Marantz MCR 603 versus Denon Ceol Piccolo *Gapless*

[LuniCycle]

I currently have the Marantz MCR 603 which I am very happy with the sound quality but despite saying on this very forum that the lack of gapless playback didn't bother me, well after a year it does! As a number of the other Marantz units have had gapless firmware upgrades I enquired as the possibility of this with the 603 only to receive this reply.

Thank you for your inquiry.

The M-CR603 will not be receiving a firmware update to support gapless playback - as it is the case that this particular feature is dependent upon a certain set of hardware requirements that just were not economically available for possible integration at the time of development.

The hardware has now been integrated in to some of the just newly released products, so it is possible for potential upgrades to support gapless playback.

Sincerely,

Marantz Customer Support

Having recently read the review of the Piccolo I went to the Denon website to discover the magic word GAPLESS 🙂[/b]

Looking at the unit it appears to be pretty much an MCR 603 with the FM Tuner, DAB Tuner and CD player removed (all features I have only used once on day one to check it all worked properly)

My question is has anyone out there made a like for like comparison of these 2 units?

Would it be worth swapping as I estimate that I could probably do a cost neutral swap via a well-known auction site.

My other option is, when funds allow, to upgrade to something like a Linn Sneaky, Naim UnitiQute or possibly the Simple Audio Room Player I?

I am still running the speakers from my previous system which is a pair of Tannoy Mercury M2s which I would like to upgrade at some stage but that is further down the pecking order than acquiring gapless playback.

I am streaming FLAC from my NAS running Twonky, this is mostly ripped from CD (using the wonderful dBpoweramp) with the odd Hi-Res download.

I would appreciate anyones thoughts/experience.

Thanks

 

[chebby]

I've been using gapless playback from day one (two years ago) with my M-CR603 but that's with iTunes (lossless from iMac and 320k AAC VBR from iPhone) using AirPlay.

Gapless has always been essential to me due to having so much drama, comedy & documentary material ripped from CD.

However, you are using yours completely differently. (FLAC, Twonky, NAS streaming etc.)

If I were you I'd skip the whole Denon CEOL plan and move straight to one of the Linn or Naim or Simple Audio upgrades you mentioned. (Otherwise what's the point of FLAC, dBpoweramp, Hi-res downloads etc?)

 

[Anonymous]

The Denon CEOL Piccolo does gapless with FLAC and WAV files. It doesn't play MP3 and AAC files gaplessly except over Airplay. It sounds brilliant with high-res files - definitely a low-cost alternative to Naim etc. I am streaming from a QNAP NAS using Twonky. According to the guy who sold it to me, the Denon CEOLs and Marantz 603 are much the same under the skin

 

[LuniCycle]

Thanks for the feedback. Looking at the Denon I don't think the Amp is as good as the Marantz (well it is certainly no better) so potentially limiting my speaker options if I decide to upgrade these before the source. This will also avoid the “you’ve only just changed that why do you want to change it again so soon” discussion at home. 😉

 

[paddyb]

I currently have the Marantz MCR 603 which I am very happy with the sound quality but despite saying on this very forum that the lack of gapless playback didn't bother me, well after a year it does! As a number of the other Marantz units have had gapless firmware upgrades I enquired as the possibility of this with the 603 only to receive this reply.

Thank you for your inquiry.

The M-CR603 will not be receiving a firmware update to support gapless playback - as it is the case that this particular feature is dependent upon a certain set of hardware requirements that just were not economically available for possible integration at the time of development.

The hardware has now been integrated in to some of the just newly released products, so it is possible for potential upgrades to support gapless playback.

Sincerely,

Marantz Customer Support

Having recently read the review of the Piccolo I went to the Denon website to discover the magic word GAPLESS 🙂[/b]

Looking at the unit it appears to be pretty much an MCR 603 with the FM Tuner, DAB Tuner and CD player removed (all features I have only used once on day one to check it all worked properly)

My question is has anyone out there made a like for like comparison of these 2 units?

Would it be worth swapping as I estimate that I could probably do a cost neutral swap via a well-known auction site.

My other option is, when funds allow, to upgrade to something like a Linn Sneaky, Naim UnitiQute or possibly the Simple Audio Room Player I?

I am still running the speakers from my previous system which is a pair of Tannoy Mercury M2s which I would like to upgrade at some stage but that is further down the pecking order than acquiring gapless playback.

I am streaming FLAC from my NAS running Twonky, this is mostly ripped from CD (using the wonderful dBpoweramp) with the odd Hi-Res download.

I would appreciate anyones thoughts/experience.

Thanks

Can you tell me if the Marantz will play gaplessly from a hard drive plugged into the USB port (as opposed to streaming?)

 

[LuniCycle]

Sorry can't be much help with that. I know it won't support a hard drive only a memory stick. The problem I have right now is that the only memory stick I have with any space on it has gone AWOL . Sorry I didn't spot this post before.

 

[paddyb]

Sorry, now i've only just noticed your reply! I am now the proud owner of a CR603. It recognised a 320gb USB drive (powered via the USB) and would play lossless Flac files, but did leave small gaps on mix albums. I took Chebby's advice and decided to try Airplay. It came with this already installed and I was surprised at how easy it was to set up and use. I opened iTunes and the Marantz automatically appeared on the Airplay drop down, no registration, updates, configuration, passwords etc. The quality from Apple Lossless files via Airplay is excellent and it plays them gapplessly. I'm going to continue with this solution and if I feel its tying up my PC then I'll just get a second hand netbook to dedicate to this instead.