The Marantz Cinema 30 sells for $7400 in Australia

Emotiva better sound better for the extra 1,250$

Friend, please tell me if I want to watch mostly movies in the e-ac3 and ac3 audio codec, this is Dolby, and if I have speakers with built-in amplifiers that have optical and Aux outputs. In this case, does it make sense for me to buy an expensive receiver like a Yamaha, since you say it has the best sound, but my speakers have built-in amplification and they can only receive a signal from the receiver. Or is the Onkyo tx sr494 for $350 enough for me? And in general, I don’t know whether channel control will work with active speakers?

I went out and purchased the ToneWinner AD-2PRO+ integrated amplifier from Aamir at Summit HiFi, and am blown away at the sound quality that this amplifier produces. This is the same amplifier section as the AD-1PA, the reason I am posting here, if anyone is interested. My friend bought one too, and his take is that it easily will compete with a $12,000 Mark Levinson integrated. He owns gear like this, and has been in audio for well over 50 years, Mark Levinson is his world, so who am I to question? Back to the amp, this thing is stunning, built like a tank and oozes quality. It has more than a few interesting features, Class A, Class A/B Auto and Class A/B, all can be switched on the fly. The Class A section is very sweet sounding, almost tube like, where the Class A/B section is lively and dynamic. The instrument separation, depth and soundstage are simply breathtaking. It's also has a pure audio mode, that is what I call it, where you can turn off the preamp section and simply run the amplifier section, bypassing the internal DAC and shutting down the digital inputs. I have my PS Audio DAC hooked up like this, and again, the sound is stunning. The internal DAC of the ToneWinner is incredibly good, detailed, dynamic, separation, depth, all there. And it does it all without being the least bit fatiguing. Honestly, I am splitting hairs here between my PS Audio and ToneWinner DACs. They both sound incredibly good to my ear. I prefer the PS Audio a tad bit more due to its tad bit warmer sound, and it does not beat the TW by much. And I can say this, the ToneWinner DAC is much better than my Bel Canto, no contest there. Speakers! You can hook up two pair of speakers to the beast and shift on the fly, or play them simultaneously. They say not to do that, but having a pair of Zu's, which a 9v battery can power, next to a pair of Magnepan LRS+, it is fun to do. And the sound of these two speakers together is simply magical. I have owned a few amps over the years, much more expensive than what I paid, and not one even comes close to matching the performance level I am experiencing with the AD-2PRO+. Very Happy!

Dolby Volume is a fantastic feature! It use something called Leveler and Modeler to give you reference quality sound at ANY volume level. Only Arcam and Anthem have Dolby Volume incorporated and that IS the reason I only consider those 2 brands. I only whish Arcam would activate Dolby Calibration offset as well (it's there but they disable it because of Dirac). My old Harman/Kardon AVR had Dolby Calibration as well.

This thing is a ripoff for the money. You can get a Marantz receiver for $1500 and this receiver is $3400.

i didn't see it mentioned on their page - what kind of DAC chips are inside this?

Friend, tell me how the flexibility of settings of this receiver differs from top-end pits?

Jon always does a fantastic job with these videos and helped me decide between the Arcam 41 and the HTP-1. I chose to sacrifice the Auro 3-D center height and voice of God for the sound quality. Coming from the Marantz SR 8015 the sound is simply cleaner. I'm running my LCR through a Buckeye Purify 3 ch amp and Emotiva Bas-X A-5 and A-6 for side surround, back surround, front and rear heights. I'm running four subs and with Dirac Live multi bass, it all comes together nicely. The music in 2 channel is the best I've heard and I just watched Dune 2 and believe it or not, my wife had me up the volume and this is the best my theater has ever sounded. I would really like to have the Auro 3-D options as I have speakers already wired in those positions so they are not being used so that's kind of disappointing and I actually do get the power on pop, but all in all, for now, I'm satisfied. Thanks again Jon!

This is a good choice for people who listen at lower volumes since its loudness compensation can be set to start at any level with one decibel of control. That's more refined control than the others, and Anthem doesn't include this feature at all.

HDMI 2.1 - until which time $4000+ is a No-Go for me. Emotiva XMC-2 - a perfect holdover for HALF the price (got it for $2000 on Sale) until which time HDMI 2.1 comes to market.

Not a bad processor, Jon. Great to see Auro 3-D and DSD support as well. Thanks for the in-depth review.

Wish Monoprice would throw more resources at its HTP-1. I think they would sell more if they keep the value firmly in place and update it more frequently or as needed vs outsourcing and taking longer. They have an opportunity to win over Anthem 70 buyers etc.

did they ever update the HDMI to the new 2.1 i was looking into buying this a while back but went the Yamaha rx-a8a because it has pretty much everything I needed and sounded great all for a little less money. the htp1 offered a lot of the stuff I wanted but was out of stock for so long and no word of it incoming or the HDMI fixes, so I gave up. maybe when they release a new model and I'm ready for the next set of upgrades I'll give them a relook.

