Marantz PM6007 Vs Yamaha A-S501 In Depth Comparison With Sound Tests 

I compared exactly these two amplifiers, and my speakers are actually Dali Oberon 5’s (!). Found the Marantz more spacious and somewhat “warmer”. Very clear difference. I preferred the Marantz (my brother preferred the Yamaha).

The both sounded great. I prefer the Yamaha’s clean look. Thank you for the review.👍

So do those that are saying you can't hear a difference I understand that, I mean it is a RU-vid video and through RU-vid sometimes it is hard to discern the difference. Though I can tell you they do sound markedly different. A few years ago I went through a period where I couldn't really decide what I wanted as a budget amp. I went through numerous different brands, NAD marantz Yamaha Cambridge Audio Denon, and I actually had the marantz predecessor the 6006 at the same time I had the AS 701 and while they are slightly different amps to what you have here I think I could share my thoughts. To me the marantz was the better amp. It had better sound staging and it also had a much better tonality to it, like you could hear the correct tone of instruments better on the marantz versus the Yamaha. The thing that the Yamaha had going for it in my opinion was it was a bit cleaner sounding and a bit more kind of neutral in the sense that you kind of lost this sort of warmth in the mid-range that the marantz had but you made up for it in this more even sound. Now the 701 still had what I would call a vintage sound but definitely more neutral than the marantz, plus the other thing I liked about the Yamaha was it's consistency in sound, like every input as well as every type of music and type of music quality I played sounded good, whereas the marantz the analog inputs sounded better than the digital and if you were playing like a low quality mp3 file you can definitely tell it sounded worse then if you were playing like a high res file. Lastly the Yamaha in my opinion seem to be better built, like all the knobs and switches and just everything felt well put together and well made, the marantz sort of had this feeling of cheapness to it, like the knobs would wiggle around and the top was creaky when you press down on it and just other things as well that kind of lended itself to this kind of lower quality feeling. Anyway those are my thoughts on Yamaha versus marantz but your mileage may vary. PS after trying all those different brands and everything like that I ended up going with NAD, it just had the sound that I liked the best.

Yamaha by a mile, Marantz are overrated and obviously pay What hifi for good reviews,you never hear a bad one.Had a Yamaha as501,was that impressed, I bought the top model as3200.

Yamaha is the best of the two.More muscular sounding,stronger/depper midbass and bass!Also yamaha weight 10.2 kg marantz 7.8kg.Weight is a sign of inner quality.Also prefer the round tone controls from marantz.Τhe side corners on the marantz are Plastic, while on the yamaha the entire facade is Aluminum!I have A-S 501 with Q Acoustics 3030i and the sound is not bright,but sweet and mellow.I can listen for hours without fatigue.

Great review and comparison. I've personally owned around 20 sub $1400 amplifiers from: Yamaha, Denon, Nad, Onkyo, Rega, etc... In all honesty, blindfolded at a medium volume and same speakers I probably would not be able to tell the difference between them. I also own the AS 501, great amp for $550 US dollars.

I've owned the Yamaha A-S501 for a few years now but have never really noticed the DC Out facility on the rear. Thank you for pointing it out because I've just received a Wiim Mini this morning and that will be perfect for powering it. Cheers for that.

Da la impresión que Marantz es menos agresivo y controla mejor los tonos pese a su potencia bastante inferior a Yamaha, para que lo entendamos tímbricamente suena mejor y se nota el transformador toroidal...tampoco es que la música sea la ideal para probarlo y hacer comparación, faltaba algo de jazz... particularmente me quedo con mi Eci 2 de Electrocompaniet pese al monton de años que tiene encima.👍

They sound exactly the same.

As someone who's been caught out by the hifi industry's obsession with bright,harsh sounding amps,these 2 interest me.I currently have as301

Normally I can hear subtle difference in these kind of comparisons and I have watched and listened to lots of these comparison videos. This time I didn't hear a difference. They sound 100% identical.

Being owning a 501 for more than a year, I could say marantz gives out a well balance output whilst Yamaha becomes too harsh at upper mid and hi part of the spectrum. However at very low volume, Yamaha is unbeatable. I've compared it with Rotel, Audiolab and Marantz

After doing my own comparison I can tell you that the marantz pm6007 is mid heavy whereas the yamaha is bass heavy , out of these two I say the pm6007 blows the yamaha out of the park

Marantz is a bit more midbas yamaha more natural in the mids. Yamaha for me

I have several pairs of speakers, one of which is the little Dali Oberon 1, Dali's normally do need a bit of grunt to make them sing mine being 4 ohm. With Amp's it's not always about the number of watts they put out, there is also their ability to handle high current. Amps like NAD for example may only have 30/40 watts but they sound bigger than say a lower current amp at 60 watts. I run my Dali's with a Denon 600NE which is only 45watt at 8 ohms and 75 at 4 ohms can handle a lot of current and the bass on these tiny little Dali's is amazing. I have an older pioneer amp rated at 90 watts at 8 ohms, and driving the Dali's it sounds like 20 watts. If you can borrow/try some thing like the Denon give it a try.

