3 x Marantz M-CR610 delevoped same fault in past 24 hours

[SiUK]

At the end of my tether with my M-CR610s. Since purchasing three of them in late 2013 they have worked flawlessly. 24hrs ago this all changed.

Got home yesterday and did the same as I do each day, immediately pick up the Marantz remote and press 'Server'. Fine, 'Diskstation' appeared (my Synology NAS) on the OLED display so selected it, drilled down, and chose an album by Tears For Fears called The Hurting. It connected, played about 8 seconds of the first track and then the spinning busy symbol showed on the LED display, and 'looped' back and reconnected, played the same track (it remembers the last track you played...most times at least) and then again 8 seconds and disconnected. Over and over. Turned it off and on again (yeah, technical I know) but same thing. Checked network cables, router, restarted server same thing.

Went upstairs tried both units in both bedrooms and same thing. So downstairs again and switched ports that the NAS was plugged into on router...still same thing. Checked the server again and changed SSDP advertisment interval to 300 just in case (I didn't think it would actually be that), no go. Same thing.

So, browsed the Synology NAS via DLNA on my TVs upstairs and down and no problem whatsovever. Samsung TVs see the 'Diskstation' and display the folders, so I choose the same album as before and it played. I then switched to the Digital input on the Marantz using the remote (all tvs are also connected to the M-CR610s via S/PDIF) and music comes via my TV out of the QA speakers connected to the Marantz. No interuptions. I then think it's time to try the other Marantz functions.

I went through each M-CR610 and checked everything.

Internet Radio...works perfectly.
Tuner...works perfectly
Digital and analogue..work perfectly
CD...working perfectly

BUT

Rear and front USB inputs...do EXACTLY the same thing as the Server. They connect and then play first few seconds and then 'loop' back and reconnect again. Sometimes displaying No Connection. So I went to all three units and exactly the same thing on all three. All within 24 hours. No surges or spikes. Stuff is protected. All other equipement working perfectly.

I am at a loss. Oh yeah, did a factory reset of one unit and no change at all!

 

[hybridauth_Google_111399902379205770012]

Sorry to hear that.

You might be interested in a fact my M-CR611 had a new automatic firmware upgrade just yesterday evening. I think it could be related. I do not use DLNA on a regular basis, but the date seems to indicate a potential problem/solution.

One more thing - my M-CR611 had a connection issue before too. It was related to WiFi router and hard restart (not ON/OFF! cable out and in) solved the problem.

Keep us updated!

 

[splasher]

Almost certainly a firmware update. I had a NA7004 streamer that would break every time there was a firmware update. In the end, I reset it back to the factory firmware and switched off all updates because it was better not to have any new features but a working basic streamer.

I still have a MCR603 but I'd like to get rid of that as well. My view born out of owning both products for a number of years, others may disagree, is that Marantz make nice sounding kit but their networking and software is unfit for purpose.

 

[junkt]

Same thing with my 610 - flawless before the weekend but now only plays 5s of any file on my Synology 214. Everything else works fine & various other kit can access the NAS

Looks like its related to an update - http://www.whathifi.com/forum/network-players/marantz-mcr610-connection-issues

 

[splasher]

Given someone else posted that their NA7004 was doing the same, I thought I'd try our old MCR603 and guess what, it's doing the same!

Can't wait to replace it - Marantz make good sounding kit but are hopeless when it comes to networking and software.

 

[SiUK]

I have been speaking to Marantz support (D&M) today as this started happening. Spent far too long trying to diagnose the problem and eventually dismantled my home network to troubleshoot the problem. Eventually I connected only the 3 M-CR610s to an isolated TP-Link switch with the Synology NAS connected to it also...so no Internet connection at all IOW! All three units played perfectly, and all simultaneously. Plugged an ethernet cable into the switch and connected to the Internet and low and behold it started up again. Unplugged the cable and again, problem disappears. Phoned D&M again to tell them and was told the issue was now 'highest priority' and was with European engineers who were now busy trying to find a solution. Hmm. Better find it soon. Very expensive radios otherwise! I have kept the Marantz's & NAS on the separated switch for now. It's a right PITA but no other option.

 

[JZC]

Thanks for the update. I have been having a similar problem with my Marantz NA7004 network player so it appears that the problem is a firmware issue that hopefully Marantz may be able to resolve soon.

See http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/marantz-network-player-problem#comment-917995

It's somewhat of a relief to know that it appears not to be a hardware problem with my player.

 

[Highwayman]

My NR1602 is doing this and I don't think it has had a firmware update. This is very worrying as it is affecting many marantz models. It isn't a synology issue because I tried a wd world nas

 

[SiUK]

The last firmware update for my M-CR610s was June or July I think. Why this 'bomb' should go off on a specific day in August though is curious. And it also makes me wonder what the Marantz's are actually doing; maybe they're attempting to connect to a non existent server...but why? And if it's so then the software must be pretty flaky if it can't just fail gracefully after a failed connection attempt and drop the connection and continue. What numpty would program a permanent loop?

