Introduction

In 2009 I got to review the Marantz AV8003 processor and amp, and they helped to convince me of the benefits of separates over a receiver, and with how important it is overall to the performance of your whole system. With the Marantz pair, my speakers and CD player sounded better than they ever had before, and the system was virtually silent when muted compared to the bit of noise I get out of my speakers from most receivers. Unfortunately, I had to eventually return the pair to Marantz so when they announced a new processor at a more affordable price point, I did everything I could to get my hands on it and now have the pleasure of reviewing it as well.

In this review, we take a look at the AV7005 7.1 A/V Surround Sound Processor (SSP), which has an excellent feature set, including fully balanced analog audio XLR outputs for all channels.