And another Marantz M-CR603 firmware update today...

[chebby]

...second time in a month.

Halfway through now.

I don't know what it's going to fix or improve because mine has been fine since I got it. (I wish Marantz would have some info on firmware upgrades so we knew.)

 

[Ravey Gravey Davy]

I'd say be grateful they are constantly seeking to perfect rather than put it out on the market and leave you to your own devices.

 

[Mr. Iceman]

Indeed. Started mine but got stuck on 'Authentication' for some 30 mins or so, then decided to unplug (as no buttons worked), reconnected and started again, same thing - it's been 'Authenticating' for an hour... Will leave it overnight, see what happens.

 

[pwiles1968]

Will look out for it.

Mine still crashes iTunes if I disconnect and try to reconnect while playing may get a solution some day.

 

[Anonymous]

For Marantz & customers,

So first, the moans..

This is the 2nd update in fairly short notice for the M-CR603 and undoubtedly for some of their other internet models. Which is all well and good except that each update wipes access to the radio stations stocked in "favorites". Worse, it leaves the old station names in the favorite list - meaning the now-useless station names have to be deleted (one by one!) before a new list can laboriously be re-compiled. Needless to say, this complete waste of time is a pain-in-the-proverbial (’scuse my French).

Imagine if you had to reconstitute all your favorite bookmarks in your browser each time Internet Explorer or Firefox updated!? Wouldn't you think about moving browsers after a couple of repeats?

Come on Marantz - you can solve this. It's not rocket science. And I would no longer groan every time I see an "update" notice.

2nd gripe (it's gripe day today). When will Marantz start it's own English language forum - instead of forums like this all over the place..?

Though this M-CR603 internet radio machine is pretty cool (let's be fair, it's one of the very few on the market that does everything it does), there are still teething glitches when accessing internet stations (especially in the favorite list), which invariably means a re-boot using the "internet radio" button with 1-2 minute delays each time. So much so, that the less tech-minded, more impatient members of the family generally can't be bothered to use its gi-normous internet facilties.

This is a shame which I suspect future R&D on the firmware will eventually resolve. The question is, will Marantz get down to finding a solution before the competition figures it out ? Food for thought.

OK, now for the nice part. I’m still more than happy with this machine! Connected to B&W ceiling speakers in the kitchen, it has revolutionalised music, news, drama, you-name-it, listening life in the room we spend most of our time. Internet reception is as good as, and often better than local FM radio, which is impressive as we live in a (French) city – but of course we can now listen to the world’s biggest library of any-genre listening from the entire planet in whatever language we want and.. in quality sound. It has become one of life's new pleasures.

So Marantz.. a little more R&D, please? The investment will be a sure-fire customer winner.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm very happy overall, but you're right, the need to keep replacing the favourites is a complete pain in the backside.. Also, it might be me, but the search functionality seems to be worse than useless. It can't be that hard surely. I also have no idea why i can't search within a music file - My £100 Sony Blu-Ray player is able to, so why can't my £500 amp?

 

[Anonymous]

Good evening all.

Firstly, I love my Marantz 603. Treated myself and have extended the speakers to (hopefully) take advantage of the summer days. Speakers outside are B&W WM4, which are fabulous.

I'm having the same issues as Mr IronMan and I left my firmware update running all night and all it had to say was "authenticating". So now I'm struggling...

I'm also having issues with the Airplay which I paid for and downloaded, although I've been told it's my 'rubbish' BT Home Hub 3. Do you guys run off a better router? Again guidance says I should be looking at a netgear to remedy the issue.

Any help gratefully received. Even with all this small issues, I still love it !

 

[chebby]

Do you guys run off a better router? Again guidance says I should be looking at a netgear to remedy the issue.

Standard issue Virgin cable router connected to an Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n wireless base station.

My Marantz M-CR603 and Sony BDP-S370 are both connected directly to the Airport Extreme with ethernet cables for internet radio/downloads/BBC iPlayer etc.

Including the intitial download - on it's first power up - this is it's third firmware download and all has gone without a hitch. 'Authenticating' takes about 20 seconds (well, 20 seconds-ish. I dont actually time it) and the download about 10 minutes (even though it says 22 minutes at first).

I don't actually know anything about BT home hubs. (Except that anyone i've ever known to have one gets rid of it pretty sharpish!)

I assume its as good as everything else BT sell.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi

I think the new firmware has made great improvement here

The vtuner is much faster, and the optical input (aux4), seems to have more correct volume level now - before upgrade the sound from my Mac Mini was very low....

Thumps up Marantz - but don't mess with my fauvorite radio stations

 

[DIB]

It's a pain losing your favourites list, but I wouldn't swear on this but I'm sure I didn't lose them after the last upgrade (3/4 weeks ago?).

.

 

[Anonymous]

Indeed. Started mine but got stuck on 'Authentication' for some 30 mins or so, then decided to unplug (as no buttons worked), reconnected and started again, same thing - it's been 'Authenticating' for an hour... Will leave it overnight, see what happens.

Mine gets past Authentication and starts downloading but always ends with "Updating fail: 10" and time remaining on 25 minutes. This started happening with the previous update and I tried at least 5 times since then. I downloaded 3 updates (including the AirPlay upgrade) previously without a problem. It's becoming quite annoying.

 

[Anonymous]

Hoo - that's half a hooray!

I went a purchased a Netgear wired modem and it now recognises my dear Marantz. So that's a +ve. Now, my iphone, ipad & Mac can all see the airplay download.

However, the -ve is the firmware update still sits saying authentication. So close I can nearly smell it.....

 

[Mr. Iceman]

Ok, managed to complete the update the next day, my third attempt in total. Timewise pretty much the same as the previous one on 27/4 and in line with Chebby's. So not the end of the world.
Provided everything else with the network is in order, I contribute the hiccups to congestion and gremlins.
Absolutely no issues with having Marantz give us updates, as a matter of fact I am very glad, but rather disappointed with not being provided with any supporting information.

 

[Anonymous]

I think the Airplay volume is lower than before upgrade - what do you think?

 

[Mr. Iceman]

Finally managed to update mine and noticed some improvements, most obvious being the volume adjustment up/down now working much faster than before, but comfortably so, not too fast.

I don't use Airplay so can't comment on Hans' query.