On the way from Marantz are the CD6004 CD player and PM6004 amplifier, the replacements for the successful, and Award-winning, CD6003 and PM6003. Selling for £310 each, they'll be in UK shops at the end of September.
Both products have been extensively reworked by the Marantz engineering team, under the direction of Brand Ambassador Ken Ishiwata, who's given us an exclusive interview about the thinking behind the upgrades.
The new CD player has a centralised CD mechanism and improved power supply, all mounted on a chassis with a new solid metal bottom-plate to help eliminate vibration.
The digital to analogue conversion is via the CS4398 DAC from Cirrus Logic, and as well as handling standard CD audio and WMA/MP3 files from disc, this can also accept audio digitally from Apple iOS devices via the front-panel USB socket. The new player also offers charging for a connected iPod, iPhone or iPad, whereas the CD6003 couldn't charge the iPad.
Downstream of the DAC the player uses the latest version of the company's Hyper-Dynamic Amplifier Module, the HDAM-SA2, to send audio to the gold-plated RCA phono outputs. Optical and electrical digital outputs are also provided.
For the PM6004, the Marantz engineers have done a very thorough overhaul, ditching the integrated circuits of the past in favour of preamp and power amp sections built entirely from discrete components. They've done this in the cause of 'refining the sound and optimising the balance bass to mid to highs for a performance full of harmony.
Retained from the PM6003 are the case-shielded low-impedance toroidal transformer, custom main capacitors and high-current power transistors mounted directly on the extruded aluminium heatsink.
The amp, which delivers 45Wpc into 8ohms, or 60Wpc into 4ohms, has five line-audio inputs and a moving magnet phono stage, tone controls with a 'source direct' bypass, and two sets of speaker terminals with A/B switching.
Like the CD player, it comes complete with remote control, and will be available in black or silver.
We'll be first to review both the PM6004 and CD6004 - we'll let you know which issues the tests are due to appear in shortly...
Meanwhile, click here to read our interview with Ken Ishiwata about the new products.
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