Customer Ratings & Reviews

This marantz preamp exceeded all of my expectations. It is feature rich, the setup is easy and the setup menu is straightforward.

An all around big improvement over my previous audiophile sound processors, this one was unexpectedly user friendly with its labeled HDMI inputs and especially its graphic setup interface. Very happy with my purchase!

It's an awesome preamplifier for your surround sound home theater, and it's very solid built. I took off 1 star because even it's a flagship for Marantz, but it does not have the actual paper owner manual. If you don't have a computer, you are in trouble because it's too hard to read in your smart phone for the electronic manual. Also the box is too cheap for the almost 5 thousand dollar flagship. I used to have Classe and Anthem, when you look at their box, you know it's a highend flagship, but not for AV8805A. other than that, it is easy to set up and follow the direction, and the sound calibration is fairly easy to setup.

I had been a huge fan of Marantz and its user for more than 10 years and I used to own 7 series before( SR7012, SR7015 etc) and I never had a chance to own the Flagship Series i.e. 8 series, And recently I had upgraded my home theater to PreAmp and Power-amps and I initially purchased AV7706 and I was not satisfied 100% and I felt it lacked the umphff feel and the sound staging lacked the scalability and power and it was very sounding average. Until Last week when I had planned to try this AV8805A and oh my god what a remarkable difference, The entire music now feels so powerful, satisfying and vast difference from AKM DAC's used in 7706 and the architecture used in 8805A (ESS Sabre 32bit DAC's) with 2 OP-AMPS for every 1 channel is so good and this HDAM architecture makes the sound feel so discrete providing the ultimate channel separation with crystal clear clarity. I highly recommend this PREAMP for all the Audiophile lovers and this is the only AMP within 6000 USD range and also having Balanced XLR inputs, and I also hooked up my newest Audio Streamer I purchased from ListenUp and the sound quality is Fantabulous , and mind blowing . I highly recommend to buy from Bestbuy one of the signature Hifi Dealers and shipment was neatly double boxed and safely delivered. 5/5 stars experience

Awesome feature set and sound quality. I bought the original 8805 two years ago from Magnolia. I just got back my upgraded 8805A. The unit connects to my Samsung Q90 perfectly. I use a 4k AppleTV, PS5, and Sony Blu Ray, and Plex Server. I have an extensive FLAC collection that I usually listen to in Direct or Pure Direct Mode. The DACs to a great job bringing out subtle sounds through my Classe' 5300 and B&W 802Ds. Not sure what all the negative noise is about, but this is a great high end pre-amp. My previous was a Denon A1HDCI.

I paired this Marantz preamp with my McIntosh amplifier, and the result is nothing short of outstanding. The clarity, warmth, and balance in the sound are exactly what I was hoping for. It brings out the best in every genre I throw at it—jazz, rock, classical—you name it. Build quality is solid, the controls feel premium, and setup was a breeze. If you’re on the fence about whether this preamp can keep up with a high-end setup, don’t be. It absolutely delivers. Highly recommended for serious audiophiles who care about rich, immersive sound.

The sound quality is quite good-when it works properly. The biggest letdown has been the updated and ,supposedly, upgraded HDMI board . This unit has struggled with HDMI handshake issues with the Apple TV 4K (previous generation); the new 2021 Apple TV 4K performs much better. It’s also had compatibility issues with the certain cable TV boxes whereby it had difficulty identifying the audio format changes(when changing a channel) and tentatively locked in on “Multi-Channel In” before switching. This caused a beep/chirping noise from the speakers. I eventually had to run both of these source devices through other components to get the 8805A to perform properly. I tried calling customer service to explain all of these issues. I gave up after being on hold for an hour and a half. This is very disappointing for a new unit-especially at this price point. I had an AV8801. I was hoping for a nice upgrade. Hopefully they can fix these HDMI compatibility issues with firmware updates. If they can’t, what could’ve been a fine AV pre-pro, will be a disappointment.

Audio was great but had issues with 4k video at 120hz not passing through. For the amount of money this costs I'd expect the video to work without issue. Ended up returning.

Totally awesome product. Set up was easy, well documented and resulted in perfect balance. True Hi End sound quality

The sound is great love everything about this processor!

Moved up to this preamp from my Marantz Sr8012 beast receiver. What a remarkable difference in detail, I’m having so much fun listening to my favorite music and movies. Absolutely no remorse for spending the money, this is going to be a keeper for many years.

I brought the AV8805A, to replace the AV7702, but after I started using the unit, It started to lose the picture and sound for about 3-4 seconds at a time. It will lose it on all my devices, AppleTV, TiVo, Roku 4K and my DirecTv box. I tried everything possible to fix it new cables resetting the AV8805A, nothing works. I’m really disappointed with this Pre-Amp, and to top that off the panel door want stay closed. I hope Marantz, will come up with a fix for this problem. Because it’s a great Pre-Amp that sounds great with the features I like.

Hyper fast input and channel changes, awesome sound quality at an affordable price

Overall a very good experience with the unit; 4.5 stars. Sound quality is superb, seems well-built and has features galore. The only issue ive had is a somewhat slow handshake issue with my amazon firetv cube. The newest updates seem to have fixed the forcing me to restart to get it to display properly on occasion but it is still a bit slow displaying on screen.

If you pair this with a good amp you are going to really enjoy this. It sounds flat out amazing. The video is fantastic for both gaming and movie watching. You won't be disappointed with this.

Decided to go from AVR to separates and evaluated Marantz and Anthem products. Ended up with this AV8805A, MM8077 and Anthem MCA 525.

I too experienced the HDMI sync issue. It happens consistently with multiple devices - nvidia shield pro, Panasonic UB9000 - connected to a JVC NZ7 projector. Connecting devices directly to projector and through the previous Yamaha cx-a5100 produces no issues. Issue only occurs when the Marantz is part of the equation. It's a shame. The sound quality is quite good, but the HDMI sync issue is a non-starter. It can't go a half hour without the video completely dropping. Unacceptable at any price, especially at $5,000. It will be returned to Best Buy this weekend. Back to the Yamaha until I find a worthy successor.

Works great for our 5 channel system..............

I upgraded from an AV7703 to this AV8805A to benefit from all the new features, and especially two wide front speakers for a wider sound stage. Unfortunately, this model has defective HDMI decoding. Periodically when the source material changes video modes, the AVR loses HDMI sync and cannot re-aquire. All audio and video are lost until you change input device or toggle power. I have seen this with both Apple TV 4K and Tivo Edge 4K, using two different 18Gbps HDMI cables. Stay away from this device. The HDMI decoding is unreliable. At this price point, this poor performance is totally unacceptable.