Although most AV receivers are brutish slabs, Marantz's NR1602 is refreshing proof that a chassis the size of a small dog kennel isn't a prerequisite for best-of-breed performance. Available in black and silvery gold, this receiver is about half the height of a traditional home-cinema amp. Indeed, it's small enough to sit comfortably on the shelves of regular TV furniture.
But that's not to say this second-generation addition to Marantz' slim-line NR range is short on features. Beneath the lid lurk 7.1 channels of amplification, enlivened by network connectivity, media-streaming support and Apple AirPlay compatibility.
The NR1602 is available now for around £530.
Design and connectivity
Marantz hasn't been afraid to add a few design flourishes. The NR1602's curving fascia is emphasised by a vertical ridge that runs through twin volume and input dials. This marries well with a matching Marantz Blu-ray player to create quite a snazzy system.
The NR1602 has more ports than the Atlantic coast.
On the back panel, you'll find four, 3D-compatible HDMI inputs, two component inputs, three phono AV sockets and an Ethernet jack. There's also a front-facing USB input for use with an iPod, iPhone, memory stick or external hard drive. We used the USB port to browse both an 8GB thumb drive and a 160GB external hard drive, without any problems. Should you need more connectivity, you can always buy the optional RX101 Bluetooth receiver.
Set-up
The NR1602 is very easy to use. We particularly like the menu system. It's high-res and intuitive. An on-screen wizard leads you though the speaker-connection, room-tuning and system-configuration processes.
Auto-calibration is based around Audyssey's MultEQ system. The AV receiver also uses Audyssey's Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume features. Dynamic EQ should only be used if you're a compulsive tweaker, while Dynamic Volume should be switched off immediately, as its only purpose is to iron out dynamic peaks in your source material. It's useful only for making the NR1602 sound lifeless.
Networking
A big chunk of the NR1602's appeal lies in its network functionality. It offers access to Internet radio services, Last.fm, Napster and photo-sharing site Flickr.
The latter might seem like an odd bedfellow, but it's actually a brilliant fit. When listening to Internet radio, you can see slideshows. Tuned into Jpop on Sky.fm? Do a quick search for Japanese images on Flickr and let the results play out. This is not only fun, but protects against screen burn if you own a plasma TV. Incidentally, the NR1602 will automatically fade out the video when listening to Net radio for much the same reason.
The provision of Apple AirPlay support is certain to generate interest. It allows you to wirelessly stream your iTunes library to the receiver from a networked PC or Mac, or, more entertainingly, directly from an iOS handheld device, such as an iPhone. Browsing music on an iPad, and pushing whichever tracks you fancy to your receiver is a cool way to enjoy your music.
You'll need this mic to calibrate the system.
The NR1602's network-streaming ability may be restricted to audio files, but compatibility is broad. Across our test network, the NR1602 played MP3, Ogg, WMA, WAV, FLAC and AAC files. Album art also displays when available. This level of support also applies to files played via the front-mounted USB drive. All artist, album, and genre metadata is read without confusion.
Sound quality
While the NR1602 may look under-powered on paper -- Marantz quotes a cautious 7x50W output -- there's genuine power to its performance. Sci-fi Blu-ray action film Battle: Los Angeles isn't short of explosive DTS-HD Master Audio drama, and the NR1609 is more than able to keep pace. Even during the most chaotic battle scenes, its delivery is fast and dynamic.
With stereo music, there's a warmth to its presentation that's beguiling. Mozart's Violin Concerto in D Major, on CD via the stereo analogue input with 'pure direct' selected, sounds sweet and light. There's no digital edge to the mid-range strings.
The NR1602 isn't big on digital-signal processing modes. You can engage one of the standard surround-sound codecs -- Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD, including their lossy counterparts -- run in stereo, or select the pure-direct mode. Or you can keep it simple, and leave everything in auto mode.
Conclusion
The Marantz NR1602 is an outstanding AV receiver. Not only is it slimmer and prettier than the competition, it's also a gorgeous performer. An audiophile lineage is evidenced in its two-channel performance, yet it's fast and fun with movies. It's also a cut above the rest when it comes to networking capability. Media streaming across a LAN is refined, and Apple AirPlay works beautifully with the iPad2 as a source. We're smitten.
Edited by Charles Kloet
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User reviews3
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reghudh11 15 March 2012
Good: very good
Bad: .......
Comment: fantastic
M-Jonathan 1 February 2012
Comment: I have had this for a few days and am very happy with the receiver.
FIRMWARE:
I was able to connect it to the network (through the Ethernet port on the back) and get a firmware update within 15 minutes.
