Marantz M1 Streaming Amplifier Review

[Audionaut]

More and more manufacturers are opting for this now ubiquitous design.
This makes them seem a bit arbitrary and interchangeable.
The question then becomes: Why should I buy a Marantz M1 when the WiiM Amp Ultra offers more features, better performance, and an integrated display, and is also significantly cheaper?
Both have rounded corners—and if you don't like WiiM, you can go for Eversolo.

 

[DRC]

Why should I buy a Marantz M1 when the WiiM Amp Ultra offers more features, better performance, and an integrated display, and is also significantly cheaper?

Does the Wiim have HDMI eARC, Dolby Digital Plus, and Apple AirPlay? I think that the answer is no!

 

[Jole]

Thanks to this forum I kept my primare AB amp and decided to try dclass acc. to review not too expensive with good performance- vibelink ...and I am satisfied. Don't need two amps but I like how it looks and works with ultra streamer. Now I need amp switcher but at reasonable cost it does not hurts. I didn't try wiim room correction and peq which I dint find for my BOREA08. Any way kudos to wiim for price/ performance. Regards to best audio forum members.
PS Marantz is good company but obviously not shine in every segment and thanks to Amir we are aware of that before we spend money on particular products.

 

[JeremyFife]

Thanks for another review Amirm, you are motoring these days!

Load dependency and feature set is good, but performance is pretty uninspiring. For the money, and considering the cheaper and better competition, its a flat 'no'.

Looks nice though.

 

[Mort]

Does the Wiim have HDMI eARC, Dolby Digital Plus, and Apple AirPlay? I think that the answer is no!

Solid points. Not sure this device is the answer but Wiim needs those eventually.

 

[gpauk]

It just shows that they either didn't test it - there is no reason at all why they should not do the same tests as Amir has done - or just don't care.

 

[respice finem]

It just shows that they either didn't test it - there is no reason at all why they should not do the same tests as Amir has done - or just don't care.

They don't care IMHO, which shows how important it is to measure stuff "externally", regardless of brand.

 

[daniboun]

Tear down

 

[Audionaut]

Does the Wiim have HDMI eARC, Dolby Digital Plus, and Apple AirPlay? I think that the answer is no!

I think Dolby is now implemented in WiiM. HDMI is always a bit of a mystery anyway, and Airplay is really a decisive drawback for some people.

However, I would look at it from the other side, i.e., "What does the WiiM offer that the M1 can't?" And there are quite a few features, especially in terms of acoustic adaptation to the room or subwoofer integration and multiroom, that the M1 can't do, if I understand correctly.

 

[daniboun]

It's crazy that manufacturers don't use ASR ratings or other reputable measurement sites before putting their products on the market....

 

[Haskil]

Does the Wiim have HDMI eARC, Dolby Digital Plus, and Apple AirPlay? I think that the answer is no!

The new Wiim Amp Ultra has HDMI ARC and a whole host of other features that the Marantz doesn't... which is already obsolete almost as soon as it hits the market, and on top of that, its measurements are mediocre.

The Wiim lacks AirPlay... a problem that can be solved with a small optical splitter so you can connect a Wiim Mini, which does have AirPlay, for that purpose only... in addition to another device connected via optical cable... There'll still be some money left over...
And above all, the real shame is Heos, which is a rigid and very user-unfriendly application... I don't know if it's worse than Yamaha's MusicCast? They're both comparable: I know because I have both... as well as Sonos and Wiim at my brother's house: a joy.

WiiM Amp Ultra

www.wiimhome.com

 

[respice finem]

It's crazy that manufacturers don't use ASR ratings or other reputable measurement sites before putting their products on the market....

Marantz is no "boutique", so they will probably have a Klippel system for loudspeakers and several audio analyzers for the rest. It was IMHO "thrown" on the market (and not cheap) in hope no one is going to notice (or care)*. Popular nowadays, from software to cars...

*unless the M1 is somehow defective, this can be verified by measuring another sample.

