Marantz NA6005 - Benefits?

[alastairpearce]

Hello All,

I've noticed that Marantz have released a new network audio player, the NA6005, which seems packed with features and affordable at £499.

My question is, what is the benefit of such a network audio player?

At present, I stream Spotify content from my android phone and laptop to my stereo amplifier by bluetooth (I have the QED Uplay bluetooth puck plugged into my stereo amp).

Aside from all the obvious content, like internet radio etc, offered by the network player, what others benefits does it offer?

What I am getting at is, is it really worth shelling out £499 for this product?

Cheers

 

[Jessejames690]

Just trying to read up on this one (What Hi Fi reveiw would be lovely!!)

I have a PM6005, CD6005 & TT5005 and this would slot in just perfectly.

Shame its another £499 I have to shell out because when I bought the CD6005 I was told I could plug the ipad2 in and play spotify that way, not the case (over current!)

Guess Amazon/Marantz, will be taking another wedge off me shortly.

It will look awesome though!

 

[TnA200]

I was also wondering if anyone has any experience of the new Marantz NA6005? There is no WHF review as yet.

As an owner of the PM6005 I am curious, as the NA6005 would partner my PM6005 amp perfectly. I'm looking forward to enjoying my slowly growing HD music collection plus my mainly ALAC iTunes library from my Synology NAS drive at a better sound quality than the 16bit/44.1khz limitation of the Airport Expres that I currently use.

Thank you for any help.

 

[iQ Speakers]

Severnoaks have them for £399 it's starting to make the new CA CXN look expensive at £699 it does have up sampling tech and balanced outputs.

 

[jmgooding]

For £399 - it seems a good deal.

First impressions are that the interface is a bit sluggish and the ios app is a very long way from the likes of Sonos. Nonetheless, it works fine with bluetooth, Airplay and Spotify connect. Easy enough to link up to my wireless network - found my NAS fine etc.

I have it hooked up to a PM6005 and a pair of Focal Aria 906s. Been listening to some 24bit files with a usb stick and it sounds wonderful to me.

Also been using it with my laptop with the Berlin Phil digital concert hall - works great watching the video with the sound piped through Airplay.

I'm not going to dump my Sonos Connect any time soon, but for the convenience of Airplay, Spotify connect, streaming hi res and internet radio at the press of a button (rather than finding my phone to operate Sonos) I think it's well worth considering.

Hope that helps - happy to answer any questions as best I can.

 

[iQ Speakers]

Does it sound better with Spotify than the Sonos Connect? The CA Stream Magic 6 v2 that I sold certainly did, I'm waiting for the CXN unless something else cheaper and better comes along.

 

[jmgooding]

I can't really hear any difference - but my Sonos Connect is connected with digital coax to the PM6005 which I think has the same dac as the NA6005. So I would guess either way is a 320kbps stream being decoded by the same dac?

 

[iQ Speakers]

Cheers for the detailed answer. I guess so.

 

[alastairpearce]

Hi,

Further to my original post, I was undecided on the NA6005 for a long time at the original price of £499 due to the lack of reviews of this new product. But as soon as Sevenoaks and other retailers reduced the price to £399 I couldn't hold out any more and bought it.

I've had the player for two weeks now, and I have had a few teething problems but to be fair I don't think any of those are actually related to the unit itself.

I have the NA6005 using a wired LAN connection through networked power adapters, but it works equally well with the built in wifi. Setting up the wifi connection was a bit cumbersome, but worked seamlessly for me once set up, although in the end I went for the wired LAN connection.

Firts issue, I couldn't connect to Spotify Connect through my Galaxy S5 phone, only through my laptop. However, a recent update of the Spotify Android app has fixed this problem and now Spotify Connect works great through the phone. Streaming quality seems to be perfect to me, couldn't be happier with it, and the streaming quality is much better than through Bluetooth from my phone.