The Yamaha sounded forward and crisp, the Marantz sounded a little muddy and laid back.

Great review, as always! I personally was shopping for units with as beefy a power supply as I could get with a built in streamer. I had both the Marantz PM7000N and the Yamaha R-N803. I really liked how the Yamaha looked but thought the Marantz was more balanced sounding and refined. The Yamaha was brighter sounding, yet not as detailed and the mid range sounded shouty or boxy, and I just could not tune it to sound pleasing to my ears. The Marantz, for me, was better in every way. I'm using Wharfedale Diamond 11.2 bookshelf speakers with a REL HT-1003 (10") powered sub.

😮i have a pm 6007 nothing beats it for spacios and detail Yamaha amps are for audio files who like modern music màrantz is for music

I’ve literally just bought the Yamaha but not set it up as , had shoulder surgery and had builders in 🙄

Hard to impossible to compare power ratings on spec sheets because manufacrurers use different methods to measure. Peak power, music power, RMS power. Even when they use RMS there are different test methods, measured at different levels of distortion and also measured at the full frequency range or at a fixed test signal. that also makes a big difference.

I recently got a Yamaha a s301 amp,I feel that it is so much brighter, more detailed in the mids and treble but less bass. I only have diamond 220speakers so maybe with floor standing speakers there maybe more low end. I found this with your amps. The Marantz had a little more low end and the Yamaha was brighter and more detail. Great video.

I am a little shocked, how similar both of them sound. There is really not much of a difference. IT seems, Marantz Has a little richier lowmids and Yamaha seems to have more dynamic swing, but it is so small difference, that it is really hard to choose.

I have both AS501 first then PM6007 later because of spare parts unavailable when AS501 broke down for the 2.1 home theater 4K blu ray. Marantz is warmer, cleaner and better clarity and soundstage whereas Yamaha is more flat but have little bass booster (even though use pure direct). But Marantz is more pricey (have to pay more half the price of Yamaha). Actually I like toroidal transformer power section of Marantz.

One is almost double the price of the other. In the states that 6007 goes for up to $900. Maybe a fair comparison would be with the a-s801 instead which is a similar price of the pm6007. I can’t hear any difference between either marantz pm6007 and the Yamaha 501

Over here in Mexico the price tag is double for the Marantz than the Yamaha. I am doing well with my old Marantz PM5005 so far.

I am amazed at how different they actually sound on my 4 cm speakers on my laptop. So I know the differences must be obvious in person. I prefer the detail in the Yamaha which is something I can suppress more easily than I can bring out what's missing in the Marantz. I did not notice much difference in bass but my little machine can't hear much below 200 hz anyway.

sorry but so stupid to have su compare the sound completeley irrelevant completely dependant on the setup we are using... would be relevant if we were in your room listening to it yes..

Yamaha says if are going to run 4 ohm speakers, switch it, I called them on it. I have been using 4ohm speakers, Wharfedale's Diamond 240's for almost a year now with no issues. At 4ohms it is putting out about 128 watts per channel.

yes the Yamaha was clearer the Marants had some distorting to me

Yamaha if u want strong clean top end and piano sounds are strikingly clean. Strong quality bass is another pleasure to hear.

Honestly this is not about the sound anymore because they are exactly the same, i choose yamaha for slightly better design

They will sound the same with noise coming out of them trying the comparison with music

Nice comparision. For me very ,very similar. 95% the same. They play with Oberon 5 or 7 ?

Marantz is better in look and sound I prefer Marantz for entry level both of thim .

As for the amp comparison, I might be expected to have a bias towards the Yamaha (as I own it) but I honestly couldn't tell the difference between the two..

