Answered Marantz SR7011 and NAD C368 no sound from fronts? What am I missing??

Justabod

Established Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Messages
175
Reaction score
57
Points
92
Age
50
Hi all,

I've bought a NAD C368 stereo integrated amp for music duties and am having all sorts of problems getting the Marantz SR7011 to play ball by using the pre outs on both units.

I've got a KEF R series 7.1.2 layout and just want to add the NAD via pre outs to deal with music and fronts within the set up. I've hooked up my fronts to the NAD and all other speakers are connected to the Marantz with a dual RCA running from the front pre out on the Marantz to the pre out on the NAD.

When I run the calibration though I get no sound from the fronts and a warning from Audyssey saying no speakers detected, what the hell is going on? I've got a feeling it's the amp assign but can't figure out what layout I should be using. Any ideas what I've done wrong here??? It's driving me nuts!

I should add the Atmos speakers are on top of the fronts and are Kef R50 upfirers. Any help would be greatly appreciated...thank you.
 
Hi all,

I've bought a NAD C368 stereo integrated amp for music duties and am having all sorts of problems getting the Marantz SR7011 to play ball by using the pre outs on both units.

I've got a KEF R series 7.1.2 layout and just want to add the NAD via pre outs to deal with music and fronts within the set up. I've hooked up my fronts to the NAD and all other speakers are connected to the Marantz with a dual RCA running from the front pre out on the Marantz to the pre out on the NAD.

When I run the calibration though I get no sound from the fronts and a warning from Audyssey saying no speakers detected, what the hell is going on? I've got a feeling it's the amp assign but can't figure out what layout I should be using. Any ideas what I've done wrong here??? It's driving me nuts!

I should add the Atmos speakers are on top of the fronts and are Kef R50 upfirers. Any help would be greatly appreciated...thank you.
pre in on the nad? rather than out to out you've said.
 
pre in on the nad? rather than out to out you've said.

No Pre in on the NAD. As far as I am aware it's pre out to pre out to bypass the volume control and integrate the Marantz. So frustrating!
 
No Pre in on the NAD. As far as I am aware it's pre out to pre out to bypass the volume control and integrate the Marantz. So frustrating!
Cannot be right. Mate,you want the left and right pre out from the marantz into a power amp direct input on the mad,(don't think the nad has this)which gives the marantz control of the nad for HT.
 
It's incorrectly sold to me in that case, now I am fuming. I was very clear what I needed.

The whole point of buying this was to use that functionality so now I am guessing I'm left with using a line in instead and adjusting volume control manually? Completley opposite of what I wanted though.
 
You can change one of the rca inputs between fixed and variable volume, essentially giving it a HT Bypass mode - so it would serve the purpose you need it to. Check out the manual. You have to set this in the menus on the amp
 
See attached confirming
 

Attachments

  • 78877B49-2EC7-4A58-968D-B4431B69C353.png
    78877B49-2EC7-4A58-968D-B4431B69C353.png
    491.5 KB · Views: 273
See attached confirming
Hmmm I'm still a bit confused as it's set to variable now but using the pre out connection I got the error on the Marantz. It did play ball when I used the line in 2 connection but as far as I am aware that still relies on manually setting the volume between stereo or surround.
Apologies it got really late last night and I lost the will to live. I'm obviously missing something, will look at the manual and see if that volume setting is the answer. Not sure how it works though and what input I use on the Nad but many thanks.
 
Sorry for the lateness of this update but thought I would report back with the outcome.

RRRuss you were spot on with the solution. After setting the volume fix at 0.0db and running the full calibration on the SR7011 for the fourth time it's problem solved with everything working as I wanted it to. The volume is correct when switching to the surround from stereo and vice versa so I'm very happy now.

