Dilettante: What's up with that name, anyway? Your Maiden name?

Would you like to swap power cords, perhaps the first part of November? That way we will both know how each one sounds, be it the same or different.

Dilettante - A dilettante is a person who enjoys the arts or who engages in a field without investing the usually required effort. An amateur, someone with a casual or superficial interest. A jack of all trades and master of none! Great word! (People who loved to be called "Christians" are the best at this! )

We can swap cords - would love to - or as I said I will just send mine to you - and agree that you can decide for the both of us - I'm just a dilettante you remember!!!

Sounds good... Gmail sent.

Dilettante, Great name, Great explanation, and OUCH, the comment about Christians cuts close to home. Lord help!!!!
But you sound pretty serious about your audio, not just dabbling I think!!!!!
Enjoy your participation, and I hope we are not always JUNK.
God Bless,
Wayne

Thanks Wayne! Love the comments from everyone! Great blog - each is trying to be a help to the whole. Been apart of other blogs where comradery turned to bashing - NO LIKE! Helping others can be done various ways - this is just one of those ways! I am for helping others - and especially grateful when I can assist - and am most grateful when I am the recipient!!!

Update:

OK, the Marantz SR 7010 and OPPO 105D are installed after two days of wrestling with all sorts of issues, like a (old) Harmony remote that just wasn't about to be reprogrammed (replaced it with a URC, which is much better), a balky 12v connection to the amp that made the amp keep on cutting out, etc. Usual Murphy's Law stuff.

First impressions:

Marantz SR 7010:

Two things were very noticeable vs. the NAD T757 it replaced (and the NAD was no slouch).
The Marantz is not shy at all about pumping out great, clean bass. I've dialed back bass settings on the sub gains, and on the Triton towers. The T2's, already sounding better with the Venom 3 power cords, really love the Marantz. I've believed for awhile that some AVR's are shy about sending full bass signals to large speakers. Not this Marantz. I dialed back bass on the T1's also.
After running the Audyssey XT32 EQ program (8 microphone locations), the sound envelope, the sense of being fully immersed in the music, is just so much more mesmerizing, and the bass coverage is equally smooth. I find that the setting I like best so far re the Audyssey is L/R bypass, vs. full reference processing. This is the first Audyssey program I've used that I actually LIKE.

Also, I just played an ATMOS DVD I got today, "Gravity". There's an ATMOS edition and 3D edition. Too bad there isn't one with both. The effect is really immersive. I was floating out there with Sandra Bullock. I've never heard better, or even this good, in a theatre ('m sure there are some IMAX theatres with mega sound systems that would impress me, though). I'll report more once the DTS:X firmware is installed and I can process more surround inputs into a height format.

SQ is excellent. I'm not through fine tuning yet, but the Marantz is REALLY impressive!

OPPO 105D:

I've played a number of music DVD's, and the detail, clarity, SQ in general is just leaps ahead of what the Panasonic it replaced could do.

I'll be revisiting lots of music and DVD's. It's like hearing them in a whole new light.

More later.

Rick