Marantz vs. Oppo or Theta

PS - Part of why I am hesitant is I listened to a Marantz streamer, or SACD player and it was .... harsh.

I still use an Oppo 105 for Blue Ray and Dvd's which it does a nice job with but if I recall correctly the one time I tried to play an SACD I could only output it through the OPPO's analogue output.  Could not output it digitally and into my external Dac, it had to go through the Oppo's Dac.  

Hey @alan_a  Well sad to say I have no SACD's at all here.  I am strictly looking for a good sounding 4k/8k HT processor with MANUAL EQ settings.

I dunno Erik so take this for what it’s worth, but those Theta Casablancas seem to be held in really high regard, even as stereo preamps, to this day.  So, if I’m going for absolute sound quality and the Theta has the connections/features you’re looking for I’d have a hard time picking either of the other two over it.  But that’s just a dumb guess FWIW.  Plus, owning a Theta would be kinda cool, so there’s that. 

For HT duty only, the Marantz will be great. Had one and now a Denon for HT. Same company, similar HT performance. And all the modern software/firmware to manage modern HT sound decoding is a plus.

Hi @soix I had the Casanova and it was outstanding. The reasons I'm not seriously considering Theta right now is many-fold. First, they were SO far behind in getting HDMI working, plus of course the massive cost of a unit today. Lastly, they are not an enthusiast brand.  They are a uber-high end billion dollar mansion builder brand.  I'm not their target market/customer at all, especially not if I want to configure everything myself.

I’m also not sure Theta has the manual EQ features I’m looking for.

@nwres Yes, the Marantz would be HT only, using a Luxman stereo to handle music. My concern is just that the mass-market Japanese HT brands were just ... really so bad that I’m afraid of going back to a Japanese brand for HT.

Oh my. My SA-8004 is certainly not harsh. 

I own a Theta Casablanca V. In my opinion, it is an outstanding AV preamp/processor/DAC in flexibility and sound quality (insofar as what it does, which is everything except SACD decoding and MQA decoding). It also has built-Dirac Live.  I use mine to both watch movies and listen to music. My criticisms are two: its video switching is subpar in terms of its syncing consistency (not a problem for me because I use an external AVpro video switch); and it is very, very expensive. 
 

It doesn’t make sense to compare a Casablanca with any other “comparable” AV unit because there aren’t any. The Casablanca is custom in the way an Aston Martin Valkyrie is.

I haven’t heard the Theta but do own an OPPO BP 103 I bought in 2014 and purchased the Marantz 7706 last year. I love the Marantz for tone/room control. I used the Audyssey but ended up using manual adjustments (there are two presets so can use both). The Audyssey told me I had a speaker out of phase (I didn’t) AND wanted to set the crossovers at 120hz for my monoblocked tower speakers! Ummm…no! That aside, the settings are very flexible. Distance measured in .1ft vs OPPO at .5ft. dB level settings +/-10 dB and crossover setting in 10hz increments from 40hz-120hz. Also, what’s really great is level adjustments for ALL channels on independent sources which solved the problem I had of my Amazon Fire always sounding lower than the OPPO or other sources! I primarily got the Marantz for ATMOS and am not disappointed. 

One more thing about the Marantz and OPPO. I have a large collections of SACD’s and DVD-A’s as I enjoy multichannel music. The main reason I kept the OPPO is it plays all these formats with ease and with the OPPO can send either the native DSD over HDMI or can convert it to PCM first. The Marantz will take either stream via HDMI. The Marantz is just so super versatile. You can feed it any digital stream (DSD, FLAC, etc.) whether from your own device (like the OPPO or your PC) or from any high-rez streaming service and it will play it.

It doesn’t make sense to compare a Casablanca with any other “comparable” AV unit because there aren’t any. The Casablanca is custom in the way an Aston Martin Valkyrie is.

@jmeyers  I wasn't trying to offend your brand loyalty.  I just have experienced that there are some HT processors which are at least enjoyable to listen to and some that are just really not.

I thought maybe someone with experience listening to the same gear I have could give me a recommendation in the range I could afford.  Clearly that wasn't something you felt comfortable doing.

Magnetar 

I have the Oppo 205, love it, does practically everything, use it as a dac preamp direct to my power amp. Run a subwoofer and separate surround channels from it. Not sure how it compares to others mentioned BUT I am not aware of any other universal components that can do as much as the Oppo 205, unfortunately not made anymore.

@erik_squires   You did not offend me. I was just pointing out that the Theta Digital  Casablanca V ("CB5") is a unique preamp/processor -- and extraordinarily flexible, too. I also happen to own an OPPO 203, but it is not anywhere like the OPPO 205 because its analog output is only two-channel. I send multi-channel, whether audio or Blu-ray/4K, to the CB5 for DAC processing.

Based on my experience with OPPO (I have owned every model since the original, I think, 83), I can say with confidence that their products are well-engineered and well-built. I also know ESS Technology's SABRE DAC line well, too. Their 9038s are exceptional DAC chips. Combining them with OPPO's overall engineering and build prowess, and the result should be one terrific universal "shiny disc" player with seven audio channel analog output. However, it does not offer parametric equalization. Frankly, that is better left to your pre-amp.

The Marantz "house sound" leans toward slightly warm.  Oppo is more neutral.  I have a Marantz 7704 and before that an 8801.  The 7704 has been bulletproof so far and sounds great for home theater.  I've also owned Marantz CD players including the KI-Pearl. 

They were anything but harsh.  If anything, they were not great at detail retrieval, much like the Oppo, which is a jack of all trades and master of none.  Once you compare a decent disc spinner to an Oppo you'll realize that it is very middle of the road. 

In short, if a person is happy with the sound quality of an Oppo and wants a HT processor that is easy to listen to and not "thin" sounding, then Marantz should fit the bill. 

They don't appear to have any at the moment, but if you keep an eye on accessories4less they often have factory refurbished units at a significant discount that come with a 3 year warranty.