Marantz M1 Streaming Amplifier Review

[daniboun]

The M1's measurements and problems don't particularly surprise me. It's simply the result of the last 10 years and what has become of Marantz.

Many of you forget that the original Marantz company and everything that defined Marantz no longer exist and are lost.
Marantz benefited from its American founder, Saul Marantz, from the establishment of Marantz Far East/Japan, from the relocation of production and development to Japan, from the Japanese engineer Ken Ishiwata, from the partial sale to Philips, from the long-standing collaboration and development of joint products with Philips, and also from the merger with Denon to form D&M Holdings Inc. Even then, development resources were being pooled and costs were being cut, and Philips also withdrew from its cooperation with Marantz.

But with the acquisition of the D&M Group by Sound United LLC in 2017, everything changed, and everything that originally defined Marantz ceased to exist. Ken Ishiwata was also dismissed.
Sound United belongs to DEI Holdings, a private equity firm. Anyone familiar with private equity firms can imagine what happened to Marantz and the other manufacturers during that period.
The whole thing seems to have been successful, as evidenced by the sale of Sound United to Masimo Corporation for over one billion US dollars.

One can only assume that the companies consolidated under Sound United lost too much substance and know-how, and that market developments in the audio/hi-fi sector worldwide took their toll, because in 2025 all the brands under Sound United, including Marantz, were acquired by Harman International Industries (Samsung) for 350 million US dollars.

It will be interesting to see what happens next.

Jackpot for Samsung finally! Harman, formerly Harman International, was an American group founded in 1953 specializing in audio equipment. Samsung owns JBL, AKG, Bang & Olufsen (car audio division), Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, and Marantz.

The logo says it all

 

[Petevid]

Very grateful to the member who sent this in for review. I’ve been buying Marantz, Denon, Rotel, Yamaha products for 50 years now and have a soft spot for them but currently I’m running a WiiM based system. It’s so interesting to see how products from these long established manufacturers fare technically in today’s market.

 

[Linnie]

Thanks for the revealing review! Maybe still acceptable quality, but too expensive for that by today's standards.

 

[Haskil]

So many small companies putting out some amazing devices lately. Ironically the company with arguably some of the deepest engineering pockets comes out with a lot mediocrity. Marantz is not the only one. Maybe the high fidelity market will shift more from larger name brands to smaller companies who are turning in better homework...for less money.

And so we'll return to the 1950s and 1960s, when small brands abounded in local markets. The difference is that now, these small brands have international reach and are no longer artisanal.

 

[Haskil]

Marantz n'a jamais été une grande marque « audiophile », plutôt une marque Hi-Fi, globalement correcte.
Peut-être que certains produits ont suscité l'enthousiasme des foules, mais en général, pas tellement.

Dans les années 1950 et 1960, Marantz était une marque audiophile majeure. En Europe, avec McIntosh et Harman Kardon, elle figurait parmi les marques leaders d’amplificateurs et de tuners. À l’époque, on n’utilisait pas le terme « audiophile », mais plutôt « haute fidélité ».

 

[Audionaut]

En Europe, avec McIntosh et Harman Kardon, elle figurait parmi les marques leaders d’amplificateurs et de tuners.

I disagree.
They are and were just one of many options in a highly competitive market.

 

[Taiga]

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

Forgive my ignorance, who is the first leading source?

 

[Roland68]

Jackpot for Samsung finally! Harman, formerly Harman International, was an American group founded in 1953 specializing in audio equipment. Samsung owns JBL, AKG, Bang & Olufsen (car audio division), Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, and Marantz.

The logo says it all

You forgot to mention that Polk Audio, Definitive Technology, HEOS, Classé and Boston Acoustics are also included.

 

[Ajax]

The Wiim has Dolby Digital not Dolby Digital Plus. The Wiim has HDMI ARC not HDMI eARC. Dirac Live is available as an option for the Marantz M1. The M1 has subwoofer integration. HEOS was doing multi-room before anyone had heard of Wiim. It seems that you have no understanding. What I find irritating about the Wiim cult is the total lack of objectivity.

Quite the opposite. The support for Wiim on this site is very much due to the objectivy of the members. We are after all here due to Amir's willingness to share his vast knowedge of all things audio and his excellent methodoly in measuring the performance of individual items.

The Wiim Amp Ultra measured very well with 74% of members voting it to be great. I can tell you from personal experience it is very user friendly with a feature set perfect IMO for the playback of music, all for a very reasonable price.

There is no cult just acknowledgement of a well designed product and good engineering. The only thing we don't know is reliability.

WiiM Amp Ultra Streaming Amplifier

Hello everyone, my name is Eugenio and this is the first time I’m writing here. Has anyone ever tried this amplifier with the KEF LS50 Meta speakers and could tell me if it’s enough to drive them? Thanks in advance. Yes, currently using them with the Amp Ultra, power ist more than enough in my...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Haskil]

I disagree.
They are and were just one of many options in a highly competitive market.

Certainly, but in the 1950s and 1960s, Marantz was indeed an audiophile brand, contrary to what the person I was replying to claimed, writing that it had never been one. And each of these three American brands was among the major players in the European market, which doesn't mean they didn't have competitors.

 

[Joe Smith]

We are now in a place in audio (and many other consumer categories) where people will pay for great quality and a brand name - but the quality has to be really good, deserving of the price. (Or, I suppose, for some folks a really outstanding design/look/aesthetic appearance with "pretty good" fidelity - for me, function always trumps appearance, but I realize that's not always the case.)

 

[SHDK]

.

I forgot to check the unit last nigher after testing but this morning, while idle overnight, was warm.