AIRPLAY / DLNA:
AirPlay is working as advertised (put receiver and laptop on the same LAN, fire up iTunes, select receiver as speaker output). Then play whatever you want in iTunes and it goes seamlessly to the receiver.
I also easily hooked up the receiver via the network to my NAS device which has many GB of mp3s. The NAS and the receiver both support DLNA / UPnP and it was seamless.
INPUTS:
I have 5 devices connected:
Net Top running Windows 7 via HDMI
XBOX via component video and digital audio
DVD player via component video and digital audio
Wii via regular RCA red-white-yellow cables.
Mini-stereo in to RCA red-white audio (for iPods / mobiles - there is also a USB port on the front)
Everything syncs nicely with the receiver and you can name your inputs (so I can select "Wii" instead of "RCA-1").
OUTPUTS:
I have only one video output: HDMI to the TV. The receiver converts all the component / RCA connections to digital and sends them nicely to the TV. Makes it very easy to select an input and have it "just work" with the audio and video. There are also several other video out formats.
For audio outputs the speaker outputs are nice pieces of hardware, and I'm using a separate woofer out (RCA).
SOUND:
Very good - I paired it with Energy Take Classic speakers and it sounds fantastic. Very clear imaging, really shows the problems with my older / low bitrate MP3s. I'm not a serious audiophile but for a midlevel system (~$1000 receiver + speakers) this is great.
It has several types of gee-whiz equalizers for movies, music, plain stereo, etc. They actually seem to help the sound instead of making it worse as I've seen with other receivers. I also used the included Audyssey microphone for setup - it measures the distance of your speakers from the TV and from where you usually sit to form an appropriate profile for the audio imaging. It's all automated and very slick - the type of things I've seen other gadgets get very, very wrong.
And before you're will buy the Marantz NR1602, I suggest you have to check for best price before you decide at: checkingprices.info/marantz-nr1602/
OVERALL:
I couldn't be happier with the system.
Hope this review helps.
Magicmogwai 18 December 2011
Good: Fantastic sound and channel steering, brilliant network abilities and AirPlay is flawless, stereo is top-notch too.
Bad: Not much...... Fiddly to set up and the manual is rubbish.
Comment: First thing you notice when you open the box is just how small the unit is, all the reviews start of by stating this but it's still a surprise, it's not much bigger than my sky hd box, nice curves too.
Set up is a bit of a pain to be honest, I consider myself a bit of a techie and am one of those people who like lots of menus and the ability to mess about with as many parameters as possible, you do and you can but the system here is not very intuitive, the Audyssey system is a bit hit and miss at setting up your speaker and output settings, getting some distances a bit wrong and fluffing my subwoofer up a bit but it's a good base with which to start and I particularly like the fact in can detect phase issues with each speaker, finding 4 of mine out of phase, a quick reverse of wires and the difference is marked! One thing that I found infuriating (and still do) is the way in which you go about adjusting speaker levels, it's just plain stupid! If you're like me and prefer your rears a bit higher in volume and maybe your centre as well, adjusting them couldn't be anymore annoying, first you have to access the onscreen menu, no biggie but it's hidden in multiple layers and when you do eventually find the right adjustment menu you can't just simply select the speaker you want to adjust, you have to have the unit output a white noise testone for the desired speaker then raise or lower as needed, madness! Imagine you're sitting down with the family watching a film and think I'll just raise the centre a bit you can imagine how disruptive this system can be especially as you may want to tweak from film to film.
On to the sound.....Fantastic, really warm but amazing detail, channel steering in first class, pinging around the room with seamless precision, it's so good in this respect you'd swear you had more speakers than you actually do, and don't let the on paper power figures put you off, unless you are trying to fill a Concert hall there should be no problems here, I replaced a Sony with a quoted 7X125w and have no trouble at all, I recon if Marantz had quoted 100w per channel for this amp no one would be the wiser. As you'd expect with this amp it excels with movies but It's just as accomplished with boggo stereo, filling the room with a creamy delicate sound.
One of the main draws of this amp is its networking and especially for me the inclusion of apples AirPlay, the latter as is the usual with most things apple just works, fire up your iPhone/pad etc select a song, press the airplay logo and select the amp, a couple of seconds later your music is filling the room, it's flawless in its execution you can even control the volume, definitely a game changer in my opinion. Also you can download marantz's iPhone app which can control pretty much everything direct from your phone, it's not particularly pretty but it works well and it's free.
To sum up then, a small, beautiful and utterly gorgeous sounding amp with more power than the quoted figures lead you to believe, excellent networking capabilities and AirPlay which is properly cool only let down but some crazy set up procedures and a useless manual. Definitely a 5* product and then some.
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