Marantz MCR603 -- can I control it from my laptop?
I've recently acquired the Marantz M-CR603 and am really pleased with it. However, I am finding it pretty hard work to scroll through my digital music collection on the small front display panel. If I want to scroll through 300 albums, I have to hold the down button for what feels like a good minute or two. Also, I have to be looking at the display to see what I'm selecting. All in all, it's a little bit awkward, so what I'd really like to be able to do is control what the Marantz is playing from my PC laptop. The possibility of doing this is actually alluded to in the manual p8: "You can also operate this unit from a computer using the Web control function", but as far as I can see there's no further information on this in the manual. A bit of web research makes me think the Marantz Wizz app is what I need, but it's available only for iPhone and I'd like to use either my laptop or my Android mobile phone (I haven't got an iphone). Does anyone have any idea if this is possible?
Thanks, Rob
PS On a separate topic, last.fm doesn't work for me with the Marantz. It gives the message "Not available in your country", but I think in the UK it should work. Has anyone had better luck?
Airplay is likely to be your solution for streaming music from your laptop to M-CR603.
More info here: http://de.marantz.eu/airplay/en/
I've been considering this system too and I think you have two options:
1) AirPlay (as mentioned above) - this will set you back about £40 for the firmware upgrade and you will need to connect your Marantz to the wireless router via Ethernet (limited to iTunes only).
2) If by any chance you already have an Airport Express, you can connect it to the Marantz as well and stream via iTunes or any other software plus Airfoil.
Hope this is helpful.
Thanks all. Looks like AirPlay would be an option, though I don't like the idea of paying so much for a firmware upgrade, nor do I want to use iTunes if I can help it. Does anyone know by any chance if there are plans to make the Marantz work with other music playing software, via AirFoil or some other means? It seems a bit wasteful to buy an AirPort Express when all the requisite hardware connections are already there.
Rob,
I bought my M-CR603 a couple of weeks ago and I am really enjoying the quality of its output.
I also bit the bullet and ugraded to Airplay and I have found the extra functionality very useful in conjunction with my Iphone. However, it still left a gap in not being able to stream the higher bit-rate Spotify tracks from my PC.
Last week I tried the demo of Airfoil and was stunned that not only was I able to stream spotify from my PC but I could also stream and control from my PC my entire catalogue. I had not realised that the Marantz was Airport Express compatible, I guess that Airplay and Airport Express are compatible functions.
So to answer your question and whilst it's not a cheap route (Airplay £40 + Airfoil £20), I have found that I get enormous flexibility with Airfoil and the quality of the streams sound great.
I hope this helps you.
Ralph
Rob, if your laptop is running Windows 7, you can use "play to" from Windows Media Player to push music to the Marantz, as opposed to pull, which means navigating through thousands of titles. When I tried that from the laptop of my nephew, I had to turn off the firewall first. I have found a good explanation here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/12/media-streaming-with-windo... On my laptop running Windows XP (no play to) I prepare playlist files (extension .m3u) in my music folder, the Marantz can then play the playlist. Joe
Thanks Joe, I do have Windows 7 and to my surprise that works perfectly. You just right click the tracks you want in Media Player and select Play to > Marantz. No need for Airplay or Airfoil.
On your android phone u could use an app like 2player. Its a music player that lets u select your source (pc, nas, etc) and your destination (any dlna enabled kit - tv, amp, droid whatever).
Theres loads of similar apps to choose from.
Your Marantz is DLNA equipped so there is no need for Airplay or Express.
I'm using Songbird to push music to the Marantz M-CR603 on a Mac. So no Airplay is required as Songbird acts as an UNPN/DNLA server. I'm loving this software and have transfered my whole iTunes library into it as it supports FLAC playback, which iTunes does not support. Songbird I believe is made by the Firefox browser folks and like the borwser it's open source, which means it's free for life... among much other goodness : )
Rob,
I bought my M-CR603 a couple of weeks ago and I am really enjoying the quality of its output.
I also bit the bullet and ugraded to Airplay and I have found the extra functionality very useful in conjunction with my Iphone. However, it still left a gap in not being able to stream the higher bit-rate Spotify tracks from my PC.
Last week I tried the demo of Airfoil and was stunned that not only was I able to stream spotify from my PC but I could also stream and control from my PC my entire catalogue. I had not realised that the Marantz was Airport Express compatible, I guess that Airplay and Airport Express are compatible functions.
So to answer your question and whilst it's not a cheap route (Airplay £40 + Airfoil £20), I have found that I get enormous flexibility with Airfoil and the quality of the streams sound great.
I hope this helps you.
Ralph
If you have Virgin Media tv you can just use the Spotify app on the tv to play Sotify's higher bitrate music. Then your tv screen becomes your music menu.
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Maybe because of this...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12381887
Last FM say here...
Here is the list of devices we support and our associated subscription requirements.
Marantz M-CR603 + AirPlay • Rega R3 loudspeakers • iPhone 5 32GB • iMac • Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n • Panasonic TX-L32D25B • Sony BDP-S390 • Ruark Audio R1 Deluxe • Humax HDR-Fox T2