Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Marantz SR5300

Anyone listen to the Marantz SR5300?

I am thinking of picking up a refurb one for a temporary HT receiver. I heard it's music abilities are great, and disprove the old 'HT receivers do not play music well.'

I am just curious if it is worth it to go out of my way to listen to one. I am pretty set on two models already, wondering if throwing this third in is worth it or not.

I also have never done much with Marantz products. I have heard of a few problems with the X300 series, like it taking a fraction of a second for digital audio to start playing, meanign you missed the fraction of a second on the next track.

Grateful for any opionions.

Cambride Soundworks Right? The mewer Marantz's are all made in China. CHeck out Audioreview.com for insight on the SR7200. Pop's, hissing noise, fire's etc.etc.etc.. I'd stay clear if I were you. just an opinion of course :-)

Hi Audiobob

Most consumer audio equipment is made in China. All Harman Kardon for instance. My Antique Sound Labs tube amp is made in China. Sounds great. No fires.

I don't have the SR5300, but I have the 5200, which is almost exactly the same receiver. I believe the only difference is having "offical" DTS-ES discrete and DD-EX codecs for the 6th channel, vs the 5200, which used Marantz's own codec to extract the rear surround channel.

As for quality, I bought my 5200 as a refurb about a year ago, and have had NO problems with it whatsoever. It has run perfectly. The way I see it, refurb's have had a once over or a repair done by hand, and have been scrutinized more then a random one off the line. I think the cost discount makes refurb's a great deal.
Yes, the it does take a fraction of a second for it to recognize the digital signal when you start a track from a stop. I believe other receivers in the price range do this as well though...
To my rather untrained ears, it sounds great. Hi-FI Magazine (a fairly reputable british mag) did a review of the 5200 with similar entries from Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo, and one other (Pioneer I believe). They choose the 5200 as the clear winner in both surround sound, and two channel stereo.

Certainly it's at least worth listening to; I've been more then happy with mine.

In reply to:

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Hi-FI Magazine (a fairly reputable british mag) did a review of the 5200 with similar entries from Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo, and one other (Pioneer I believe). They choose the 5200 as the clear winner in both surround sound, and two channel stereo.

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I'll bet the differences in sound quality were tiny.

My foggy memory cleared up and I remember the magazine was "What Hi-Fi".
Yes, obviously with the high quality receivers they chose there would not be much of a diffference between the "best" and "worst" sounding ones; they just concluded the Marantz was better then the rest, however marginal that may have been.

"Yes, the it does take a fraction of a second for it to recognize the digital signal when you start a track from a stop. I believe other receivers in the price range do this as well though... "

What do you mean? Say I start a stopped CD from a track, it takes a fraction of a second to start. However, if it goes from 1 track to the next track, there is no pause for when that next track starts?

Exactly. when you start a CD from the stopped position, it will take a second for the receiver to recognize the signal, so you will lose the first fraction of the track, however, after this (ie, when it is continuing to play each succesive track) there is no cutting out.

Well, that certainly is not that big of a deal. I was worried about each track, THAT would be annoying.

After hearing this receiver last night, i am almost sold on it as opposed to the 2802 refurb i found at about the same price.

I have one last question, and I have looked long and hard, with no answer yet. the SR5300, when the 6 channels are running, what is the rated power? 90 still? Or will it drop a lot like the '01 and '02 Onkyo's(when the became 'more powerful' yet dropped in weight(gee, wonder why?)?

Oh, also, what speakers do you have on that 5200?

Well, I doubt with all channels driven the receiver still puts out 90 watts power to each. Very few receievers do, especially in this price range. Of course, how big a deal all those watts really are is another can of worms...

My 5200 drives my M50's as mains, and VP100 for a center (no surrounds yet). At one point, before I had a subwoofer, the LFE was being driven though my mains, and I had the rear surround hooked up as well (with the left/right surround being fed through a friends mini-system), and, for example, had Saving Private Ryan playing at ungodly levels (ie, 0dB volume) and I never noticed it sounding stressed. People upstairs and on the far side of the house did notice their windows and floors shaking though.