Hi guys, Newbie here. I have a Onkyo TX-sr700 (100 watts per) with NHT ST4's up front with SC2 center and some SB1's for rears with a velodyne sub. It sounds decent but it seems the ST4's are power hungry and i find im not getting the power i want and when i do crank it the onkyo has that lovely protect mode that shuts it down. My question is would the Marantz SR8400 that everybody's been touting would be an actual upgrade or not? Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Most definitely an upgrade! Onkyo is notorious for inflating its power ratings, Marantz (along with Harman Kardon and Denon) is not. Ah yes, that infamous Onkyo protect mode is also something you'll be blissfully free of with the 8400.
Have to agree with Edster, ditch the Onkyo,buy an HK,Marantz,Denon,NAD,Rotel,Pioneer "Elite" or Arcam. I would not consider anything else, Because all of the above have decent power supplies, and this is the most important consideration when buying an AV receiver. Onkyo has a good bit of current limiting in their amplifier sections in their receivers and most of them will have trouble with speakers that dip into low impedences or at least sound "thin" with such a speaker. The only Onkyo that will not have trouble is the flagship model the TRX1000, which has a very robust power supply. This receiver however, costs $4K U.S.D., at that price seperates can be had. E.Ramsey
mark edwin
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Posted on
Hey guys, Just got my Marantz 8400 up and running and sounds pretty impressive. But it also has a protect mode like my Onkyo tx-sr700 that i replaced it with. I put in the Digitally remastered AC/DC Highway to Hell that always shut down my Onkyo and sure enough i cranked it pretty good and it shut down also. Only diff is that the Marantz came back on by it self and the Onkyo has to be turned back on. Dont know if its just that CD or what. The marantz does get pretty toasty after running it like the onkyo did also. Anyways it does have alot more features so i guess im keeping it. $510 at Ubid.
Mark you have three options: a) Don't play the music quite so loud. b) Get more power, a 200wpc external stereo amplifier should do nicely assuming you're listening in stereo? If you go this route I'd recommend an NAD amplifier with the soft clipping switch. If you're not listening in stereo I'd recommend selling the Marantz and moving up to a heavyweight like the Carver c1000a which can be had on eBay for roughly $800. c) Get more efficient speakers.
mark edwin
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Posted on
Thanks smitty, Yup i like to listen to it loud, and like it in 5.1 so i guess the ext. amp wont help. My speakers are all NHT's with a velodyne sub. The ST4's im using for mains must not be very efficient but everything else i think are solid, super center 2 and SB1's for surrounds.
Mark, you could still go the external amp route but a 200wpc x 5 amp will be a lot more expensive than a stereo amp. Since you have a sub you may want to try setting all speakers to 'small' or a crossover of 60 or 80 Hz (even if they're rated down to 30-40Hz or so) that should take some of the load off the receiver.
No matter what you do though, it's still going to be a far cry from listening to AC/DC live in concert
Good God man, just how loud (db-wise) did you turn up that 8400? I sometimes will blast music too but never came anywhere close to flipping out my humble 5400!
You must have eardrums of steel, I'm in awe of you...
"Highway to Hell" is also one of my favorite all-time AC/DC albums, narrowly ahead of "Back in Black" of course.
PS. A really good 2-channel amp just might change your preference for 5.1 sound, see my other thread "Holy MOFO." With my NAD amp I truly don't see any reason to ever go back to multi-channel music anymore, even though I loved the sound of vocals on my Ascend 340 center speaker.