Massive thanks to all of you for your help in solving this issue, without your input I would still be scratching my head wondering where I went wrong! :thumbsup:
 
I have the same NAD being used in HT mode and works very well, I read you had to ensure firmware was updated as some older FW did not have the fixed volume (HT bypass) function added. I had auto sleep turned on which is a pain as found it fell asleep if volume wasn't high enough so have truned that off now and works great. I love having a dedicated music amp in my louge that can be controlled by my Harmony and also one that does not clash with the AVR remote!! :)
 
Now I have the NAD set up correctly I'm very happy indeed, to be fair it was my own fault for not reading the manual thoroughly that caused most of the confusion. Saying that though it wasn't the most logical manual I've read, with the volume fix option mentioned much later on and not within the section that deals with HT bypass.

Like yourself though I'm very happy with the results now, it literally blows my Marantz SR7011 out of the water for stereo duties. Proper night and day stuff!
 
Yes I know Marantz are better for music than other AVRs, but compared to a real HiFi amp it's not even a fair fight. I have an Arcam AVR550 and the NAD is still a big improvement and I can now sell my standalone Node2 if I like to recoup some of the money spent on the amp.
 
It's such a massive difference that my other half, who really doesn't get that excited about yet another black box was actually speechless, once the R500's started to sing with the NAD the difference was immediately obvious. This is what she said "Oh my god I have never heard music sound like that" and this was the person who asked if we really needed yet another amp.

With the addition of the BluOS 2i module too, it brings wireless Tidal Masters to the living room and all manner of streaming services. I'm completely sold plus I have a very happy Mrs too, happy days :thumbsup:
 
Yes I have R500's too and they do sound better the more power you give them then add ot that the NAD better pre... For AV there is an arguement that have all amps the same or at least the front 3 the same helps with AV, which I do tend to agree with. Good thing with the NAD is that as and when I do nother upgrade, I could in theory buy a power amp and drive that from my AVR and NAD.. Anyway happy days... :)
 
To be honest I started off looking at the Marantz PM8006 as a suitable stereo amp to match the tone of the AVR but as good as the stereo sound was it lacked a few of the things I wanted such as streaming and bluetooth. To my ears the NAD sounded better anyway upon audition and had more bang for the buck.

Despite my concerns about system matching I don't find the NAD colours the sound or sounds noticably out of place in my system, it all still sounds very cohesive and even. Couldn't really be happier in all honesty.
 
Have been following your struggle with interest as have been considering doing the same with my marantz SR7012, can I ask do you listen at all to 5.1 or 4.0 music via sacd or dvda and if so do you find this cohesive and is there in fact any improvement. Glad you got it all sorted!
 
Have been following your struggle with interest as have been considering doing the same with my marantz SR7012, can I ask do you listen at all to 5.1 or 4.0 music via sacd or dvda and if so do you find this cohesive and is there in fact any improvement. Glad you got it all sorted!
Do you mean running a stereo amp in HT mode with music for dedicated surround sound such as SACD 5.1 or quad and DVD-A? I have a similar set up which consists of Pioneer LX500 4K universal disc player to Denon AVR X6200 with the front stereo pair powered by a Rega Elicit-R. The Rega doesn't colour the sound at all for SACD playback as the biggest influence is the Denon's pre-amp. A lot depends on the recording, especially with SACD as a lot are simply mastered from old quad recordings and the centre channel can remain mute. They are however a big improvement on redbooks.

I still prefer my music in a stereo configuration and for that the Denon is completely cut out by using my Marantz stand alone SACD player direction to the Rega amp even when the SACDs are multi layered.
 
Have been following your struggle with interest as have been considering doing the same with my marantz SR7012, can I ask do you listen at all to 5.1 or 4.0 music via sacd or dvda and if so do you find this cohesive and is there in fact any improvement. Glad you got it all sorted!

Sorry no I don't use SACD or DVDA for music playback although I do have that ability within my system so unfortunately I am unable to advise.

All I can say is that the NAD stereo amp has brought massive gains in traditional stereo music, whether streamed through Tidal in both CD and Master quality or via the Marantz CD player. Even bluetooth playback is considerably enhanced by the NAD. I would say if you are considering a stereo amp as part of your SR7012 set up, don't hesitate, you won't regret it.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom