This receiver is great so far, well.. I got it tonight its great so far
5 digital inputs

out of the box, i thought the damn thing was toast. hard to setup at first until you do it once... thenits a great piece to my collection

NICE Receiver
Buy it

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo-DS676 HISSSSSSucks
My first one didnt work, friend of mine got one.. didnt work either

Clarity, Features, Build Quality, Bass Management

Slightly muffled highs, low sound in Dolby mode

I purchased this unit after reading the glowing reviews.
Although I have found this unit to be very good in terms of sound clarity and bass management for music, I found that the highs are slightly muffled and it tends to lose detail. Now this is comparing it with the earlier Onkyo 777 that I owned and returned since its bass management was not that good on music CDs.

another thing that I have noticed is that in Dolby mode I have to push the volume way up to almost -15db whereas in normal TV viewing I usually only go upto -28. Also in DPL, the rear surrounds dont seem as active as they used to in the Onkyo.

Also, am not sure if it is this one particular piece at fault, but the volume of the left channel does seem slightly higher than that of the right, whereas the center seems lower. The Onkyo had the same volume throughout. Overall for the price, the features are great - hence the 5 stars, but the lack of highs make me give it 4 stars for overall.

I would have preferred the brightness to be slightly more than what it is and the surround to be better.
Of course, the DD and DTS are excellent!

my system (work in progress):
Marantz SR-7000
B&W DM302 Fronts and Rears
B&W CC3 Center channel
Sony DVP360 DVD
Sony KV-32FS12

Similar Products Used:

Sony DE945, Onkyo TX-DS777

Very sweet sounding. (See Below)

Manual might as well have stayed at the factory. (See below)

I love this receiver!!

Where to start? Well I'll get the bad out of the way first..

The manual? Why did they bother to put it in the box? It's pretty much useless. Which is a real shame because this receiver has alot of very good features that I would like to know more about. Features such as "dolby digital night mode".

Now to the good, and it's very good...

I'm using a Sony DVPS-560 DVD player with the coax out to the 7000. DD 5.1 sounds good and DTS is amazing! I'm using a pair of Optimus 1050s for my fronts, a Boston Acoustics 910 center, and a pair of Optimus 7 A/Vs for surrond. I plan on replacing the Optimus but to be honest this setup sounds really really good so I'm not in a rush to switch.

The 5 channel surround option makes me search for songs to just hear how they sound in this mode. I just recently finished listening to "That's the Way" by Zeppelin. For all of those folks that see to think that old cds sound bad.. I say check your cables!! The song sounded very warm, sweet, and all around great! It's been awhile since a piece of audio equipment has made me wonder "what does sound like?" Trust me, you'll be doing that. I'm curious exactly how the sound is treated in 5 channel stereo as it doesn't seem to be the same signal coming from the front and rear.

Songs to listen to to get a sense of what I'm talking about (if you like 'em):

Sting - Fields of Gold (DTS) - WOW

NIN - Kinda I want to - Turn the lights off and tell me this song doesn't "swirl" around your head!

Van Halen - Mean Streets - Just crank it up

Johann Pachelbel - Canon in D minor (an old favorite that never sounded so good)

Frank Mills - Musicbox Dancer - Another great old song.

As far as movies go.. 2010 has a scene towards the end of movie where Hal ignites Discovery's engines one last time.. The flood of sound is just amazing. Savings Private Ryan DTS is better than I remember in the theater, and Seven has a few cool spots such as the air gun pointed at the screen while dusting prints.. The sound of the air rushing jumps from speaker to speaker. It's great.

So simply put.. I wish the documentation was better because this receiver deserves to have it's praises sung loud and clear hmmmmm... maybe through the receiver itself? :)

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Denon

Excellent sound, enough interfaces/inputs, good enough remote and other functions, good enough looks/fit/finish - For the MONEY.

For this price, none I can think of.

My system is currently:

- Marantz DV 7000 - DVD player
- NBS Audio Interconnect - $150
- Some digital interconnect
- Marantz SR-7000 - AV/Receiver
- Audioquest Type 4 Speaker Wire
- Magnaplanar MMG Front
- Magneplanar MCMCC1 Center Channel speaker

I wanted a receiver to "kick around". It would play the radio all day everyday, play CDs many times and sometimes play DVDs.

I did not want to spend too much on it because I already have another Primary System totalling $5,000 for serious listening. This is pampered and switched off, kept dust free, nobody gets to mess with it etc.

This receiver beat all my expectations at this price!

Similar Products Used:

None

Marantz quality, plenty of inputs and outputs for me, 2ch stereo, dts, remote

No 6.1, 7.1, surround ex, not thx certified

I had an old Sony Pro-Logic receiver and was looking to upgrade it to take advantage of my dvd player dd and dts capabilities. I can't afford to purchase separates (well, at least the ones i want) yet so I decided to look for a receiver around $1000 that I could use for a couple of years until I can afford separates. I finally narrowed down my choices between the sr7000 and sr8000. The sr8000 is a great product but as I sat in the listening room and switching between them like crazy, I could not justify spending an extra $300-400. After all, I still am a poor college student.

Anyways, when I hooked up the sr7000 to my existing ht, I was surprised how well everything sounded. I have these crappy sony speakers that were a bundle ht package. Don't have the money to replace them yet but the sr7000 made them sound 10x better. 2ch stereo sounds great as well. I don't really use 5ch stereo but its a nice option to have. DD and Dts sound great. My surrounds finally do something when i watch a dvd. All the other dsp I didn't really care for that much.

