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My Ever-Changing System...

Well, things are changing again. The little NR1504 is back in the system and the SR7007 is out. After watching Game of Thrones last night, the thing just went on the fritz! It wouldn't tune into any HD radio stations, internet radio stations, would no longer access any inputs, and lastly started producing a hissing/static noise out of all channels, even when in 2-ch only mode.

So it's going back, getting a refund, then ordering a Denon AVR-X4000. It's basically the same receiver, just updated with better features.
 
Willing to give Marantz a second chance, I went for another SR7007. This one is worse!

Right out of the box it stunk of hot/burnt electronics. Hooked it up and right off the bat, same hiss as before accompanied with a lovely strong 60Hz hum which I found out was due to the cable box being connected via HDMI. The hum came over all inputs and did not change with volume.

Audyssey doesn't work right. Ran it several times and even went in and adjusted manually. Still, the entire system sounded like an amplified telephone. No bass at all and midrange drastically cupped.

Randomly making extremely loud static/crackling noises through the center and surrounds, so loud that I was in fear of it damaging my speakers! It scared the you know what out of me every time I did that!

With internet radio it would make a very similar static/crackling noises between songs, but not as loud, but still loud enough.

Within only two hours of being powered up, basically just idling as I was watching a couple shows on TV, the unit was running extremely hot. So hot in fact that my entire apartment reeks of that nasty hot/burnt electronics smell. Thing runs as hot as a large Class A amp!
 
A little turn of events.

I was so busy at work yesterday, I never had a chance to get anything done with emails or shipping, so I brought the SR7007 back home. Because I was bored last night, I decided to reinstall again. During the install, I changed out the coax cable and HDMI cable going to the cable box. I also ran the coax through my APC H15. Now I don't know if it was the HDMI cable, the coax, or running through the APC, but there's absolutely no hum at all. Likewise, there's also no weird noises, crackles, static, random super loud spikes, nothing. All the inputs are operating properly and it even sounds "right" now.

I'm thinking that maybe that ground loop was sending some unwanted voltage into the receiver where it didn't belong and it didn't like it. Who knows. But now everything is working fine and sounding pretty damn good. Go figure.

The only thing I still don't understand is the excessive hiss coming from all of the speakers. But from what I have read, it's pretty much normal for this receiver as well as it running rather warm. Once you start watching something or playing music, the hiss becomes completely inaudible.

So for now, I'm going to keep the SR7007 in my system and keep a close eye on it and run it through its paces this weekend.
 
Another turn of events. No more receivers and HT for me. I sent that last receiver back as I couldn't stand that stupid hiss no more.

Other than a few cables that are needed, the system is pretty much done... For a while anyway. :D

The first addition that came in this past Monday, a mint, beautiful and excellent sounding Musical Fidelity A3.2CR preamp, and my wonderful Odyssey Audio Khartago Kismet. Seriously does blow away the other amps I tried!
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And the latest addition that came in this past Thursday, the Marantz NA6005. I'm very impressed with the sound quality of this unit!
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StevenZ said:
Wow. Seriously that Musical Fidelity preamp looks crazy. Beautiful setup.
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Thank you, sir!

I absolutely love this preamp. This preamp literally took this system up a couple of notches in performance in every way possible. Bigger, better, wider and deeper sound stage, a more energetic, lively overall sound, silky top end, deep, tight and agile bass, and midrange and vocals of some of the finest tube gear.

The phono stage in this preamp is phenomenal, too! It really lets my old Signet TK7E sing away!
 
Very-nice setup with all the trimmings. I like the way you have those speaker cables handled. Are they glued or simply just resting?

I like that MF preamp. I plan to buy a Marantz 8b amp in the future (to pair with my W90's), and I'm looking at suitable preamp candidates to mate with it. Basically, I'm looking for a full-on synergy trifecta here (and my cables will STILL look totally-wack at that point :D ).

Sweet job on that.
 
Gang-Twanger said:
Very-nice setup with all the trimmings. I like the way you have those speaker cables handled. Are they glued or simply just resting?

I like that MF preamp. I plan to buy a Marantz 8b amp in the future (to pair with my W90's), and I'm looking at suitable preamp candidates to mate with it. Basically, I'm looking for a full-on synergy trifecta here (and my cables will STILL look totally-wack at that point :D ).

Sweet job on that.
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Thank you! Heavens no, those speaker cables aren't glued to the insulators. They're just resting on them.

I tell you what, I have zero regrets buying the MF preamp. That thing is amazing! As far as the 8B, are you looking at buying an original or the 1995 re-issues? Just curious.
 
Absolute gorgeous system. Love the Musical Fidelity and Odyssey products. Nice choice of speakers also.
 
indyhawg said:
Absolute gorgeous system. Love the Musical Fidelity and Odyssey products. Nice choice of speakers also.
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Thank you, sir!

The more I listen to this current setup, the more I love about it. The sources are apparently good enough to extract all the details and nuances from the recordings, and the MF preamp and Odyssey amp pass all of that information straight out to the speakers.

It's amazing how good these Monitor Audio BX6's really are. Having true quality gear ahead of them with some great recordings allows these speakers to grow into their own. They do so much for the music, more so than much larger, more expensive speakers that I have had over the years. Of course, they're not the "end all" speaker, but they can easily be considered giant killers.

As it sits, these speakers are probably one of the best that I have had, and I've had quite a few speakers over the years.

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A little system update...

Since our TV is connected via wifi and works perfectly, and the Marantz NA6005 is also wifi capable, I decided to give it try this past week. Every single file and music type I threw at it from my NAS, it performed flawlessly. Both Pandora and internet radio work flawless as well via wifi. So after three days of testing and listening, I decided to remove the music server gear (laptop, NAS, network switch and CAT5) from the system and/or room.

Essentially, a lot less clutter once again! As they say, less is more! :D

All of the music server gear is now neatly installed in our son's closet on the top wire shelf with plenty of ventilation. It's all out of the way yet still easily accessible, and still hardwired into the network.

Better pics to come later...

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