I have found it’s hard to hear the difference between amps myself. And when I can, it’s a small difference. A slight difference in sound stage, maybe a slightly tighter center image. Vintage vs modern it’s the background hiss. (Which you really can’t hear once the music starts playing anyway) Maybe like you it’s my old ears. But if your looking to hear a difference, it’s in the speakers. When I A-B speakers there’s an obvious winner. The old adage still holds true, spend the majority of you budget on your speakers. Fun video- it’s great to see someone having fun with audio gear. Loved the old school Star Trek @ the end. Thanks for taking the time to put it together. Peace out ✌️

Marantz wins on the sound stage

The only Yamaha I owned was a 50cc moped in the 70's it sounded OK but not very musical, I will stick to my Marantz 6007 pm & cd. Seriously The Marantz killed the Yamaha. The Yamaha felt restrained while the Marantz was more open, not being technical its hard to describe but I Defford prefer the Marantz musicality.

wattage wont sound much thats louder next to each other the wattage pushes the sound out think of a football pitch standing one side and the amp and speakers the other side if you stood on the penelty spot and played them both the loudness won't be noticeable now go and stand in the other penalty box and play them thats where wattage really comes in to play

That was really hard to hear a difference between the two. I would say the Marantz sounded slightly livelier and truer (?) But the Yammy had a deeper bass.

Hi, good day. First of all thank for let us the viewer experience a hifi product that us might not had chance on it. Ok, to my comment.... to me the marantz sound more open and a bit forward then the yamaha in this video. But i think i heard a much better sounding amp then the marantz. Example audiolab 6000A and few more,...around the price category. What speaker brand and model is that ? It will be better i you let the SOUND DEMO DURATION BEFORE CHANGE TO NEXT AMP is longer...maybe around 10 seconds or a bit more, so that our brain has enough time to memorize each produced sound by each demos amp.

WOWSER! What's that track playing at 12.55?? What is it please?I MUST buy it! Great review - I saw another one you did too. I'm now buying the Marantz (to replace a Yamaha R-N500!) which I'm pairing with my amazing Neat Iotas (speaker B) Meanwhile, my speaker As will be my Auratone cubes. (I have a home studio set up). By the way, only the speaker As are linked to the subwoofer output!

Yamaha... !

I found that the sound was very muddy in both...perhaps better more revealing speakers.

Hi fidelity means that all hifi amplifiers should sound very similar, otherwise they are not hifi ! The powerful and expensive ones are needed in case of difficult loads or radiographic speakers.

Out of these speakers Yamaha comes out a bit clearer and Marantz gives a bit more bass. Opera tunes and tracks from Pink Martini could have helped to compare them in a different arena too.

most important - at least in US - Yam is avail in the far superior alum front style. Marantz no. could well be diff in Euro.

i have the marantz pm6003 with the wharfedale linton and they sound ok but i think they lack a little bit of body and muscle,could it be that something like the yamaha as701 with double the watts might be the best for the lintons to sound better?

I have put on headphones and I practically don't notice a difference. Maybe the Yamaha has a little more clarity in the highs and mids. If in the end what it comes down to is enjoying the music because of the small difference there is, I would buy the Yamaha since the price difference is great and the difference in sound is very small. (Sorry, translate with google)

I notice a very slight roll off in the highs in the Marantz compared to Yamaha. And in marantz, the vocals (upper mids) are brought forward a bit.

fine，i can‘t tell any different between them，so I will choose the cheaper one

The same

It is all marketing and personal taste. You need to spend well over $2,000 to hear any real difference.

Can't hear a whiff of a difference between them, even with high quality headphones and headphone amp. Perhaps my 65 year old ears? Excellent video, very helpful.

Not sure how they sound in your room, but the video through my studio monitors sound pretty much the same.

My Marantz 6007 volume knob is motorised

A-S 501 is the king !

Oh yeah i think the upper mids of the Marantz cancell out the low frequencies compared to the yamaha and the low range highs are equivalent to the flow and wutters of the marantz and give a harsh but well balanced spectrum and also gives a spacious but warmer resonance and is more detailed and crisp at lower mid highs..

They look like plasterers hands. Cheers for the 6007 reviews, thinking ofbuying one.

Great video introduction, I happen to have Marantz PM6007, and I am also curious about the sound of Yamaha A-S501, the video provides good information and I chose it because PM6007 can replace the power cord.

Oberon 5, these are very good speakers. Right now I own a pair of Triangle Borea BR03 but I think I will buy a pair of Dali Oberon 5 too.

I have the Yamaha 501 for a long time - and now I’m looking for the Arcam a15.

you can disable the aut standby on the marantz Press and hold SOURCE DIRECT for 5 seconds or more to switch it on and off. The power indicator changes as follows each time it is switched on and off. When auto standby mode is on: The power indicator blinks in red three times. When auto standby mode is off: The power indicator blinks in red once.

Thanks for your humble and naked review. Really very difficult for me to tell the sounding differences, hmmm. Greetings from Madrid.