 

[PJR918BMW]

If I was the manufacturer and thought that one was duff I'd get a new one sent pronto to Amir! What a weird performance?

 

[JMW64]

From HiFi News publication, Marantz M1, October 2024 review...

"Under the hood, this amp's electronics are bunched together with layers of PCBs and cables leading off to wireless antennas on the inside front corners of the case [see pic, p56], making it challenging for PM to open and investigate. (The amp is a marriage of Axign's AX5689 digital Class D amplifier controller with the power stage from Texas Instruments' DRV8932 quad half-bridge driver chip.) Remarkably, the relatively affordable M1 is built at the Shirakawa Audio Works facility in Japan, normally reserved for top-tier products from Marantz and Denon."

 

[GiBo61]

As Roland68 mentioned, the Marantz M1 performs significantly worse than the SMSL VMV A2 (or Sabaj A30a) in terms of measurements and performance. Apparently, SMSL and Sabaj have managed to create full digital amplifiers with very respectable performance based on the AX5689 digital feedback control system from Axign and the class D STA350B amplifier chip from ST Micro. On the contrary, the Marantz M1 and the Harman Kardon Citation Amp are devices that have presented numerous performance and reliability problems since their release (sound hiss for the Marantz with some speakers and overheating followed by failure for the Harman Kardon). Given this, it is difficult to understand why the SMSL VMV A2 and Sabaj A30a have been discontinued and are no longer available on the respective manufacturers' websites. In particular, the Sabaj A30a, costing around $500, was one of the most interesting class-D amplifiers of recent years. It's a shame that Amir didn't get to test it for ASR even though in fact, based on the components, the PCB design and the fact that SMSL and SABAJ are brands under the same parent corporation, the Sabaj is effectively a clone of the SMSL VMV A2.

 

[PristineSound]

I was curious so I opened up the Wiim Amp Ultra review and scrolled through both reviews at the same time. At basically every stage, the Wiim was better, despite being half the price.

Unless I'm missing something, how can the M1 even survive (other than ignorance of Wiim's existence)?

Thanks for the review!

Yeah, seems like it's a no brainer between this thing here and the Wiim.

It's just a shame with these legacy brands, I get it that perhaps a large number of their clienteles aren't into or knowledgeable about technical performance, but for the engineers working on this thing, as a matter of just doing a good job, how do you produce something like this. Do you not have pride in your work?

 

[respice finem]

...Do you not have pride in your work?

Their pride as engineers would probably cost the company too much

 

[CedarX]

but for the engineers working on this thing, as a matter of just doing a good job, how do you produce something like this. Do you not have pride in your work?

Unless, typical in large Companies nowadays, leadership-who-knows-better decided to outsource the design with minimum cost as the main requirement; good objective measurements not even listed.

 

[daniboun]

Marantz is no "boutique", so they will probably have a Klippel system for loudspeakers and several audio analyzers for the rest. It was IMHO "thrown" on the market (and not cheap) in hope no one is going to notice (or care)*. Popular nowadays, from software to cars...

*unless the M1 is somehow defective, this can be verified by measuring another sample.

They would have to be incredibly naive to ignore that ASR is the second leading source in the world for acoustic measurements....

 

[Sokel]

Some very strange stuff is going on here.

First of all, the performance as a device is kind of ok? Kind of terrible?
Something in between.

The THD+N vs Power chart is strange, to say the least.
This self at lower power looks like there's something broken in there, and not by accident.
Unless some other sub-system messes up with it (hardware or software) that's plain sloppiness.

But!
A tiny class D amp like that going straight to 30kHz flat?
And with some good power at 8 Ohm as well?
(not without taking a small hit at 40Hz though, this turns into an epidemic with small amps these days)

We don't have the load behavior chart available but if it's also ok that would be something, at least shows potential.
And I mean a real one, a little thing like that delivering where is the most important aspect, FR (but I'm reserving myself here, waiting for some load measurements, dependency may be lurking) ?

As a black box though, nope, that does not do it.

Thanks Amir!