Marantz NR1501 Slim Line Home Theater Receiver Review

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(More customer reviews)The Marantz NR1501 slim line model is only about 4" tall and really an excellent overall receiver.I bought this to replace a Sony STRG810.It was a toss up between a Denon, Yamaha or Marantz. The Sony STRG810 was a great receiver for movies but it was lacking sound quality in the music department (too much reverb).When comparing similar models, Yamaha was brighter then Denon, and Marantz was warmer then Denon, so I went with Marantz.I compared the Marantz NR1501 model to a Marantz SR6004 ($1300) side by side, and the audio quality was almost the same except the SR6004 was a bit more full at 110 watts per channel.I also compared the Marantz NR1501 to a Harmon Kardon AVR254 and the Marantz NR1501 sounded much better.The Harmon Kardon sounded too digital and tinny where the Marantz sounded true to its source. I am very pleased with how warm and clear the sound quality is while listening to music or watching movies.

The 50 watt NR1501 is more then enough wattage to power my reference series Klipsch speakers in a 13' x 17' living room. You may think that 50 watts is too low, but Marantz rates their receivers lower then what they are capable of.For example, Sony rates their receivers by putting a meter in the center of a testing room and increasing the volume as loud as it can go - distortion and all; they mark down what the wattage output is.Marantz does the same procedure except once they get to distortion, they back the knob off a little and mark down the wattage rating.That is why you will notice a lot of Marantz receivers are rated at 50,70, or 90 watts which is a lot lower then some of the 100,110 watt competition.

I usually set all the parameters (crossover frequency, speaker distance, db level etc.) by ear as I have with every receiver I have purchased. I wanted to see how well this receiver does with auto calibration, so I ran it.The receiver comes with a microphone so I put it on a camera tripod, put it up to the listening position, and ran the auto cal procedure.It lasted about 3 minutes and played a series of test tones.When it was done, all of the levels were adjusted to the listening position.I manually went through these levels to see how well it did.The only one I had to adjust was the crossover frequency.It set my center channel frequency to 170hz and my front and surround speaker channels to 90hz.Let me break this down, so you can see why I changed it:

My center channel speaker's frequency response is 67Hz-23kHz ± 3dB.Meaning anything below 67Hz ± 3dB is not produced well from the center channel speaker; so I set the center channel crossover frequency to 70Hz.Therefore, everything below 70Hz will be sent to my subwoofer. Also, my front channel speaker's frequency response is 90Hz-20kHz ± 3dB, so I set my front channel crossover frequency to 100hz.Finally, my rear channel speaker's frequency response is 52Hz-23kHz ± 3dB so I set the crossover frequency to 60hz.There was a noticeable improvement in sound quality after this was adjusted properly.

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Product Description:
Slim Height AV Surround Receiver with Marantz M1 Chassis, Dolby TrueHD/dts-HD Master Audio Decoder, HDMI v1.3 Input x4, Output x1, Transcoding of all Analog sources to HDMI, 7 channels of discrete amplification (50 watts x 7), Independent Audio Board for Improved Sound, Simple Set-up with MRAC(Marantz Room Accoustic Auto Calibration), Source Direct Mode, 3 Component Video Inputs / 1 Component Output, 5 Analog Audio Inputs / 3 Digital Audio Inputs, Sub Woofer Pre Out, Mini-jack Front AUX input for portable audio player, Slim Design (Height: 90mm), Detachable Power Cord, Marantz Remote In/Out Jacks, On Screen Display, Glow Key Precoded Remote Control

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