Marantz 1510 - good enough?

inef

Hello there,

first of all please excuse my English, not a native speaker here.

I recently bought a set of Polk speakers, consisting of 2 ES15, 2 ES50, an ES35 and a HTS10 subwoofer.

I'm looking for a somewhat affordable AVR for this setup. Mainly for movies, but partially music too.
The room is rather small (18m² or approx 190 square feet) and they will play at moderate volume, nothing excessive.

Would a Marantz 1510 be good enough to run this setup? If not what would be? What are my alternatives? All I'm looking for is a 5.1 AVR with WiFi to run media over network.

My budget is 600 euro (which roughly translates to 600 bucks) and I don't consider buying used.

Any help would be highly appreciated

Cheers

mdaudioguy

Would it work? Yes. However, for the same price here in the States right now, you can get the Denon AVR-X2700H, which would be a noticeable difference - 95 wpc vs 50 wpc. I like my Marantz slimline receiver for a small 5.1 system I have, but the left and right speakers are externally amplified. My daughter has a pair of S20 speakers with a small Marantz stereo integrated amp that's 40 wpc. Sounds good, but I wouldn't want to add more load to it than that.

inef

Unfortunately the Denon is approx. 850 dollars in Europe, which is beyond my budget
I've found a Sony DHT790 and a Denon S760H within my price range, however the Sony doesn't have WiFi. Would the Denon S760H be better for my use? I've read bad reviews about it on the web.

mdaudioguy

I prefer the Denon X series over the S. They just sound better to me. Never been wild about Sony AVRs. 🤷‍♂️

Emlyn

I think the NR1510 would be a good choice. The back shows its amp section is 4 ohm stable indicating a decent high current design. It also has preamp outputs for the main left and right speakers should more power be desired later by adding a separate two channel amp. Also has dual subwoofer outputs and up to date processing and streaming features. It’s an $800 receiver in the US market.

I would run all speakers as small with crossover settings at 80 Hz to direct the lowest frequencies to the subwoofer.

inef

To be honest up to this point I was running a 2007ish all in one Sony 5.1 setup which is easily outperformed by my new TVs speakers, so I guess sound-wise anything is going to be an upgrade.
If you had to choose between the underpowered Marantz and that S series Denon, which one would you go with?
The Sony is ruled out due to lacking WiFi capabilities. Couldn't find anything else within my budget.

inef

Emlyn wrote: »

I think the NR1510 would be a good choice. The back shows its amp section is 4 ohm stable indicating a decent high current design. It also has preamp outputs for the main left and right speakers should more power be desired later by adding a separate two channel amp. Also has dual subwoofer outputs and up to date processing and streaming features. It’s an $800 receiver in the US market.

I would run all speakers as small with crossover settings at 80 Hz to direct the lowest frequencies to the subwoofer.

Great news, thank you. I'll pick it up tomorrow and go with suggested settings, then I'll report.

EDIT: very sorry about the double post, no idea how to add quotes in edit mode.

mdaudioguy

Emlyn wrote: »

I think the NR1510 would be a good choice. The back shows its amp section is 4 ohm stable indicating a decent high current design. It also has preamp outputs for the main left and right speakers should more power be desired later by adding a separate two channel amp. Also has dual subwoofer outputs and up to date processing and streaming features. It’s an $800 receiver in the US market.

I would run all speakers as small with crossover settings at 80 Hz to direct the lowest frequencies to the subwoofer.

Yes, small room like he says, it'll work, and 80hz should get it done. There won't be much headroom, however, as the 50 wpc is just for 2 channels. D&M make decent AVRs. Too bad the OP can't get this deal.

@inef Can you order direct from Denon where you are?

inef

Theoretically there is a dedicated Denon website for Germany, however I cannot access it since a few days for whatever reason. It loads and loads and eventually ends up in a 502 error code. The x2700h is a ln 850 bucks AVR in Germany which unfortunately isn't a viable option for me. The Marantz costs 580 dollars in here.

Does the frequency crossover suggestion mean lower frequencies cause higher power consumption?