Hi John… all your presentations are fantastic..informative esp. to cosumer…Htp products mon availability made me to purchase Arcam 41…knowing the some hiccups in initial set ups and confusing user manual… when it’s confusing you, I too not spared.. takes months to familiarise with arcam.. but have bear for its sheer sound quality… your guidance I do appreciate…!

I hope the HDMI board is the same as in the Marantz. That’s the weak point. I’m a Yamaha fanboy and looking to upgrade to the AVM 90…but looking for alternatives for less

Love your videos! Are you planning to cover the Onkyo TX-RZ70?

Still an amazing buy .. this many years later.

If you want all the features and great audiophile power I would go with Marantz Cinema AV10 or the new Emotivas. In the next 90 days Emotiva will be a 8K HDMI processor company and all this drama will be behind us.

While the Monolith HTP-1 has some decent things, at the end of the day Monoprice will not be consistently good and on point for support. While Emotiva is NOT perfect, their customer support is pretty decent. Thanks for the review

Thanks!

You ask at the end : "What do you think?" I think the title of your video is misleading : "Onkyo TX-RZ50 AV Receiver Sound Quality, Room Calibration vs. Marantz and Emotiva". I was expecting a comparison of the sound quality of those 3 amps. Instead, it's a tutorial about Dirac. I had to suffer a very long and boring video to find out at the end that : "...I won't do a multi channel comparison..." You are skipping over the important part. Who cares about the room correction? Most of the programs are more or less the same. What we want are infos about the quality of the sound! Comparisons about soundstage, dynamics, clarity, punch, seperation, imaging, sound signature, etc. I am shopping for a new amp and I thought this video would help me choose. What a waste of time.

good video! since the app caculates the phase of the subwoofers, which phase position should i switch to on my subs before running the dirac?0 or 180?

as you rank the yahama Rx-a8a on tier 1 do u think the RX-6 will be a better value for 9 channel 150w they basic same with RX a8 only less 2 channel

What about the mrx slim? When will that be released. We have small rooms in the UK. This would be perfect. I need the anthem sound quality in my life. Make it available in the UK please 🥺

With the RZ-50, if I connect an external amp for the front channels, do I still need one for the height 2 channels?

I still haven't set up my Arcam yet. Will be setting it up in June. Been very busy with work and other things.

I am confused, so I guess I will just compare one Onkyo and one Integra, then keep the one I like. FWIW, I think that using AVRs for music in stereo is a great idea when one also wants to hear dialogue better with an AVR's voice zoom feature --like we get with the Integra/Onkyo "vocal" button. It helps tremendously. I don't even need a center channel speaker because of the vocal boost! So here I am using an Integra AVR as a stereo unit but with TWO MAJOR FEATURES I cannot find on integrated stereo receivers: voice boost for movies/TV and a 15-band custom user graphic EQ! I am not getting pounded with bass and midrange like I did with the Cambridge Audio AXR100 and Integra's "sound" seems a bit scooped IMO, but I can ADD the mids and bass! And yet... I wonder whether some of these midrange frequencies are filtered out by engineers to create a "cleaner" sound and whether, on the other hand, the Cambridge AXR100's aural brutality is caused by distortion. Too many integrated stereo amps are disappointing just due to their standard/"house," unalterable EQ profiles.

Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, which is best, damnit!

I could see utilizing top audio to listen to The Moody Blues, Nights In White Satin, but George what’shisface? “Y’all needs ta listen to mah tun-ages on the fahnest of equipmentses. Well, there weren’t a lot of DVDs in the beginning, I guess. Everyone else was clinging to their VHS tapes.

Some work gon into this good job

Thanks!

Thanks for the great content! I have a Marantz Cinema 30 on order replacing a Marantz SR6012 - do you think using it with an Emotiva external amp is a good idea vs the Cinema 30 internal amps? Assuming so - for a 5.2.6 setup with new Martin Logan 4 ohm XM motion LCR and the rest 8 ohm DefTech - would you get a 3 channel XPA DR-3 for LCR channels and use the Cinema 30 amp for the rest of the channels (and maybe get an Emotova XPA amp for the rest later) - or get an XPA-11 for all Chanels (with higher power channels used for LCR). Cost is about the same for those two options. You have experience with both the Cinema 30 and the Emotiva external amps so your thought would be very helpful in making a decision - and I expect a specific question like this might be very helpful to others.