If it looks like it's going to be endless promises and a never ending wait for a fix I'm not going to faff about. I'll just have to send all three back under warranty (got 3 years warranty when I purchased them). The pleasure of ownership is somewhat diminishing of late. Last.fm now redundant...yet not removed via firmware update so Pressing 'Online Music' button still displays it. And I don't use Spotify via any of the units so that button/fuction is useless. The recent BBC audio format change now means the extensive archives/podcasts that were available (and I accessed them frequently...daily) are now unvailable to stream...and there's not going to be fix so Internet Radio now hobbled - they too (the streams) have yet to be be removed from the software and maybe won't ever be; you get an audio warning when selecting any of the dead streams. And so if the Server and USB functions are now crippled when connected to the Internet then the product is basically reduced to the role of clunky CD radio alarm clock.

I never like to see products incorporate services that are currently in vogue without the option to remove or hide them...and it's even more irritating when they are physically incorporated into hardware and remotes. That is, when you have a row of buttons on a remote with logos on that you'll never press because they relate to services you'll never use. Stupid.

Yearning for the simplicity of my old 'dumb' system. Amp with on-off switch + CDP + Speakers and then add music. Ahhhhh. Yeah.

 

[junkt]

Marantz are aware & looking into it-

http://marantz-uk.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3986/session/L3RpbWUvMTQ0MDA2MDE3OS9zaWQvWFdSNWtudW0%3D

 

[Jon78]

I'm having the same problems (see my post elsewhere : http://www.whathifi.com/forum/network-players/marantz-mcr610-connection-issues)

The issue is now the no. 1 FAQ on the Marantz website and I wonder whether the issue has/will spread to Denon products.

I had considered uploading my music to a USB and plugging that in the back but it appears that this method is also screwed leaving me in the same boat as you with a 18 month old CD player and a load of inaccessible and out of date web media. The fact that my Panasonic Bluray player can do more than the Marantz at the moment is a joke.

 

[Highwayman]

There appear to be two threads running on this so I am repeating myself a bit. Unfortunately this is important to me so I want to participate in both threads while this plays out.

I totally agree with SiUK. Firmware driven kit was heralded as future proof but has turned out to be quite the opposite. For what its worth you can get round the BBC radio problem by setting up internet radio on your Synology NAS. You can then set the URL to the new supported BBC site. I also find that by doing it this way I don't have any where near as many buffering issues on the radio because my NAS has more memory and processing power than my ageing NR1602.

 

[splasher]

I also agree with SiUK.

I retired my NA7004 after spending 2 years acting more like a computer tech than a music listener and replaced it with a Cambridge Audio 851N. Listening to NAS streaming and internet radio now involves just sitting still and listening rather than switching boxes off and on, undoing and redoing firmware patches and restarting my music after it drops out whilst swearing.

Now I realise that my bedroom MCR603 doesn't stream from the NAS unless my song is less than 10s long and I think it's the straw that has broken the camel's back. Time for a (non-Marantz) replacement. They make some great sounding kit but for as long as they're buying their IT from Fischer Price, I'll go elsewhere. If I wanted to contantly muck about with networks, I would do it as a job. At least I would get paid, rather than paying for the priviledge.

Edited for grammar.

 

[JZC]

I started the other thread related to this but I think it would be better for future posts to be made on this one instead to avoid duplication.

I used to work in IT but I also would rather just switch on my system and listen to the music than faff about trying to work out what's wrong when it doesn't work. To be fair I've had my NR7004 since December 2012 and other than installing the Airplay upgrade I've not had to do anything else other than trying and failing to get Last FM to work.

I agree that there are going to be problems with devices that use internet services as these may change and it may or may not be possible to update the firmware to continue using them or the service may be withdrawn completely. It's not just media players that are affected by this, my 5 year old Sony TV can no longer access YouTube as its no longer supported. Having said that I would never buy a Samsung TV again as everytime I want to use an app on it it I invariably have to wait while it insists on installing new apps or updating existing ones that I will never use.

I do agree that Marantz IT does leave something to be desired, their app for controlling devices using smartphones/tablets is next to useless which is a pity as if it worked it would avoid having to use a remote control with redundant buttons. I do sometimes wonder if they test things properly in real world situations. It's a shame because Marantz do make very good sounding equipment but can be somewhat let down by limitations in their IT.

