I bought a Marantz M-CR603 a month ago in Canada. I'm new to the digitial age of music listening and so I'm marvelling at all the functionality - Internet Radio, streaming music from my computer or iPhone over the wireless network, ... etc. But what strikes me immediately is what we've lost from the analogue days:
Time required to turn on my old amp and hear the radio: About a second
Time required to turn on the Marantz and hear internet radio: 63 seconds (I timed it).
So you come in from work, press the button, wait, give up waiting and go and do something else, come back later and then select what you want to listen to or initiate the AirPlay connection. Where's the convenience in that?
And what happened to large volume control knobs? OK I realise that with a remote the control knob is redundant but the little buttons on the Marantz have made volume control a less pleasurable button-tapping experience.
Also, this 'digitization' seems to have brought all the frustrations with it. E.g. The only way I've found to restart the AirPlay connection from iTunes after stopping using it is to turn the Marantz off and on (63 seconds). This seems to occur a lot, e.g. after the computer goes to sleep.
Fantastic functionality and sound but frustrating to use.
Thank you for your answer, but I wasn't specific enough what I should have asked was will it play music from a hard drive connected via the usb conector.
Marantz says that to be playable a device must use “FAT16” or “FAT32” file systems, that if the device uses multiple partitions only the top one can be selected, and that you can only have a maximum of 255 files in a folder, and a maximum of 255 folders.
However, it also cautions that: 'Marantz does not guarantee that all USB memory devices will operate or be suppled power. When using a USB connection type portable hard disk of the type for which power can be supplied by connecting an AC adapter, we recommend using the AC adapter.'
In my experience with players and systems such as this, while you can connect hard drives with the provisos above, they can take an age to read and list all the directories on a large-capacity drive, and then can be slow to skip between tracks in different folders. No such problems, however, using flash-memory 'thumb drives'.
I am the owner of marantz CR603 for few weeks now. Absolute top class. Airplay, inputs, internet radio, all perfect. And I played it with my very old no name speakers. Now, I obtained Klipsch 61 RB II, and wow, what a sound. You can't be wrong by purchasing the unit
Had the Marantz CR-603 for approx. 1 month. Can not fault this unit the Airplay is amazing and with the iphone app you can control the main features from anywhere in the room. The sound quality is fanatastic I had compared this unit to Denon and Yamaha at the £200 mark. But was disapointed so decieded to double my budget to £400 and I can only say worth every penny. So many extra features and connections will keep you busy for hours in my opinion none of the simular priced units have the same connectivety.And the sound well simply amazing ! Traded in some seperates to make space and simply I amazed at what this great looking small unit can do. Can see why this is 5 star rated probabley 6 stars for the price £399 online.
See my opinion in the BX2 review - bottom line is that both are very technically accomplished... ultimately the CR603 may be more listenable with a smoother speaker but the BX2+CR603 combination is a thoroughly refined, detailed and punchy pairing.
Just to add the CR603 goes LOUD - have never needed to go more than 50% volume to fill a large room with sound from this compact little power house.
I have owned it for a year now and never had any desire to upgrade, can't see anything sub £1,000 that would give a worthwhile improvment in sound quality and I think it would benefit from speakers in higher price brackets than my BX2's.
I'm the proud owner of the M-CR503 for over two weeks now.
I got to say i'm just loving it. Soundquality is superb. Before the Marantz i was using a surround receiver and DVD player to play my music, but this kit is miles away from the other equipment.
I auditioning a lot af other all-in-one system also the arcam solo mini, but i couldn't find any difference. For me the Marantz sounded better then the arcam.
Speakers are the Wharfedale 10.1 and now they sound just the way i wanted,
I went with the Marantz after comparing it to the Arcam Solo Mini, both at home, with PSB Alpha B1 speakers. Marantz seems a bit more detailed, but it's a close call when it comes to overall sound. That said, the Marantz is easier to live with, compared with the Arcam, which has a noisy (comparatively speaking) transport and seems a bit dated in terms of features. Marantz did a nice job with this one.
It will be interesting to see how it compares to Denon's CEOL RCD-N7 as this will surely be it's closest rival. Maybe worth including the Denon in a future group test?
I recently brought the marantz cr603 mini system and paired it with b&w 686 speakers and I have to say I'm mega impressed they work in harmony toghether and would recomend it 1st class on looks, sound ,well done marantz and bowers n wilkins
Comments
I bought a Marantz M-CR603 a month ago in Canada. I'm new to the digitial age of music listening and so I'm marvelling at all the functionality - Internet Radio, streaming music from my computer or iPhone over the wireless network, ... etc. But what strikes me immediately is what we've lost from the analogue days:
Time required to turn on my old amp and hear the radio: About a second
Time required to turn on the Marantz and hear internet radio: 63 seconds (I timed it).
