Page 1 of Marantz SR5200

Can anyone recommend any site`s that feature this amp cheap!

Seems to be a good amp getting good reviews, does anyone have one? Opinions please?

Thanks in advance.

It seems that the Marantz prices have recently gone up a bit, unfortunately, but, particularly if you enjoy music as well as movies, they are well worth considering. There were reports of popping/dropouts in the sound, but I believe these only affected early models, and have now been fixed.
Looks like http://www.richer.co.uk at £360 plus delivery is the cheapest, from a quick whizz round, but http://www.hifijunkies.co.uk have it for £375 with free delivery - they will price match, too.

HTH!

The Marantz 5200 is a lovely amp indeed, it`s my next purchase (or the 7200, still can`t decide!), and i`ve listened to all sorts! It`s certainly a better bet than a comparable Yamaha or Denon (the price lift is due to Marantz and Denon now being under the same corprorate roof, so methinks the Marantz prices are being lifted a little to stop sales of the 1602/1802 Denons being adversely affected), not much better specification wise - they`re more or less the same - but indeed the sound is fantastic from all in the range.

Try one and be stunned!

Westy

BTW, the software problems have now gone on the Marantz amps, no pops here.

Thanks for the information dude`s!

I have found the amp at www.superfi.co.uk for £347.95 including free delivery!

So Westy,

Marantz 5200 or Yamaha 630?

How do you reckon they compare?

Cheers

Herman

Good spot on the price, oh wizard of many colours. There have been supply problems in the past, so you may want to find out if they have stock, too, before diving in. Nothing more frustrating than a 3 week wait after you`ve been through the churning of decioding what to buy!

R

This item was edited on Sunday, 9th June 2002, 08:14

Herman,

I`d have to say the 5200. The sound is fantastic, the Yamaha is v good, however the 5200 does it for me everytime with its razor sharp decoding & super stereo replay. The 5200`s processing chip is astounding for an amp so low in the price range - & the 6.1 is a good addition too.

Westy

Thanks for all the information guys! Appreciate it, I will purchase one at once!

Westy,

it looks like you are the main man to ask concerning technical issues!!

I have heard a few reports that say 6.1 sound isn`t as good as 5.1 as the centre speaker at the back fools your ears into thinking the sound is infront of you, instead of behind.

Whats your opinion, my friend?

Thanks in advance!

Thats because the human ear has a hard time actually registering sound from directly behind.
What usually happens is that sometime the use of a singular rear centre place behind at head height causes a `standing wave`, whereby the front and rear centre information clash as the soundwaves bounce from their opposong locations. The easy way to rectify this is to have your side surrounds directly beside or around 1-2 feet in front or behind your listening position, around 6 feet up the wall, then (if you have the space mind!), the rear centre should be placed at the same height behind. For rear centre effects to work properly, you`ll need to be about 6 feet away from the speaker, and the side surrounds around 6-7 feet away from the rear centre (imagine the side surrounds are the bottom 2 points of a triangle and the rear centre is the top point, measure the distance from side points to top). If you can`t physically accomadate having your seating position in this way, it is possible to have the rear centre above you firing down from the ceiling, though you`d have to spend a good while integrating the sound so it`s cohesive enough to be believable.
Using two rear centres is a better bet (preferably dipole units such as the Mission 77ds), spaced around 2 feet apart using the same distance principal as above. This ensures that the sound isn`t so easy to localise as it moves around the listener, if the amp has one surround back output, wire them in parralel or series to the amp - it won`t hurt.

Generally though, 6.1 serves to enhance the rear soundstage by creating the same landscape of sound at the rear similair to what the front three produce - DTS ES Discrete movies have some good instances of fully directional sound in the rear channel, but essentially they aren`t a lot better than the DTS ES Matrix 6.1 soundtrack, there`s usually a touch more definition, but thats about all there is to worry about if you`re ever wondering what the advantage was.
Listen to a properly set up 6.1 array and you`ll be hooked - don`t listen to what people say about the silly niggles, these are quick fixes and more than likely they`ve had a demo on a poor set up.

Hope this helps

Westy