Can't wait to hook it up. I have some news for the folks who bought the Marantz SR8400's. I'll have to post it later as I just got back from Portland and have some music to listen and movies to watch. The SR5400 served me well.
Spoke with 3 Marantz retailers 2 of which carry NAD. They all say that the NAD reliability issues have been resolved 2 say that they were greatly exaggerated to begin with. Both of the NAD dealers showed me how setup was part of the problem. All three of them told me that there biggest reliability problem was with the Marantz receivers. In particular the SR8400, SR8300, SR7400, and SR7300 where they claim to have more than a 50% fail rate. I was stunned! I asked about the SR5400 and they stated that 5 series was by far the most reliable with very low fail rates. 2 of the 3 dealers carry no higher than the SR5500 because of this. I consider these to be reliable sources. My guess is that the UBID units were repaired B stock and should be fine. If they are new then they are likely late production runs and should also be fine. I felt that you all deserved to know what I know. If I hear more about the Marantz 7 and 8 series I'll keep you posted. Still haven't hooked up the NAD, waitin' to get some new cables.
Must part with several of my components. I will be selling my Marantz SR5400 AVR, Marantz DV6400 universal player, and my Marantz CC4300 cd changer. I used the changer once at christmas. Great sounding CD player much better than Sony or any of the cheap mass market players that you find at the BB stores.
Geez Art, your credit card's gonna take a real beating isn't it? And it's still six months to Christmas, LOL!
What will you be using for a CD/universal player? How much are you getting the T763 for? I'd be very curious to see how the T763 compares to your other NAD separates for 2-channel music, please keep us posted!
I have a Denon DVD2910 universal player and an NAD C542 CD player. Got the digital bases covered. Now I need a turntable. It'll take me a while to soften up my wife on that one. The pre/power will still be in use for 2 channel. Same setup just a different receiver. It ought to be fun. I'm going to wait until I can get some new custom interconnects made at Northwest Audio Labs this week to set it up. They are $45 per one meter pr. That will be where I put money next after a turntable. Jim at Northwest Audio Labs cables are a steal at $45 bucks but I have heard better maybe next year I'll ask Teri at Stereotypes to turn me on to the good stuff. Hey here's a twist. I always use digital coax for my AVR because it sounds much better than the crappy toslinks you get in the stores but Teri turned me on to the Wireworld Super Nova 5 Glass Toslink cable. She says it kills everything in her store for digital, for $135 it better. I'll let you know how it sounds.
Art I guess there had to be some story there whereby a company would let go of this many units and such low prices and tick off their dealership who can't possibly compete. However as long as they honor their 3 year warranty, I don't really care.
The store that I have gone to for years that carries high end a/v still has the whole line up of Marantz equipment and as a matter of fact uses a 7300 to demo their speaker room. When I mentioned the 8400 sale on Ubid, the dude became a bit flushed, and said "they are probably just getting rid of last year's model" It was obvious that it was a thorn on their side.
I figure that the Ubid stuff was probably late production run stuff anyway. They usually have the bugs worked out by then. I agree with you that if they honor the warranty in a timely manner then that's what counts. I just wanted everybody to have the same info that I have. The SR8500 has received very good press and I would guess that the SR8400 is pretty similar.
Same store sold both. NAD T763 for a little over $1100, just couldn't pass it up. Arcam makes a great product but the comparable product (AVR300) costs considerably more than I paid.
The Arcam AVR300 is an Amazing sounding receiver though not as much better than the T763 as one might think. It is a bit more musical in 2 channel but not at all more impressive for movies. By a bit more musical I mean just a tad. If you set up an NAD correctly it has an amazingly low noise floor and is very musical. I paid a little over $1100 for my T763. You can't beat that.
How low a noise floor do you mean Art? My HK is totally silent when idle,no hiss or hum whatsoever, with my ear touching a speaker I cannot hear any noise. Shurely an $1100 receiver should be completely silent when idle(on but no source playing) E.Ramsey
Silent Eric. I know...that flies in the face of all that we have been hearing about theses receivers but I heard no noise at the store with my ear next to the speaker. Haven't hooked mine up yet. This weekend I will know and report on my home experience.
Thanks for the follow up. Sounds like you were impressed with the Arcam; audio memory being so short, I'd like to demo one in my listening room to get an impression; maybe I'm missing something.
Edster, the only thing that will change is the receiver. My setup will remain the same. I am however selling a Marantz CD changer (used once at xmas), a Marantz universal player, a Marantz DVD player and the Marantz reciver that the NAD replaced. If you have a cheap CD player or DVD player here's your chance to upgrade cheap.
Yowsers, you're dropping that much cash just to upgrade the center and surround SQ? I thought maybe your wife wanted to reduce the clutter of the extra amp & pre/pro. I'm plenty satisfied with my 5400's HT performance since I'm not that big into big sound-FX movies, it was the 2-channel that had me lusting for more...
All the same I'd be curious to hear your comparison of the NAD separates' 2-channel vs. the NAD receiver's 2-channel, if the gap is much narrower than that with your old 5400.
go ahead and PM or email me with details about your disk players (model #s and prices), at the moment I'll likely only be able to afford one of them if at all.
I've heard the NAD T763's 2 channel perfromance and it is light years better than the Marantz. The NAD T763 uses a Holmgren Toroidal transformer and provides prodigious power. The Home theater will now go from sounding very good to spectacular, while I still maintain the integrity of my 2 channel performance. Oh and yes I will likely be doing much to make up for all of this lusty spending for years to come.
Edster the 2 channel performance of the T763 is amazingly good but still shy of seperates. The movie performance was excellent. Detail, the best word I can think of to describe the difference between the NAD and the Marantz is detail. With the Marantz you hear discrete sounds that on the NAD are actually discernable. Background music in a movie that you could just tell was music with the Marantz becomes detailed enough to know what the music is and actually enjoy it simultaneous to the rest of the movie. I'm sold the NAD is great. No hum, no hiss, and you have to put your ear on the receiver to hear the fan. Yippie!