There have also been problems receiving BBC listen again and live internet radio streams - this is due to the BBC changing the format in which they broadcast listen again and live streaming to HLS AAC streams, something that has caused a lot of problems with a lot of manufacturers. This is not something I really understand very well, but I should note at this point that if you intend to use this unit mainly to access BBC listen again/live internet radio streams you will be disapointed as from what I can gather from Marantz the NA6005 will never be able to receive HLS AAC streams, as a firmware update won't be possible. It is possible to receive BBC streams through a less high quality MP3 stream however. It is mainly the BBC's fault however, as they seem to have made the changes without consulting with a lot of manufacturers, and many people with different network audio players are having the same prolems.

Other than the BBC internet radio issues, all other Internet Radio streams appear to be working fine, and I'm impressed by the amount of content available.

I only really use the NA6005 for spotify connect and internet radio at present, and I don't have much HD digital content (FLAC etc) so can't comment on the functionality of the other features, but so far I have been very pleased and impressed with the unit. I have the older Marantz CD6003 player, and the NA6005 has a broadly similar chasis so they are a perfect visual match. The build quality is excellent too.

At £499, I was reluctant to purchase this product but at £399 I think it is excellent value.

I'm quite surprised at the lack of information about it online at the moment to be honest.

 

[Jessejames690]

The Price drop is making this hard to hold on any longer. I wonder if it will support this new fandangled Tidal service? Will look sweet sitting atop my PM6005 and CD6005

 

[jmgooding]

I emailed Tidal about this and was told that they're in discussions with Marantz - so fingers crossed!

...I know it's not ideal, but the iOS Tidal App does hook up to the NA6005 via Airplay within the App.

 

[Jessejames690]

I emailed Tidal about this and was told that they're in discussions with Marantz - so fingers crossed!

...I know it's not ideal, but the iOS Tidal App does hook up to the NA6005 via Airplay within the App.

Ah OK, thanks for researching that, I have an ipad so the App is the way forward. Decision made I reckon.

 

[novaf4]

Hi JMGooding

I've been reading this post entitled 'Marantz NA6005 - Benefits' as I'm considering buying one of these along with a Marantz PM6005 Amp. If you don't mind I would like to pose my intended set up to you in the hope that you (or anyone else) will be able to advise me and confirm what will be possible and what won't. From what I've read you seem to be the perfect person to ask! Thanks in advance.

Current Set Up:
- Denon Amp in lounge
- Wired bookshelf speakers in lounge
- Wired bookshelf speakers in kitchen
- Switch module to select lounge, kitchen or both
- Amp wired to TV's 'Audio Out'
- Amp wired to 'Creative Sound Blaster' wireless module which works in conjunction with a USB receiver in my MacBook Pro.

This set up allows me to do the following:

1. Use Spotify on Macbook Pro to wirelessly play all my Spotify music through speakers.
2. Play all my bought MP3's that reside in a folder on my MacBook Pro, through Spotify 'Local Files' facility.
3. Use iTunes to play my bought MP3's. (I don't do this much as I use the Spotify 'local files' facility for this)
4. Play TV through speakers by selecting a different input on the Denon amp.

This has been fine but now it's time for a total update. Here's why:

1. My partner would like to play music without relying on my MacBook Pro being on hand.
2. The Denon amp has gone wrong.
3. I'd like to buy an iPad Mini 2 to be the main 'control center' for the music - wired and wireless

I considered the Sonos system (using their wireless speaker set up) but after extensive research I decided that it wasn't going to suit my needs because the Sonos app that has to be used does not support enough of Spotify's features which I find quite shocking. I want to be able to use the Spotify and iTunes apps, not Sonos's own awful version.

So, I've now decided to keep my wired speaker set up but to replace my broken amp. Having researched amps I've stumbled across the Marantz item and then I spotted the networked Marantz item which side by side look like they should do the job perfectly for me, but it's always hard to tell before buying!

The new idea is therefore as follows:

- Marantz PM6005 Amp and Marantz NA6005 Networked Audio Player in lounge
- Wired bookshelf speakers in lounge
- Wired bookshelf speakers in kitchen
- Same wired switch module to select lounge, kitchen or both
- Amp wired to TV's 'Optical Output'
- iPad docked (kept charged) near Marantz units. Spotify and iTunes apps on the iPad to control music wirelessly. General idea would be to lift the iPad off the dock and use it to control the music wirelessly like a large remote control.

