Marantz SR5008 vs Cambridge Audio AZUR 650R

You have a mighty fine 5.1 speaker set up, can you demo the Cambridge? There are things about the Cambridge that you may not like: very revealing AVR, meaning all the stuff you thought sounded great, may now sound shrill and bright. All the stuff you thought sounded muddy and muted, will now sound fantastic. Cambridge set up/user menus are a pain. You will want to run 7.1 out of the universal player (quality player will have analogue outs).

Personally I love the Cambridge sound, especially for SACD play-back (7.1 analog in from player) but have since decided to go with seperates.

I do not know the Marantz sound, but judging from the retail price, you will be doing your speakers a dis-service by going with it. It just does not match up price wise.

A very simple rule of thumb is that your AVR should cost about 40-50% of you total system cost.

You have not received any other responses perhaps because:

1) Need your room dimensions LxHxW - to determine cubic feet (used to determine if subwoofer, amplification is enough for the space)
2) Mainly for music or for movies (80%music/20%movie) or something
3) Action movies or Drama
4)Hip hop or Classical
5) what are your sources (brand, model of blu-ray player)

We love getting this type of detail in questions

Good luck!

You have a mighty fine 5.1 speaker set up, can you demo the Cambridge? There are things about the Cambridge that you may not like: very revealing AVR, meaning all the stuff you thought sounded great, may now sound shrill and bright. All the stuff you thought sounded muddy and muted, will now sound fantastic. Cambridge set up/user menus are a pain. You will want to run 7.1 out of the universal player (quality player will have analogue outs).

Personally I love the Cambridge sound, especially for SACD play-back (7.1 analog in from player) but have since decided to go with seperates.

I do not know the Marantz sound, but judging from the retail price, you will be doing your speakers a dis-service by going with it. It just does not match up price wise.

A very simple rule of thumb is that your AVR should cost about 40-50% of you total system cost.

You have not received any other responses perhaps because:

1) Need your room dimensions LxHxW - to determine cubic feet (used to determine if subwoofer, amplification is enough for the space)
2) Mainly for music or for movies (80%music/20%movie) or something
3) Action movies or Drama
4)Hip hop or Classical
5) what are your sources (brand, model of blu-ray player)

We love getting this type of detail in questions

Good luck!

Yes just looking at price alone, the Marantz SR5008 has a current list price of $899.00 and I believe the Cambridge Audio AZUR 650R had a list price in 2011 at approx $1799.00 per some on-line articles. So that alone should raise a flag. Just because power ratings are published the same doesn't mean they are equal in quality and if they are hand selected, etc. Marantz makes great products and I have a Marantz Blu-ray DVD/SACD universal player and love it. But their power ratings are somewhat misleading. I agree with Bobnegi to go with the Cambridge unit if you can swing it. You're going to have it for a long time. Yes knowing what your listening room size is LWH is important and what kind of furnishings are in the room.

I have the AZUR 640R paired with PSB Imagine's and a Rotel amp running a VMPS Large Sub, and am very happy with it. I have not listened to Marantz in years, but at the time I liked them. Though today I would call them too bass heavy. Great for Jazz and Classic music. I like the all around nature of the Cambridge better. But of course it just my opinion.

I had the CAMBRIDGE Azur 650R AVR in a prior HT 7.1 system before I upgraded to high-end separates .

Strengths

It's audio performance in HT multichannel is far superior to the other Chi-Fi AVRs . The only ones I have seen better are the top two ARCAM FMJs.

Three year warranty is far better than most other choices but this discontinued model may already be past that stage.
Works best with its matching mate AZUR BluRay player.

Weaknesses

It's still a disposable item as the Codecs change.

It's still Chi-Fi . 99% of AVRs south of $2000 are. Let's remember that Arcam pulled out its top FMJ AVR production out if China and brought it back to the UK because of the made-in-China quality control problems and the frequent unit failure problems.

Mine also failed twice within the three year warranty period . The first time was a big motherboard replacement under warranty. The second time was the HDMI ports failure that somehow was deemed not a a warranty item -- go figure. I sold it and moved up to made-in-UK and USA high-end separates .

It's still just an AVR unibox with inherent compromises therein for 2-channel. The receiver works great for HT but with the exception of the top ARCAMs , no receiver competes with a quality integrated amp in two channel audio performance.

Takeaway

--IMO it bests most other AVRs at its price point .
-- You only get what you pay for
-- It's still a disposable ... The Codecs do change and will continue to change. That's why I went with a stand alone preamp / processor unit and separate amps.

--Just be wary that it also has its own warts just like all the other sub $3K AVRs out there . Repairs out if warranty can be costly .

--When it works, it sounds great in HT with an audio performance in multichannel that will easily best most other choices in the sub $2K price strata .