As of right now the plan is to grab the 1510 and give it a shot, if it turns out not sufficient I'll probably return it and save up a little more money for a better unit. However I'd like to see how the Marantz performs under these conditions.
Does Denon offer golden colored units just like the Marantz? While not a priority I'd lie if I said the looks don't play a small role.

mhardy6647

@mdaudioguy -- good to see ya!

ahem. On topic (kinda)...
I saw "Marantz 1510" and I thought we were talkin' about the little brother of the 1515 -- not that there was one... but there coulda been.



Not the "marantz' brand's finest hour. They didn't even put "Gyro-touch" tuning on the 15 series.

pitdogg2

That's a big difference in price, wonder why?

inef

I've just finished testing the Marantz NR1510 and can report its absolutely more than enough for my room and my speakers. The sound quality is astonishing, especially coming from a basic cheap all in one surround system.
I'm now playing with speaker positioning and will likely have to rearrange the room for best results, but it's absolutely worth it, so it seems.

Thanks to everybody for their help, great forum you have here

inef

Hello there,

it's been a few days that I own the system and after initial euphoria I started noticing the two main speakers being slightly underpowered. The surround speakers are definitely louder than the main ones.
I'm barely using multi channel stereo since it lessens the stereo effect, but already had an opportunity to do so and noticed how most of the music came out of the surrounds. Sitting in the dedicated listening position all sound comes from the back.
This is especially noticeable while watching DD content, the main speakers seem a little shy.
Now I was warned about that, but I'm stubborn and keeping the NR1510, the looks of it perfectly integrate within my desired home theater room, so I'm thinking of an upgrade path to get the most out of my system.
I'm perfectly aware that returning the unit and saving up a little more for a more powerful one would be my go to option but there isn't anything on the market that looks good enough to become girlfriend approved so I'm thinking of adding a stereo amplifier to run the mains on its own.
As of right now my choice is the Marantz NR1200. It's said to deliver 135wpc, would that be plenty?
My biggest fear is it could end up being too much and making other speakers sound underpowered. Is that a case?
If I understood correctly there is a pre amp output on my current NR1510 that could be used to achieve my goal, is that true?
I'm thinking of grabbing the Marantz CD6007 cd player somewhere in the future, as I had internet issues lately and the system became obsolete without network.
Could I hook up the CD player to the stereo amplifier and play music in stereo mode on the mains only? Effectively bypassing the surround receiver?

Now it's only been a week since I've got my system and I'm already planning on upgrading, am I an audiophile now?

Clipdat

What do you mean by "main speakers seem a little shy"?

The majority if your content should be coming out of the center channel.

Did you run the Audyssey MultEQ setup using the supplied calibration mic?

Emlyn

A few pointers:

If the speakers are level matched and the distances from the main listening spot are set properly in the menu of the receiver they should always play at similar levels with similar timing.

You can listen to the main speakers at any time in stereo by setting the receiver to play only in stereo mode.

The NR1200 would be a definite upgrade in power.

inef

I've ran the audyssey automatic calibration setup and was surprised by the accuracy of its distance measurements. All speakers were calibrated within 4 inches of their actual distance to the microphone. Nonetheless there's a noticeable difference in volume comparing the main to the surround speakers. Sitting on the couch where the calibration microphone was placed most of the sound comes from the rears (that is while listening to music on multi channel stereo).
While watching DD content, let's say there is a sound that should come exactly from the right, yet it sounds more like it's coming from the rear right speaker.
If I place my head exactly in the middle between a main and a surround speaker the surround one plays at noticeably higher volume than the main (that is in multi channel stereo, where if I understand correctly the volume should be equal across the board - am I wrong?)
Is the automatic Audyssey calibration hit and miss? Or is it trustworthy enough not to overwrite its calculations manually?
Could I try swapping the mains with the surrounds temporarily to see if the issue remains? Maybe repeating the calibration?

txcoastal1

Before running calibration make sure your room/house is as quiet as possible. No fans, air/heat, etc.
Feel free to run calibration 2-3 times. Get you a tablet and write down all the benchmarks.

Choose a handful of content and yes manually adjust to your liking...I do, and will spend several hours over a few days using different sources and content till I am satisfied. Just keep a log as you make adjustments.

Good luck

inef

So despite the automatic calibration being incredibly accurate when it comes to distance measurements I had to set the surround speakers at half their actual distance to get proper 3d imaging. Everything is perfect now.
Thanks again for everybody's help.