Here are my questions:

1. Will these items make my idea work?
2. Using these items, what wireless method available would work best whilst offering the best sound quality?
3. Let's assume that the MacBook Pro is not part of the equation. Will the iPad need to have all my bought MP3's stored on it in order for the Spotify app to play 'Local Files' and if so where can they be stored on the iPad as the iPad doesn't have folders like the MacBook Pro does? If "yes" then this will determine which size storage of iPad model I buy. Another way to ask this question is how can the iPad play my bought MP3's? Or is the only solution for me to do it the way iTunes wants everyone to do which is to store the MP3's in the iTunes folder and therefore they would be available on another device (iPad) even if the MacBook Pro is not available? If I'm wrong with this comment then how can iTunes play on another device if the MP3's are on the other device? Ideally I'd just use Spotify.
4. I'd like the MacBook Pro to also play Spotify and iTunes through this set up wirelessly. Will either of the Marantz items need to be switched to a different mode for this or will it not care what device is playing music?
5. I don't understand anything about creating a wireless network or what it's for where music is concerned. Do I need to consider this?
6. Should I plug in an ethernet cable from my Virgin broadband box directly to the Marantz Network Player? I can do this easily if it would be the best method.
7. Could the iPad play music plugged in and unplugged without changing anything on the Marantz items? If plugged in - how and where?
8. I thought I'd add this question in case any speaker experts out there see this. What pair of bookshelf speakers would you recommend for this set up for a 16x16ft lounge? Under £250. I don't expect answers to this so any would be a bonus.

I really hope by this post that I've explained my requirements well. All things considered it really does become a logistical nightmare. Especially when one is about to install a new bookcase and a speaker shelf and needs to decide what goes where!

Anything I've missed out that can be brought to light would also be much appreciated.

Many thanks
GB

 

[jmgooding]

Hi - not sure if I can answer all your questions, but I'll do the best I can...

I think the NA6005 and amp PM6005 would work well for what you want.

You could stream all your mp3s from an ipad via itunes, but I think your best option would be to store your music on a NAS (network attached drive), that way you could access it from all your devices on the network and directly from the NA6005 too. You could do all this with wired ethernet, but I think it would be a lot easier to set up a wireless network. If your "broadband box" is a wirless router then this should be easy - you can still hook up the NA6005 to it via ethernet if you prefer. A NAS would be much more cost effective that a higher capacity iPad I think.

The NA6005 acts as a DLNA Media renderer - that means there's a number of apps available (not just the Marantz app) that will allow you to play music from the NAS to the NA6005.

You can also play music from the iPad or MacBook via Airplay, or bluetooth. The PM6005 has optical in for your TV too.

Setting the whole thing up is a bit beyond the scope of a forum reply, but a few minutes with google should point you in the direction of hosting an iTunes library on a NAS. I would strongly recommend that when you first transfer your music onto the NAS you do it over a wired connection - otherwise it will take ages! Once set up I think you'll love the convenience of having wirless access to your music when you need it.

Hope that helps - good luck!

 

[splasher]

The problem with mobile/internet based technology is that it moves very fast with people changing devices annually whereas in hifi we don't/can't afford to. I have an older Marantz streamer which I used to use to listen to catch-up radio. What I now do is use the BBC iPlayer app on an iPad and stream it through the Marantz using AirPlay (or a cable). I would imagine you could do the same with an Android app on your Galaxy and Bluetooth.

It's irritating, but the view I've taken is that the BBC will always support iThings and Android because that's where the mass market is and so by conecting the tablet or phone to the hifi, hopefully one can get the accessibility of the mass market with the improved quality (to the extent that can be extracted from 320kbps) of the hifi.

Incidentally, as I posted separately, try the Technics control app with the Marantz - it's far superior with my old NA7004.

 

[Mtenga]

Just bought this player and overall delighted. Just can't get the app to connect reliably. It's connected a few times but is really hit and miss. But controlling via remote I'm delighted with the sound whether usb, network and even spotify. Licks my previous Yamaha player. Wasn't expecting such a leap.

 

[Mtenga]

Well I returned it in the end. It would take one to two minutes at startup to load the server or usb stick. The app would only connect once in fifty times. Poor functionality.