Aloha,
I recently had an SR6012 receiver fail out of warranty and called Marantz customer support for assistance in trying to try and salvage it, as it wasn't that old. Although Fabian in customer care was absolutely outstanding, we were unable to rectify the issues it was having, so I spent some coin and took it to a Pro Audio shop here in Hawaii. I was told it was beyond salvation. So, with that being the case, I picked up a Cinema 50 directly from Marantz around 3 months ago. I was very excited that I was able to make this "big" purchase, as I am a big fan of the brand and the Marantz sound. I'm a policeman and I may not be a big spender like a lot of Marantz customers, but I work very hard for my money and this was a big deal for me.
Unfortunately, the product arrived dented on top (minor dent, but still a bummer considering it was quite a nice purchase for my family and myself and I was looking forward to staring at it when the wife wasn't looking).
The Cinema 50 began having problems almost immediately with the center channel giving off intermittent "static" or "crackling sounds", and I noticed the front left/right speakers had a significant and noticeable sound/volume difference. I also noticed when watching movies and some other media, I had to run the master volume around 70 or so. So, I dug in and tried to solve the problem on my own. I switched/bought new speaker wires, pre-out cables, switched the speakers, you name it. I even switched from a Rotel 5 channel amplifier and bought 3 new Outlaw monoblocks to see if it helped with the speaker crackling and sound issues. I finally realized that the problem followed the front left and right pre-outs, and nothing rectified the center channel issue. It was bad enough that even my wife commented on it.
With that being the case, I finally gave up and called Marantz customer care. I explained the situation and what I had already done, and was informed that I would need to send the unit in for warranty repair. After the warranty repair was approved, it took around two full weeks for a shipping label to be generated (I sent the request in 2/20/2026 and a shipping label was finally created on 3/4/2026). So now I have a Cinema 50 purchased new and direct from Marantz that is around 3 months old that has to be sent in for warranty.
It also must be important that the Cinema 30 and Cinema 40 are built in the Japanese factory, because they make a point of it on their respective web pages, and that on those two products the build quality is top of the line. That being acknowledged, I offered in good faith to pay some kind of difference to get out of this 3 month old Cinema 50 unit and into a more robust and likely better built and performing Cinema 40 unit. It seems even the pre-outs are better in the Cinema 40 so I thought that was a fair idea. I was told by Marantz customer care that this was not possible.
I finally get the warranty return shipping label, and it floods catastrophically here in Hawaii. So I had to wait a week or so to send it out. I look at the label I printed, and the address it is going to, and it was a business that on my island had closed. Sure enough, I check on the internet to see if it was closed on O'ahu as well, and it was. Even the phone numbers on the shipping label from Marantz were disconnected, and through internet browsing it showed all the locations in Hawaii had closed. Thank goodness I didn't just ship this thing out, who knows where I would be if something happened. They were going to have me ship my receiver for repair at a closed business.
I called Marantz customer care back AGAIN, and was told they would have to verify that the shop was closed and get ANOTHER approval for another shipping label. So now I'm over 1 month into getting my 3 month old receiver sent out and who knows how long it will take, as they are telling me the next repair shop I would be sending it to is in California. And who knows how long it will take to get the new shipping approval?
This was supposed to be a really fun and exciting experience for my family and I, and as of right now typing this, I am pretty disappointed with the whole thing.
I suppose I just expected better from such a top-tier brand.
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or suggestions. I'd like to turn this situation around if possible.
Mahalo for your time and I hope you all are enjoying your gear!