It's surprising there isn't more of a sonic difference between the two. I'm currently comparing the Marantz against my Rotel A11 Tribute and I'm happy to say they sound completely different, which is what I wanted from a second system.

Yamaha sounds a bit brighter

Hello. In your opinion, which amp has better sound quality and gives better sound with the e30 topping deck? marantz pm6003 denon pm720ae yamahs as 301 tsnks

Not much in it - sounds identical!

I’m trying to choose one to pair with a project debut carbon evo, I don’t have any speakers in mind yet though It’s so hard to choose Currently just have a project mm preamp direct into a Sonos five speaker

Marantz sounded better

It seems that Marantz is pushing a bit harder on the lows but Yamaha is a bit more detailed and clean across the frequency spectrum. The differences are small. The Oberon 5 is a wonderful pair of speakers, very good indeed, but they are not transparent enough to let the differences between these two amplifiers be more evident.

I have a Yamaha 701, and use a y cable to hook two devices to the coax. With a video switcher you can connect as many devices as the switcher allows

Personally I think the Denon PMA 800ne beats both . New £419 if you shop around and no extra for silver . I just think it delivers more in every department, however it has no BT and no sub out . Otherwise it's a very good amp and very well balanced .

Nice comparison, Sir. These 2 amplifiers are actually in my purchase list. I am just wondering which would be more suitable for me.Your video definitely helps. On your 1st section of testing, these 2 amplifier perform closely. However, when it comes to 2nd section, the diference between these 2 becomes more clear. Marantz as expected gives warmer sound and the sound of drum dives deeper than Yamaha. Yamaha gives more natural sound. I'd say sound of Marantz is more adorable for most of people, because it is more vivid and lively. Thanks again for your video. Love it.

They sounds the same, no difference from mobile phone speaker

The Yamaha has a flat sound-curve, the Marantz is v-shaped: bass/treble a bit boosted, the mids a bit less. I like the Yamaha; combine the AS501 with the Elac Debut 6.2 bookshelf speakers, and you have a match made in heaven! Add a small subwoofer, and your soundsystem is complete. PS Use some decent cables and a good source!

No difference in the sound !

is there any difference in volume? i mean the yamaha is 85w p channel and marantz 45 i imagine you have to turn the volume less on the yamaha to get the same sound pressure level right?

Из России пишу. Молодец, отличный тест! Я выбираю Marantz, а тебе крепкого здоровья...))

Ciao e complimenti per il video… Io ho uno Yamaha a-s301 abbinato alle Qacoustics 3020i e un subwoofer polk audio pws10e… Secondo te tra il 301( 20w in meno del 501) e il pm6007 sentirei evidenti differenze? Tra il 501 e il pm6007 sono quasi nulle,ma con il 301?

Marantz are o imagine stereo mai detaliata,nu cu mult fata de Yamaha

I noticed that there were cases of optical output creating buzzing sound / noise on tweeter in Marantz PM6006. May I ask if your PM6007 had this issue? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dJ2O1o5KXUc.html

I confused finally which one is the best pls reply me

They sound exactly the same and speakers are set to off on the Yamaha?

i like the flat ones, you can see where they are set easier

Marantz sounds a bit smoother than the Yamaha. But I don't think it's that noticeable for the majority of people out there. I'd pick whichever's cheaper in your country.

Gran review. Great job amigo.

Hi thanks for sharing this wonderful video. I have just got B&W603s2, do you think Marantz pm6006(having promotion here) /6007 can drive them as with my current Denon x-2700 it’s sounding pretty much like crap. Thanks in advance

Hello! You should try a Rotel A11 Tribute in comparison with an Atoll IN50 Signature. I know these two amplifiers will sound better than Yamaha and Marantz. All the best.

Think the Marantz opened up more and clearer and better low and mids too. Yam sounds a bit dizzy in the top tbh!

You don't have a acoustical room. Another problem

The Marantz sounds much better. Warmer and richer.

Marantz !!

I have the PM6007 and the volume knob is motorised. Even when I control it via the remote, the knob physically turns. And the other thing is, you can actually turn off the auto sleep mode in the Marantz. Check the online user manual - I think you need to press the A button and the source direct button together for three seconds. The power led will flash to let you know it has changed the sleep mode settings.

Very good comparison ....for me Marantz is litle better more fuller sound especially in (upper) mids and Yamaha little thiner ...of course for me. But very very similar Thanks

Superb review fella. Subscribed for more. I'm looking at both these amps at the moment. I have a long room and wanted to use the A+B speaker function for two pairs of speakers at each end, have you tried this? which one is better? cheers