 

[Highwayman]

AVR-Remote for Android, free on the play Store is a good implementation of the remote app and the author keeps updating it

 

[Jon78]

I bought my Marantz as I needed a CD player/radio but soon bought into the 'everything in one place' with the NAS. I enjoy having all my music accessible and now barely use the CD functionality (until now). My CDs are now boxed away.

Retrospectively I should have bought a 'unsmart' player/amp with a USB-in giving me in an isolated and unmolested hifi with all my music accessible. At least that system would be working now.

 

[Covenanter]

It does seem that Marantz have let themselves down with this upgrade but let's not bash them too hard. It's scarcely unusual for software upgrades to go wrong! My Windows 10 upgrade went smoothly but it killed my Norton Security suite which Norton had assured its customers would be fine. The subsequent W10 Security upgrade then killed it again! I'm sure Marantz will fix this - they won't have products if they don't!

The BBC streaming issue is rather different. As I understand it the Marantz hardware was designed to handle a range of streaming formats but not the one the BBC changed to and it can't be adapted to do so. It's hard to tell from where I sit whether Marantz could have predicted this change and built it in. As other manufacturers managed to do so there seems to be some evidence they might have done better but kit is designed at a point in time and can never be completely future-proof. It seems to me that what the streaming arena needs is a set of industry wide standards. That would protect the consumer rather better than they are being at present.

Chris

 

[splasher]

The Iplayer radio is a different issue as you say. That was caused by the BBC realising that the largest share of their listeners listen on Apple devices and so changing their output to an Apple format rendering most hifi style client devices unsupported. Apparently they did consult the manufacturers but in nowhere near enough time for the manufacturers to come up with a solution. Also, there will be an element of luck as to whether existing hardware will support the new format with only a software change as the processing power required may be much greater and obviously buffering is not acceptable in audio.

 

[JZC]

AVR-Remote for Android, free on the play Store is a good implementation of the remote app and the author keeps updating it

Thanks for the link, I've downloaded that but my player, an NA7004, is listed as 'experimental' and whilst it does provide some functionality, certainly more than the Marantz one, it's still not quite as convenient as the remote control. I'll look out for updates but the author may not implement changes required for a device which is no longer in production although it's possible that an app for similar current models may work.

 

[JZC]

Delete due to duplicate comment.

 

[Stu4rt]

The fact you can resolve (sort of) the problem with limted 10 second playback from a NAS by isolating the player (I have a MCR610) from the internet suggests to me this is a problem baked into the firmware some time ago - I don't believe there has been an update (to the player firmware at least) in the last few days that has caused this.

The question is why is my player trying to access the internet when playing back music from a NAS on my local area network. The fact that if you disconnect the connection to the internet and it works proves it doesn't actually need the connection so why it this 'functionality' baked in. Is Marantz collecting data on what is being played or something snoopingly similar? Whatever the reason it looks like something has been changed on the Marantz/internet server side and is causing this problem - although the error handling built into the firmware clearly leaves a lot to be desired but then software just isn't something they are good with.

It's a shame because I've always liked the Marantz brand for well built, good sounding kit. The MCR610 fit the bill perfectly on paper and was generally doing a good job (odd crash aside), but the reality is the remote control app is unusable and I now have an expensive clock radio instead of the unit I was sold. Fortunately it's still under warranty so if this isn't resolved soon it's going back and I'll have to look at a different brand.

 

[JZC]

It does seem suspicious that the problem appears to be related to an internet connection when it should not need one. I have just tried playing a track on my NA7004 from my Synology NAS and paused it before the ten seconds, I then unplugged the connection from my router to the BT socket and pressed play and it carried on playing after the ten seconds. I then reconnected the router and selected another track and that caried on playing too. I then selected 'Internet Radio' for a few seconds then re-selected 'Music Server' and it still played tracks for longer than ten seconds. However if I switched the NA7004 off and back on again the problem recurred after it initalised the NAS.

It's very strange and it's a work around but I don't want to have to keep disconnecting and re-connecting the internet when playing music using 'Music Server'. Alternatively I am able to use my TV to select music on my NAS and play it through the NA7004 by selecting the optical input on the NA7004 so it is possible to access the music but my TV won't play 'flac' files so I'd have to convert them to MP3's so neither work arounds are ideal.

 

[splasher]

I can't vouch for the Android app simply because I haven't used it, but the Technics App (designed for the new Technics kit) for iOS worked brilliantly with my Marantz streamers allowing queues to be built etc. Well worth a try.

 

[splasher]

It's very strange and it's a work around but I don't want to have to keep disconnecting and re-connecting the internet when playing music using 'Music Server'

if you have the MCR set to a static IP address you could set your router firewall to prevent access to the Internet for that IP address. It would prevent internet radio but you'd still have DAB/FM until it's fixed?!?

 

[JZC]

Thanks for the suggestion but I probably listen to internet radio more than music on my NAS.