rs.1000/IC .. .... for something costing peanuts in mass manufacture. Just the ploy WE use on a daily basis to sell 'our' wares to the brand conscious ... huh.

In Punjabi it is called "chonchlebaazi".

Whether IC's are getting burned or cooked, with this kind of experiment we will get cooked by our wife daily

 

[avidyarthy]

Cooked by wifey? .....

Mits 4900 | AVR 7002|Jamo|Music hall a25.2|Creek Evo|Thiel CS1.6|Vincent SP-996 |Epos5i|Paradigm Titan|PS3|Samsung BD6800|Toshibha HD-A3|PCH A-200 & Dune BD Prime 3.0|8TB WD NAS |PN50C6500 |

........ does'nt look it for you, at least! The above looks more like an audio warehouse to me. When may I start shopping ... from it?

 

[mbhangui]

Whether IC's are getting burned or cooked, with this kind of experiment we will get cooked by our wife daily

What you are describing is a hubby cooker. It burns-in the toughest husband. Depending on the quality of the hubby, the burn-in period varies, after which the hubby starts sounding sweet and warm and starts singing to wifey's tunes with hi-fidelity and without any distortion.