Marantz Keeps 'em Separated

Shane Buettner  |  Jan 10, 2008

Marantz has been the industry's #4 hitter in delivering high-end, single-box AVRs that sound great for some time. In Q2 of 2008 Marantz gets outside that single-box with the AV8003 preamp/processor (pictured above) and MM8003 multichannel amplifier.

The AV8003 is going to be loaded with the latest in meaningful features, including HDMI 1.3 switching (4 in/2 out), Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding, XM and Sirius and Ethernet streaming for networked audio and video throughout the home. It even has a set of XLR stereo inputs for high-end audio apps like SACD.

The brute of this pair is the MM8003, a 150x8 amplifier with XLR inputs, and the kind of overdone build quality one would expect from Marantz. No prices were given, but Marantz is bringing these separates to the market in the second quarter of this new year.

It's nice that we've been getting AVRs with next-gen audio decoding, but for many of us the separates can't come fast enough.

COMMENTS
steven kastner's picture
Submitted by steven kastner (not verified) on January 16, 2008 - 5:45pm

I love my Marantz 8001 AVR. Great sound quality and able to effortlessly drive my Apogee ribbons. But no HDMI or advanced Codecs. So I waited for the new pre/pro. What a disappointment! Who needs all of these s-video and composite jacks? Are you spending this much to connect an S-VHS deck? I want a processor with at least two banks of four HDMI inputs, two controller chips, so that the processor has the ability to output signals from two separate sources via HDMi to 2 zones. I was hopping that the pre-pro would also have the ability (like sister company Denon's pre/pro) to set up surrounds for music and separate ones for video/movies. No joy there. Now I find out this unit isn't even going to have Audessey Muli-EQ Pro. And forget Audessey dynamic EQ. Not on this puppy. All this for around 3K? What a joke!

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