I use the Statement P5. Nothing like it. I use it for Home Theatre . I believe they are meant for H.T. as their damping is set up for that. Tremendous force and silk/layered sound from the P5. First 200w are Class A in each channel. I also use the MC20 for surround backs. The P series actually are stable to .5 ohm. It's on their website and on the manual. I don’t feel Anthem needs to change to the look of the P series. They are an ultra high end home theatre performers and in a league quite above the MCA series. They match up with any processor you may use from any brand. Much thanks John for this video and all your videos, especially H.T. processors. You are a wealth of information.

I’m looking to upgrade from my Marantz 8801 processor (great unit) to an Arcam AV40/41. I had an audition of the JBL Synthesis 55 and that was amazing. The best I’ve ever heard. The movie scene on the audition was the opening 18 minutes of Top Gun Maverick 4K. The JBL was calibrated at the high end audio store where the audition took place but was not yet set up with DIRAC.

Hi, great video. I recently purchased the Onkyo rz50 and i really like it but im having one problem. Im not able to adjust the speaker delays after i run dirac I tried shutting dirac off and i still cant do it. I tried making the adjustments before running dirac which lets me bit as soon as I run dirac it changes everything and I can't go back and adjust it. Is this just the way it is or am I doing something wrong?

DON'T be FOOLED just buy ROCKVILLE RPA-16 amplifiers... $400 a pop.. Put a good signal into them and your all set.. Oh I'm sorry if you can hear the cooling fan while it's trying to work.. I have 4 of them inline.. with 4 Rockville PBG-18s and 4 RSG-15.24 towers. Plus 4 JBL Party Box 710s.. Don't waste your money! Don't be fooled. The RPA-16s are NON-switching class H amplifiers..enough said..

would you consider pairing XPA DR2 3 with a of B&W 801 D4's?

Lyngdorf MP-60 2.1 also handles 5 subs, too, correct?

I feel Dolby Volume is better on the Arcam than Dynamic volume on the Marantz. The Marantz would noticeably cut the volume. I haven't heard a drastic cut with Dolby volume, at least not yet. It's a nice feature when listening to movies at lower volume levels, etc.

John, on the MRX 1140 only channels 1-5 are Class A/B. Channels 6-11 are Class D. Also the MRX 1140 has 2 independent subwoofer channels whereas the 540 and 740 are both parallell. I recently upgraded from a Denon X3600H with a BasX A3 driving the L/C/R for my 5.2.4 home theater and I could not be happier.

Arcam was one of the best AVRs I have ever owned back in 95 until it broke and then I had it fixed. Then it broke again….and I still have it in the box because I can’t bear to throw a $5k AVR away!

they are so far overpriced and no better than many others--- i demoed arcam, onkyo, pioneer, yamaha, cambridge audio, antehm, the arcam definatley wasnt any better and to my ears. the onlkyo rz70 was better, it has better features, full dirac licence, sounds better, better app etc, i went home with the rz70

I bought Arcam AVR30 last year and I had nothing but problems with HDMI. I had to go through about 4 different HDMI cables before I could get it working properly. To this day I still have some, issues with the audio when switching inputs I don't get sound sometimes. Furthermore, I will never buy another Arcam AVR, just too many issues vs the receivers I had before.

Can you make a summay slide like you did for the Arcam and monoprice video?

Thanks a lot for your reviews. 👍

I own the Arcam AV888 its an older device, only 7.1 and HD Sound (no atmos) and HDMI 1.3 ( I use a HD fury Diva HDMI splitter instead for my connected gear). I use this AV pre amp with Audionet monoblocks and B&W Speakers. I still own this device because i dont need more channels (need only 5.1) and it sounds realy good in Cinema, with music and also in stereo playback. The Stereo analog direct and multichanel analog direct mode is very good with low noise and distortion. The menu interface is garbage, also it has very minimalistic microphone calibration implementation.. Many times i thought about upgrading because of that, but i just dont know to what AV pre amp i should upgrade. The new Arcam models are not the same quality anymore and they still have a bad menu interface (AV41). I am still looking for an audiophile av processor pre amp that could be an upgrade for the Arcam AV888 but the new Arcam models i dont like very much. Any suggestions where i could look for? wich brand? wich device?

Arcam ✌🏼

Great video. I currently own the Arcam AVR11 and it sounds great with Dirac single-bass calibration. Previously I was using the Onkyo TX-RZ50, but for some reason the sound bother me with JBL Synthesis SCL-6, 7, 8 speaker set up (5.1.2). Once the AVR11 was installed and calibrated, the sound never bother my ears again, and the bass is better integrated (I'm running an SVS PB-3000 SW). Do you think that there is a relationship or better fit of receivers with certain speakers? Thanks!

Thank you for such a great video but I still hesitating between the Sony str-az5000es and the Denon 3800H, any suggestions from you would be appreciated.