Marantz M1 Streaming Amplifier Review

[SoySalsaPicante]

Agreed, but a couple people have made a big deal out of the fact that the Marantz supports eARC while the WiiM streaming amps only support standard ARC. But AFAIK the additional features of eARC only apply to surround/spatial sound and do not affect stereo playback.

I’m assuming it’s the same people making a huge deal out of the fact that the new miniDSP Tide16 only has HDMI 2.0 and not 2.1 (or newer? I can’t keep up with this stuff!).

 

[srkbear]

My basic comment is WiiM, Eversolo or BlueSound.

IFi’s Zen Stream and Neo Stream are very good, feature-rich, transparent and very affordable options as well. One of their few product lines to which I give an unqualified recommendation. I use the Neo Stream’s streamer (which handles native DSD 512 and PCM 768) to host Roon natively to my Topping d90se (bypassing its internal DAC), and it’s flawless. The Zen Stream is a pure streamer that is equally fine, although its XMOS tops out at DSD256 and PCM 384.

 

[Marius24]

I love the work from all the measurement guys.

But all the reviews say the same thing when they compare it to the WiiM ECC: they have to crank the volume to the maximum, while with the M1 they don’t. You can tell way this is possible if you look at the measurements of the M1 versus the Wii

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

I love the work from all the measurement guys.

But all the reviews say the same thing when they compare it to the WiiM ECC: they have to crank the volume to the maximum, while with the M1 they don’t. You can tell way this is possible if you look at the measurements of the M1 versus the Wii

That is simply gain. WiiM amp models as well as VibeLink have always had average to lower than average gain (typically only about +20dB). The Marantz M1 actually has a really huge amount of gain, much higher than average (average is more like +26dB or so), so in fact I don't even see most people ever using the full volume of the M1 unless they have intensely inefficient speakers.

 

[A Surfer]

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

I'm not sure that they do. If Wiim adds these features the price will rise and then people will say that it is too much. It seems to me that once a company enters the market on the strength of being easier on the wallet, consumers want more and more, but they expect the prices to remain unchanged.

I'm probably oversimplifying things.

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

By the way, this amplifier peculiarly has a massive amount of gain. Based on the rated input sensitivity of 200mV for its analog input (yes, we know it passes through an ADC anyway with a maximum voltage rating of 2.5V before clipping) plus the rated 100watts output at 8ohms, this thing has a whopping ~43dB of rated gain.

You'd think Marantz perhaps could have potentially compromised here, and maybe designed it with less total gain in exchange for lower noise/distortion.