Marantz PM7000N user review
I purchased a Marantz PM7000N integrated streaming amp
because it seemed to have everything I was looking for. The unit has terrific reviews, but of course the reviewers do not live with the PM7000N, this review will give insight into a larger window.
It has enough power to run my Canton 896 speakers with ease.
I live in So. Utah and the FM selection is awful so no FM radio is needed- but I did want internet radio.
It has the new DAC in it so it gave my CD6005 better sound by running the Coax connector.
It has a phono preamp section.
Installation:
I hooked up the unit with the wireless option and installed HEOS on my Mac tablet, it was pretty easy. I liked all of the station options. I also found that I could listen to Amazon Prime stations as well, a nice plus.
I ran a Partridge SUT for my low output MC cartridge into the RCA jacks on the back of the amp- very straight forward.
The 5 way binding posts were a little tricky, there are little slots that are easy to miss if you have spade connectors on the amp end. I did finally figure that one out.
Manual:
Even though the manual is long (available on line) it is very incomplete. It does not tell you how to access the controls. I have owned this unit for a couple of months and still can’t get it figured out how to access many aspects of the unit.
Review:
General SQ- this unit has really good sound for the price, heck it has great sound for any price. There are some not so great things about it that I will talk about below. I started by using Van den Hul cable and it sounded quite good but there was a little sparkle missing. I got a pair of MG Planus ribbon cables and WOW, everything was there in spades. Let me give you a little background of how I decided to try the Marantz, I retired my audio parts business and we moved to the desert SW in a smaller home. I downsized my audio gear and got a receiver that lusted over in college... I had a Marantz 2285 modded to the gills and used a Audioengine to send internet radio to it… the hassle was that I had to have my computer on to listen to it. I sold the 2285 and got a NAIM Uniti2 which was a really cool all in one unit with a strong 70 WPC. The problem was it had the British sound- meaning no highs, cymbals sounded like tis, tis, not crash, bang, I put in new silver binding posts and took out the tinned stranded copper wire that ran to them and replaced it with AntiCable 17 AWG solid core cryo treated wire… that made it a lot better. But the Marantz PM7000N sounds better to me in every way. Cymbals sound correct, piano & guitar are right on, even female voices are natural. Bass is to die for, deep and fast (with the Planus cable). The NAIM is an older unit but cost $4K new, the Marantz is a $1K unit with newer technology so I am not going to compare that… but would pick the sound of the Marantz every day over the NAIM.
Vinyl-The first thing I listened to was a record, the phono section of the 7000 is mediocre at best. I have a Supex 900 Super II and a heavily upgraded Denon DL-103R which are low output. I ran them through a Partridge SUT with small AWG phono wire, all of that gear has been used before with terrific results, great clarity and full spectrum response. Not so with the onboard phono preamp, music was lifeless. Also the output was very low, I had to turn up the volume to over 30- it plays nicely at 15 for the internet radio.
Internet Radio- This is where the 7000 shines. The HEOS stations were WAY better sounding than records, and better sounding than an upgraded Nikko Gamma 1 tuner. It is very revealing and full sounding. Now the bad, after about a week the internet connection started dropping. At first it was about once a day. I would unplug the router and start it up again to get connection. After a while it was dropping more frequently. I then hooked it up via wired LAN connection and it would keep a connection for days at a time. On the advice of the friend that purchased a Marantz 2285 from me I got a mesh router with two boxes. That is where the nightmare began… the 7000 would not recognize the wired connection. I tried to scan for the wireless signal but the 7000 could not find it- even though it was a very strong signal with download speeds over 150! Also since doing the scan to find the new connection it can't even find the old one now so it is non-functional for internet.
CD- This is also a nice part of the equation. I have a slightly modified CD6005 and hooked it up with the optical, RCA, and coax connectors. The straight 6005 through the RCA sounded as usual, pretty good. I switched to the optical and it was a little better, then to the coax & like Goldie Locks it was just right. The Asahi-kasei AK4490EQ DAC is a real upgrade over the onboard DAC of the 6005.
The bottom line- the Marantz PM7000N sounds really good, it has great features with the wi-fi/Bluetooth … if they only worked. I would have to honestly say that this is a $500 unit because of the issues with the connectivity, even with a LAN cable.
PS. I have reached out to Marantz support for help. I will give an update on how the internet connectivity pans out, it could be user error but I have no idea as anything that might be helpful is not documented in the manual.