A lot of people on here have griped about the manual and the remote. I found them both to be quite easy. Sure, the remote could use a backlight but by now I have everything memorized that I don't even look at the remote anymore. The manual was self-explanatory and any mistakes I made was pretty much because I didn't bother to read but skim.

Overall, I think this is a great product for anyone looking to start in ht. The weaknesses listed above prevent it from being a purchase that can last awhile unless you don't really care for those. However, for now, it definatley meets my needs.

My system:
Receiver: Marantz sr7000
Front, Center, Surround Speakers: Crappy Sony's
DVD Player: Samsung DVD-611 (really crappy but it was practically given to me so it will do for now)
TV: Toshiba 27a40
Interconnects: Low-end AudioQuest

Similar Products Used:

Marantz sr8000, Nad t751, Nad t761

None

To begin, I have been in the industry for quite some time,and deal with very high end equipment on a daily basis. I have seen reviews on this receiver,both good and bad. I never pass judgement on a product, based on any review.I prefer to test it's performance myself.I recently hooked up the sr7000 to a pair of linn keilidh's,with transparent speaker cable and interconnects.I then proceeded to test it's performance in two channel direct.To put it bluntly, my jaw hit the floor.I have never come across a receiver that could do two channel,this well,and not sound like a receiver while doing it.It is amazing.And by the way,it's also extremely good in multichannel analogue,and digital. Well done MARANTZ!

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer,Integra,Sony.

Excelent sound, nice display, good remote!

Slow audio stream switch response time.

Excelent remove control, easy to understand system setup. Nice that it provides multiple coaxial and optical audio inputs. I also like the display of what channels are present in the stream.... I know it's just Christmas lights, but it's nice! :D

Response time of digital audio stream switching is pathetic, it takes almost a second to respond to a new digital audio stream. Speaker terminals are hard to get to.

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR-3801

"because music matters" - movies as well!
the champagne colour just oozes class and it is solidly built.

abit lack of bass i reckon. but apart from that nothing significant.

marantz came up with yet another bargain. it not only looks good but sounds just as good. a very versatile av amp with lots of gizmos; enough inputs to satisfy any home theatre owners. dun wait,..get one now!

my system: (works wonders for me)
Sony Wega 100hz 28inch tv
Marantz SR7000 receiver
Marantz DV7000 DVD player
Marantz CD6000KI CD player
Marantz DR6000 CD recorder
Kef Q55.2, Q15.2 & Q85s
Sony MDJB940 MD player
Sony VCR

All of my marantz setup are all in champagne finish, certainly looks good on any decent AV furniture.

Similar Products Used:

denon 3601, sony 940..

Tons

Manual.
No back lighting on the remote

This thing kicks ass! I contemplated the SR-8000 but couldn't see spending the extra $300. To me, the SR-7000 sounded pretty damn close, plus with the towers having their own 150-watt amps, it didn't make any sense. 7K is the best bang for the buck. I have to say that I'm impressed with the sound quality produced by this system for both music and movies. It absolutely CRANKS! You can push this system hard enough that the lights and windows will break before the sound system. By the way, the louder you crank it, the better it sounds. Great performance. My neighbors don't like it too much but I think it is wonderful.

My system:

C/S Newton T-300 floor standing
C/S S-300 Center and Rears
C/S P-500 Subwoofer
Onkyo DV-C501 DVD

Tied together w/ Monster cables to the SR-7000.

I can't say that I'm an expert when it comes to sound systems but my ears don't lie to me. Just check out the Matrix on DVD. You'll be impressed. I've read a good chunk of the reviews on this board and agree with a most of them. (The good ones!!!)


If you're in the market, check out Cambridge Soundworks. I got a killer deal on my system. The sales people are VERY helpful. Bring your favorite CD's with you when you go to listen. You can give this receiver a helluva trail run before you take it home but it will probably sound totally different in your house. (Mine sounds better). If you don't like it, take it back, no questions asked. Can't beat that.

Mark

Similar Products Used:

Sony

2 Channel stereo music, decent remote, clean DDigital and DTS decoding

Varied surround modes, manual

I think that in many of the reviews of products people will expect an item to be everything at each price point but compromises are needed to get the most out of whats really important.

Marantz has chosen with the SR7000, to make few of these compromises. Where many are critical of the remote backlighting, its still a better remote than any Denon or Onkyo I have seen or used. There is no component video inputs but there is multi-room multi source capability with may be more useful depending on the buyer of course.

I am a 2-channel listener and have owned many amps/pre-amps and integrateds including Plinius, Bryston, Roksan and Belles products. I feel I have a pretty good idea of musicality. The SR-7000 is a very musical sounding receiver. Suprisingly good at 2-channel I might add and better than any reciever I have heard. Why? it simply sounds right. Smooth, clean and dynamic with a very large soundstage, great imaging and a warmth that most recievers can't even come close to. The internal DAC is superb with better resoulution and space than and AA DDE3.0. I think it sounds even better than the link DAC myself, in terms of depth and smoothness in vocals and highs. It definately sounds better than the highly regarded DAC in the Pioneer DV414 which is respectable in itself for a built in DAC.

If you have poor speakers etc you may not realize the full abilities of this amp so I can see where some novices will slam any product they don't fully know how to enjoy. People have a right to their preference.

I wouldn't look to critique other aspects of the amp when the most important feature,the sound, is tops in its class and beyond. If you want a cooler toy with better gadgets toy fine, but you will not be listening to better sound at this price.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha RV905, Onkyo TSX777, Denon 3801, Denon 3300