2. home-theater
  3. 125736-10485

Marantz 8801 no sound, worth fixing or replace.

Last night during TV viewing all of a sudden the audio dropped to nothing, no blinking lights, no loud bang, pop or click, silence. All digital inputs produce a minor hum that gets louder as gain is increased. The pure/direct mode with analog inputs produces audio fine, but when I select "stereo" or any processed affect, no sound.
So sounds like something bit the bullet.  Love the sound of this unit for 5.2 50/50 movie 2 channel, not into more channels than that. My question is repair it or replace it?
Any advice or opinion is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Steve
valgolfs
savdllc's avatar
savdllc
40 posts
 
Hi Valgolfs,

As is the case with all A/V gear, if it's fairly new but out of warranty, try to get it repaired first (no need to throw away good gear that just needs a tune-up), but if it's going to cost more than a couple hundred bucks, I'd take the stance that it doesn't make good sense to reinvest in old tech when you can just apply that amount towards something new and cutting edge. If you can't breath new life into your AV8801 and you decide to upgrade, let me know - I run a HT company out of Atlanta that serves customers nationwide, and would be happy to help you find a suitable replacement.

Best wishes,

David Campbell
President - Southern A/V Direct, LLC
404-948-8585
www.SouthernAVDirect.com
audioman2015
103 posts
 
I'm late but if you still have the unit, try resetting the microprocessor as indicated on page 186 of the user manual.  1.Turn off the power using on/standby.  2) Press on/standby while simultaneously pressing game and sleep buttons.  3) Once the display starts flashing at intervals of about 1 second, release the two buttons.


invaderzim's avatar
invaderzim
13 posts
 
I know this is old but found it while searching.  This just happened to me (last day of 2020,naturally--perfect end to the year).  In checking around, it seems that the HDMI boards in these units have this problem and are no longer available, so that $500 repair described above (board replacement) is not possible. It appears possible to send it to "United Audio" for a manual repair (they replace components on the board) but not worthwhile for a 2013 AVR without Atmos and bare 4K support. It's a shame because the unit sounded terrific.

I unplugged it for 30 seconds, no change.  Did the full-on microprocessor reset from the manual and managed to lose all my settings (not unexpected).  No change--HDMI video fine but no audio over HDMI.  Finally, found instructions online for a soft reset: turn it off, unplug the power, and (maybe most important) unplug all HDMI connections overnight. 

Lo and behold, that fixed it: HDMI sound is back, although it went through the startup again, asking about my configuration.  Since it's time for an upgrade, I probably won't bother with the re-calibration.

More to discover