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Marantz M1 stereo streaming amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $1000.
View attachment 502896
I used the Heos app to control the M1. It instantly recognized the unit and offered to upgrade it. But boy, did it take forever to do that with multiple reboots of the unit. On positive front, functionality is extensive which I won't cover here. Hardware connectivity is also quite rich:
View attachment 502897
While I didn't play with it, you have nice features such as setting a high pass filter for the amplifier. There are also two filters available for the DAC but I could not find a description of which is which.

I forgot to check the unit last nigher after testing but this morning, while idle overnight, was warm.

Marantz M1 Amplifier Measurements
I started by setting the gain close to 25 dB with the volume control and then testing the RCA analog input:
View attachment 502903

This was very strange as the output would constantly vary as far as low frequency noise and the "grass" in higher frequencies, varrying the SINAD from 67 to 72! You could see the same during warm up:
View attachment 502904
First time I have seen this.

Fortunately, digital input in the form of either Toslink or network streaming eliminates this, turning in quite respective performance:
View attachment 502905

View attachment 502906
View attachment 502907



View attachment 502908

All tests from here on are digital input.

Noise performance is good:
View attachment 502909

As is Multitone results:
View attachment 502910

19+20 kHz test though which shows ultrasonics, demonstrate massive noise shaping or some other source:
View attachment 502911

Frequency response is flat and good indicating likely class AB amplifier:
View attachment 502912

It seems there is some kind of auto-scaling, causing more noise at very low output power:
View attachment 502914
View attachment 502915
View attachment 502916
View attachment 502917

The aforementioned ultrasonic noise plays havoc with our wideband noise+distortion power measurements:
View attachment 502919
I performed another test with 22.4 kHz and it made things better but still fairly elevated noise floor.

Conclusions
The Marantz M1 gives me an impression of a product line which has emphasized functionality with constantly piling things into the box (hardware and software) resulting in what I consider bloated design. Hardware design has some bright spots but otherwise, shows fair amount of strange impairments. Shape as a cleaned up design could be quite nice. Then again the price is way up there relative to competition these days.

I marginally cannot recommend the Marantz M1.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

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When you say the amp felt warm after idle through the night. Does "idle" mean turned on but not playing. Or being at sleep(it does after 20 min unless you turn it off) ?

 

[SuicideSquid]

The Wiim has Dolby Digital not Dolby Digital Plus. The Wiim has HDMI ARC not HDMI eARC. Dirac Live is available as an option for the Marantz M1. The M1 has subwoofer integration. HEOS was doing multi-room before anyone had heard of Wiim. It seems that you have no understanding. What I find irritating about the Wiim cult is the total lack of objectivity.

What use are DD+ and eArc in stereo?

 

[Jiraya369]

Looks like a wiim, why would anyone buy this apart from the brand name?

Like at least some other poor measuring stuff can look great, but this doesnt even look better than a wiim.

 

[amirm]

When you say the amp felt warm after idle through the night. Does "idle" mean turned on but not playing. Or being at sleep(it does after 20 min unless you turn it off) ?

I left it on overnight. Didn't pay attention to what mode it was in but didn't seem like it was sleeping.

 

[SHDK]

I left it on overnight. Didn't pay attention to what mode it was in but didn't seem like it was sleeping.

Great. Thanks.

 

[Joachim Herbert]

I bought a couple of Marantz Consolette highend boom boxes when they discontinued these. List was € 1,000 at the time. While I paid only around €250 each I was pretty much frustrated there where no updates to the firmware nor to the android/ios software for these. Long or even medium term support is something to be considered with products in this category.

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

What use are DD+ and eArc in stereo?

The M1 also has a Virtual Surround function, which in conjunction with Dolby Digital+ and eARC input support are all features that are meant to enhance movie and show watching. If you're a pure music-listener, it means nothing to you, but for people who do watch movies and shows on their M1, they'll have a nicer experience than on a Wiim.

Additionally, and it absolutely amazes me that we've reached page 4 and nobody has mentioned this, but the M1 (and its more affordable sister, the Denon Home Amp) both support DIRAC Live room correction, which is leagues better performing than Wiim RoomFit.

The cost of adding a DIRAC Live license to this amp is a lot less than buying an entire miniDSP Flex plus DIRAC Live license.

If you don't take advantage of DIRAC Live and don't use your system for anything other than music, the M1 is not a great value.

For people who want, "just one box that does it all," this thing truly checks all the boxes. If you're willing to have two or three boxes to do the job, then I guess a miniDSP Flex combined with one of the newer inexpensive class-D amps with ARC input might get you close. I suppose there is also the miniDSP SHD Power, but I don't know if that amp has load-neutral frequency response.

I should not be the one that has to point out also that the room correction functionality easily trumps SINAD differences between this amp and others of lesser or similar cost that don't have DIRAC Live.

If you really believe room correction doesn't improve your sound, well I'm happy you're blessed with such a perfect, dedicated listening room.

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

Looks like a wiim, why would anyone buy this apart from the brand name?

Like at least some other poor measuring stuff can look great, but this doesnt even look better than a wiim.

DIRAC Live.

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

This is all the more surprising given that the M1 is a FDA (Full Digital Amplifier), and one would assume that its digital performance should live up to its architecture.

Sadly, this is already one of the better performing pure digital/PWM amplifiers. Marantz did apply global feedback at least to achieve load-neutral-frequency-response, unlike many other PWM amplifiers such as the GAN module used in Peachtree GAN-1 or VTV's GAN amplifier, both of which exhibit variable high frequency roll-off or roll-up depending on speaker impedance. Peachtree even have the gall to claim that zero feedback is a benefit!