Installed a Marantz SR6016 before Christmas. Speakers are Monitor Audio CPIW260X x 7. Got everything installed and there was a loud buzz in 5 of the 7 speakers. I had the electrician look at his grounding as I thought it was possibly a ground loop. His connections were fine I disconnected all source inputs, subwoofers and plugged AVR directly into the wall. Checked the speaker connections and found no frays or wire touching the chassis. My thought is that I have received a DOA AVR. Is there anything else that I can check?

I was reading the thread below about Yamaha. How does Marantz quality compare to Yamaha?

[Link: remotecentral.com]

You wrote that no wires were frayed or touching the chassis- did you reference any of the speaker wires to the building's electrical ground or neutral?

You also wrote that you disconnected all of the sources- is it safe to assume that you still had this buzz after doing that? If you did, which source inputs did you use- only analog inputs, or did you check the digital inputs, too? If it makes this noise with all inputs, did you move the AVR? One way to find out if a noise is RFI or EMI is to rotate the chassis 90 degrees to the left or right- if a noise source is strong enough that it gets through the shielding, you need to move the AVR or the source.

If you have headphones, disconnect all of the speaker wires and check for noise.

WRT your comment about ground loops- if no sources are connected and you still have noise, you have a bad AVR IF there's no noise source nearby. If you have a wire toner, use the wand to check for EMI in the area of the AVR- press the button and wave it around the chassis, then move it away when you hear this noise.

If you're using a UPS for the network, a DVR or NVR or some other device, make sure it's not near the AVR- I had a problem that seems similar to yours- it only appeared after I connected an additional set of input cables that were coming from a detached shed and the noise wasn't on those, it was coming from the UPS. If I connected those cables to ANY input, I heard noise but if the UPS was turned off, it stopped.

No they are not

The only sources are HDMI. Will try rotating the rack

Will try this

There is no UPS on this system

Did you try using different HDMI cables?

Does it still buzz if all of the cables are disconnected from the AVR?

Does the buzz level track the Volume control?

What is different about the two speakers that do not buzz?

I've always liked Marantz for audio. Just hooked up a new system with a NR1710 two days ago, replacing a NR1605. And about a week ago, finally got my older AV8802 system going with newer HDR equipment (since the AV8802 doesn't support HDR). Always love the sound, and control is nice and predictable.

As for the problem... have you swapped the wiring of the non-buzzing speakers to buzzing ones to see if the buzz follows the wiring or the output on the receiver? If the output, have you simplified to just receiver, power into the wall, and 2 of the buzzing speakers, nothing else? If that still doesn't work, seems like the only final thing to test is a new receiver.

Also, Marantz receivers typically don't have a separate ground prong on the cord, but they do have an optional ground connection on the chassis.

Important point. If it tracks the volume control, then the problem is before the VC in the audio chain. If the volume doesn't change, then the problem is past that, which is mostly power amplification.


A subtle point about measuring the speakers and ground is to disconnect all speakers from the receiver, then measure for resistance from the speaker wires to a power ground. The resistance should be infinite. If not, one of the speaker wires is shorted to the ground somewhere, and this is likely to cause buzzing that doesn't go up and down with the volume.

All the other advice is good.