John Darko
What is the ‘best’ integrated amplifier you can buy for €1000? It’s a question asked of Google many times per day but, unbeknownst to our keyboard-happy enquirers, it’s a question that’s impossible to answer. And this isn’t a search engine limitation.
The answer requires human intervention where all €1000 integrated amps must be put under one roof for a super test. Each amplifier would then need to be run with a range of price-appropriate speakers. No single reviewer on the planet has the time for that and few manufacturers would loan out their gear to take part — when, say, ten candidates would result in one winner and nine losers, the odds are stacked against ’em.
We also have to ask: best for whom? What kind of music do they enjoy? And what type of sound would be preferable: lit up ‘n lean or fleshier / more sedated? And how much would the attached speaker influence the end result? Adding even more complexity to our ‘best’ question is a 21st-century concern: what would its feature set look like?
Marantz is throwing its hat into the €1000-integrated ring this year with the Stereo 70s. Now comes the twist: this new amplifier is primarily aimed at the A/V receiver market which rarely intersects with hi-fi enthusiasm. Why pay for seven channels of loudspeaker drive when our kind only uses two? But the tailing ‘s’ in Stereo 70s tells us that this is a two-channel receiver where 75wpc is promised into 8 Ohms.
That’s 25wpc more than the Audiolab 6000A Play that sells for the same money: €999. Power ratings matter less to how loud we might want to listen and more to how early on the volume dial the amplifier slides distortion into view; and possibly how threadbare (or not) the amplifier sounds.
The new Marantz matches the Audiolab on super-integrated extras: an internal DAC (with TOSLINK and coaxial access but no USB), a streaming module and MM phono staging. But the Marantz one-ups the Audiolab on TV hook-ups: there are six HDMI inputs on its back panel – three of which are 8K capable – and an HDMI ARC output.
The real value of HDMI ARC is in its messaging’s market penetration. Many Moms and Dads know already that HDMI ARC allows us to park our hi-fi remote in favour of our TV’s. To them, TOSLINK is a legacy connection with the Apple TV 4K remote’s learning capabilities a complete unknown. Unfortunately for HDMI ARC enthusiasts like me, TOSLINK is the only option for digitally connecting the Audiolab 6000A Play to a TV.
For the 6000A Play’s streaming module, Audiolab went with Play-Fi. And my thoughts on Play-Fi’s handling of gapless playback are as well-known with regular readers as they are unfavourable. In short, the newer transfer mode pulls us out of 6-second gapped playback purgatory to lock down the app so that browsing for the next song or album is no longer possible.
The only other way to stream to the Audiolab 6000A Play is with Spotify Connect, which is why I prefer to plug a WiiM Pro (or Pro Plus) into the Audiolab’s other TOSLINK socket in order to access a much broader suite of streaming systems: Google Chromecast, Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, Roon Ready and Apple AirPlay 2.
Does the Stereo 70S require the same streaming bypass surgery? Not quite. I’m not so hot on the HEOS streaming platform found in many Denon and Marantz products, including the Stereo 70s. Its UX is serviceable but a long way from elegant; and its developers have yet to add Qobuz to the list of streaming service integrations. For now, we must be content with Tidal, Deezer, SoundCloud and Amazon Music / HD.
Thankfully, Marantz also had the foresight to add Apple AirPlay 2 support to the Stereo 70s (in addition to Spotify Connect). And AirPlay means it will catch Roon streams without WiiM intervention, albeit with Apple’s familiar 48kHz sample rate ceiling. No hi-res, no worries.
The IR remote supplied with the Stereo 70s is a long plastic wand that’s none too dissimilar to the Audiolab’s — but push the side button on the Marantz remote and watch the keys light up. That’s a nice touch.
Lastly, both of the two subwoofer outputs found on the back of the Marantz run filtered in mono – we choose the filter frequency in the settings – but without any high-pass filtering applied to the loudspeaker terminals. We have to design the remainder of the low-bass crossover on the back of the subwoofer, bringing it in from below to meet our loudspeakers at the ‘right’ gain setting — which is what I’ll be doing today. The complete video review will follow sometime in December.
Further information: Marantz
