Marantz SR-8012 vs. Denon AVR-X8500H

Stevescivic

Active Member
I got curious and started looking at modern receivers for my home theater. I was checking out the latest offerings from Denon and Marantz and was quite impressed with what those receivers had to offer. My current setup is built for just 5.1 but the bells and whistles and the quality of the units was what got my attention.

They've got some serious prices to boot - $5K CAD retail for the Denon and $4000 CAD for the Marantz unit. Just speaking to the sales rep on the phone regarding the Marantz that he said the SR-8012 was better than the Denon in that it uses a toroidal transformer and is better built. I took his advice with a grain of salt since I know torodials aren't the be all end all, in fact they're noisier from an EMI/RFI standpoint vs a traditional E-core tranny.

He even went as far as saying that toroidal designs have much lower noise floors which is inaccurate. If I recall correctly torodials suffer from excessive noise and when designing an amp that there has to be lots of filtering AND the signal paths need to be placed as far away from the toroid's core.

That being said, I'm certain these two models that I'd like to buy are extreme overkill for my needs but the fact they're japanese made and they are flagship units is what makes me want to buy one. I like the fact that it has Dolby Atmos so I would of course need to add in the vertical component to my existing speaker system (front channels at least) and I'd likely not add in the side surround speakers since my basement is already finished and I'd prefer to not have to try to run wires behind finished walls.

The last home theater receiver I've owned was a Pioneer D1S from 1991 with pro-logic. I'm definitely due for some new tech for my HT but wondering if anyone can suggest a unit that sounds better or is built better for less money.

Your input and advice is greatly appreciated!
 
I find ei core to sound better. I have not heard many amps using a torroud that I would buy. And I have heard $50k+ examples.

But torroids are generally more capable of putting out high watts and people like that and it makes some sense in a receiver powering 7+ loudspeakers.

But here is my case against both. First you could buy the Anthem preamp processor which has the best speaker setup system in the entire audio industry for around $3,000 and then buy a multi channel power amp from monoprice (they are made by ATI) for around $2k) and or add second hand power ams for dirt cheap. Solid state power amps have VERY high depreciation but receivers are much worse.

Still Anthem prepro with power amps will be much better than any receiver for both sound quality and flexibility and features. Plus if the power amp fails the whole thing doesn't fail. In a receiver if one thing fails the whole thing is a boat anchor. And if you don't love Anthem...this would apply to buying the preanp processor from Marantz as well. You can buy $1500 power amps that sold 5 years ago for $300 today. Power amps rarely fail as they have no moving parts. And those $1500 power amps are better than what is in a receiver.
 
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