Slimline AV Receiver recommendations

GSXRMovistar

GSXRMovistar

GSXRMovistar

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New living room furniture means my existing AV amp (old Sony STR unit) won't fit into the TV cabinet so perfect excuse for an upgrade.

Looking for a slimline unit and currently considering pulling the trigger on a Marantz NR1607 which seems to get good reviews, however thought I'd ask in here if anyone can recommend anything else worth considering?
 
Thanks, I've been doing a fair amount of reading and the only concerns raised is the lack of power compared to full sized amps however for the room its going in this shouldn't be a problem at all.

Next challenge is to convince the missus we need ceiling mounted ATMOS speakers. :p
 
GSXRMovistar said:
Thanks, I've been doing a fair amount of reading and the only concerns raised is the lack of power compared to full sized amps however for the room its going in this shouldn't be a problem at all.

Next challenge is to convince the missus we need ceiling mounted ATMOS speakers. :p
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Main reason I opted for the 1506, no chance of Atmos. I get plenty of oomph out of mine at 50% volume through my Monitor Audio Radius speakers. Grab the THX eclipse trailer with DTS MA HD audio, a real room shaker.
 
GSXRMovistar said:
Thanks, I've been doing a fair amount of reading and the only concerns raised is the lack of power compared to full sized amps however for the room its going in this shouldn't be a problem at all.

Next challenge is to convince the missus we need ceiling mounted ATMOS speakers. :p
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Slimine have less power, and run hotter, with less inputs.

Go for these (Monoblocs) lol

http://www.soundscapehifi.com/boulder-amplifiers.htm
 
I do wish that someone would release a narrower unit.

Short height unit is all well and good, but I've got a limited space width wise to use. Nothing out there. Could stand normal height but a few inches narrower.
 
So I have the Marantz 1607 for a while now. For a very brief time before it I used a Nad 7050 and before that I used a Marantz PM6005 for a very long time. I suppose you could say I like the Marantz sound. I generally use these amps for my PC gaming and watching/listening to various stuff while I am at my PC.

My Speakers for my pc is B&W PM1. Which has what I consider a low sensitivity. This in turns dictates what amp will work well with it more than anything else more than direct power rating because regardless oh how much power an amp has, it the low sensitivity of the speaker which pretty much negates the direct power ratings.

So the 1607 is first and foremost a slimline receiver with 50w into 7 channels @8ohms. It has most of the features of a full sized amp just not as much power or bulk.Personally I am very happy with this unit. I like the Marantz sound in general so I knew I would have no issues with it sonically wise. Sure The Pm 6005 is more musical but it lacks the features that I need in my current setup which is predominantly spotify integration and Apple airplay. I am primarily a music listener and first and foremost and while it seems paradoxical to use an avr receiver for my primary PC music listening I can only say it not as bad as I thought it would be. And for my speakers it is a much better match than the Nad 7050 which is an 800 pound amp. Nad 7050 didn't have the ability to drive my speakers. At my normal listening levels on a marantz pm 6005 the volume was set at around the nine o clock posistion on the 1607 display it is about 50 (it maxes out at 100) on the NAd it would register 0db, considering the max on nad only went to 10db while nad say it can adapt to impedance loads what it can't adapt to is a amp crushing 83db for a speaker. But also While the Nads are considered on the warmer side of neutral they are not close to the Marantz sound in terms of tonal colouration and also they have a more constricted soundstage. It is clearly defined but you can tell with a Nad where the soundstage stops precisely and it a lot less than other amps I have heard.

So while the 1607 shares more or less the same sound with all the other Marantz amps this one is not overtly warm sound sounding than say a pm6005.

It has a lot of features which I would consider useful rather than have a full size avr box and have even more features that I have no use for. Stuff like 4k passthough and upscaling. HDCP 2.2 compatability. Funnily enough it even has DSD compatiability which is the the domain of hi res music sources such as SACD which is primarily the domain of audiophiles. So all in all I think this is an excellent amp if you like the Marantz type of sound.

So what are it drawbacks. Well 50w into 7 channels is not an awful lot to work with. But you take this into consideration before buying the amp. If you want to shake your living room to it knees and have huge difficult to drive speaker boxes littered around your room then this is not the amp for you. However if you are looking for an amp which to drive speakers at more modest volume, have limited space or just want an up to date spec av reciever but not a huge hulking box dominating your tv stand then this tick most of people requirements.

Also worth noting if you like the Sony type of sound where it is very clean and bright sounding then this amp is not for you. It's a Marantz and all Marantz share the same sonic signature more or less. Which means a smooth, refined sound. I mean it has details in bucketloads but it just doesn't present it "in your face" like a sony does. And the av amp I had before this was the well regarded for its price str 1040.

Funnily enough my new speaker build has two things in common it will have a B&W speaker and more than likely a Marantz amp if I can find it. Like I said earlier I like the Marantz sound, there is another manufacturer who does it even better than Marantz and in my opinion better than any other.
 
Thanks for the feedback, the point around its difference from Sony's sound is interesting. At the moment my str da1200es is driving an ancient set of Sony Pascal speakers (sa-ve705) which are surprisingly loud for their size. These are being replaced with a set of Q-Acoustics 7000i so I'll be able to test the amp with both speakers to see the differences.
 
Q accoustics and marantz do fine., I use to run a q accoustics concept 20 speaker with a marantz pm6005,

I have also seen somewhere someone used a marantz 1607 to drive a set of B&W 802 Diamonds to suprising results. I will have to try that sometime.
 
GSXRMovistar said:
Thanks for the feedback, the point around its difference from Sony's sound is interesting. At the moment my str da1200es is driving an ancient set of Sony Pascal speakers (sa-ve705) which are surprisingly loud for their size. These are being replaced with a set of Q-Acoustics 7000i so I'll be able to test the amp with both speakers to see the differences.
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Sony speakers are 87dB sensivitity. Q Acoustics are 85dB, so for a given 1W power, your Sonys are louder.

FYI floorstanders are far more efficient than micro speakers, my speakers which are about chest high, and 50kg are 91dB sensitive. So for a given 1W, my speakers are 6dB louder, twice as loud as your Q Acoustics. So I need less power.
 
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