So you come in from work, press the button, wait, give up waiting and go and do something else, come back later and then select what you want to listen to or initiate the AirPlay connection. Where's the convenience in that?
And what happened to large volume control knobs? OK I realise that with a remote the control knob is redundant but the little buttons on the Marantz have made volume control a less pleasurable button-tapping experience.
Also, this 'digitization' seems to have brought all the frustrations with it. E.g. The only way I've found to restart the AirPlay connection from iTunes after stopping using it is to turn the Marantz off and on (63 seconds). This seems to occur a lot, e.g. after the computer goes to sleep.
Fantastic functionality and sound but frustrating to use.
Can anyone tell me if this unit will play music stored on an external hard drive?
Yes, it can connect to your network and stream from a hard drive.
Thank you for your answer, but I wasn't specific enough what I should have asked was will it play music from a hard drive connected via the usb conector.
The answer is 'yes, sort of'!
Marantz says that to be playable a device must use “FAT16” or “FAT32” file systems, that if the device uses multiple partitions only the top one can be selected, and that you can only have a maximum of 255 files in a folder, and a maximum of 255 folders.
However, it also cautions that: 'Marantz does not guarantee that all USB memory devices will operate or be suppled power. When using a USB connection type
portable hard disk of the type for which power can be supplied by connecting an AC adapter, we recommend using the AC adapter.'
In my experience with players and systems such as this, while you can connect hard drives with the provisos above, they can take an age to read and list all the directories on a large-capacity drive, and then can be slow to skip between tracks in different folders. No such problems, however, using flash-memory 'thumb drives'.
I am the owner of marantz CR603 for few weeks now. Absolute top class. Airplay, inputs, internet radio, all perfect. And I played it with my very old no name speakers. Now, I obtained Klipsch 61 RB II, and wow, what a sound. You can't be wrong by purchasing the unit
Had the Marantz CR-603 for approx. 1 month. Can not fault this unit the Airplay is amazing and with the iphone app you can control the main features from anywhere in the room. The sound quality is fanatastic I had compared this unit to Denon and Yamaha at the £200 mark. But was disapointed so decieded to double my budget to £400 and I can only say worth every penny. So many extra features and connections will keep you busy for hours in my opinion none of the simular priced units have the same connectivety.And the sound well simply amazing ! Traded in some seperates to make space and simply I amazed at what this great looking small unit can do. Can see why this is 5 star rated probabley 6 stars for the price £399 online.
has anyone paired the marantz M-CR 603 with the monitor audio bx2 speakers? If yes can you tell if you are happy with the result, sound etc.
Yes.
See my opinion in the BX2 review - bottom line is that both are very technically accomplished... ultimately the CR603 may be more listenable with a smoother speaker but the BX2+CR603 combination is a thoroughly refined, detailed and punchy pairing.
Just to add the CR603 goes LOUD - have never needed to go more than 50% volume to fill a large room with sound from this compact little power house.
I have owned it for a year now and never had any desire to upgrade, can't see anything sub £1,000 that would give a worthwhile improvment in sound quality and I think it would benefit from speakers in higher price brackets than my BX2's.
I am currently running it with the BX2 speakers and it is superb, highly recommended.
Not over DLNA/UPnP connection, Helmut80. As yet we've been unable to test the AirPlay functionality
Marantz normally support SACD. That's a deal breaker for me.
I'm the proud owner of the M-CR503 for over two weeks now.
I got to say i'm just loving it. Soundquality is superb. Before the Marantz i was using a surround receiver and DVD player to play my music, but this kit is miles away from the other equipment.
I auditioning a lot af other all-in-one system also the arcam solo mini, but i couldn't find any difference. For me the Marantz sounded better then the arcam.
Speakers are the Wharfedale 10.1 and now they sound just the way i wanted,
Thumps up for Marantz.
I went with the Marantz after comparing it to the Arcam Solo Mini, both at home, with PSB Alpha B1 speakers. Marantz seems a bit more detailed, but it's a close call when it comes to overall sound. That said, the Marantz is easier to live with, compared with the Arcam, which has a noisy (comparatively speaking) transport and seems a bit dated in terms of features. Marantz did a nice job with this one.
It will be interesting to see how it compares to Denon's CEOL RCD-N7 as this will surely be it's closest rival. Maybe worth including the Denon in a future group test?
AirPlay but doesn't support ALAC? That would be very strange.
I recently brought the marantz cr603 mini system and paired it with b&w 686 speakers and I have to say I'm mega impressed they work in harmony toghether and would recomend it 1st class on looks, sound ,well done marantz and bowers n wilkins