Introduction
For the last 55 years, Marantz has made quality its number one priority. While other receiver manufacturers have often scrambled to be first to market with the latest, greatest features, Marantz has remained quietly patient, waiting out the inevitable bugs and limitations of brand-new technologies. The result of the company’s patience is a legacy of remarkably well-made, solid products that, to the delight of their owners, have a way of performing flawlessly for years and years. Today, Marantz offers a suite of state-of-the-art receivers that, true to its tradition, have been thoughtfully designed to offer today’s latest audio decoders and video processing in combination with their legendary high-end sound. Positioned toward the upper end of Marantz’s A/V receiver offerings, the $1249.99 SR6004 represents a tremendous value by offering uncompromised sound, incredible connectivity and an intuitive user interface in a very attractive package that is consistent with Marantz’s history of high style/high performance products.
Out of the Box
A well powered and well constructed amplifier is, generally speaking, going to be heavy. Big power supplies, copper chassis’ and capacitors are weighty components, so it is difficult not to begin judging a receiver the moment you pick it up. The SR6004’s 28lb heft is admirable, but it is the fact that it is clearly concentrated in the power supply section of the receiver that is exciting.
The jet-black SR6004 is very attractive, as electronic components go. Marantz has always made elegant looking products and this receiver carries on that tradition. The remarkably clean face of the unit is suavely curved on the left and right hand sides, softening the appearance of this gentle giant.
Packaged with the receiver is one back-lit, multi-function remote control; a microphone for Audyssey’s calibration software; a Bluetooth wireless receiver; an antenna (or aerial, if you prefer); some batteries; and a user manual that is thicker than most state-history textbooks.
Features
The Marantz SR6004 is very competitively featured. We immediately noticed four HDMI 1.3 inputs and two HDMI outputs. Component video and composite inputs are plentiful, but there is just one S-Video connection available and it is on the front panel. Marantz omitted the S-Video connection from the bay on the back of the receiver in order to reduce clutter increase ease of setup. We are extremely pleased to see that Marantz’s on-screen interface is output via HDMI (along with component and composite options), a convenience feature often overlooked by other receiver manufacturers. The SR6004 will upscale all video sources to 1080p and output it through one of its two HDMI connections using on-board video processing from i-chips. Another notable video feature is the SR6004’s ability to output a component video signal that is synched with the second zone audio output. This essentially enables the user to offer full A/V capability to two rooms with different sources simultaneously, so now you can enjoy DVD screenings of District 9 in one room while the kids watch SpongeBob in the other. Perfect!
The SR6004 offers all the latest audio decoders, including Pro-Logic IIz for “height speakers” that add to the vertical surround field for more realistic effects. You can enjoy uncompressed audio from Blu-Ray discs, hi-resolution multichannel SACDs, DVD-Audio… you name it, and the SR6004 has you covered. Marantz has even included their proprietary M-DAX processor to restore high frequencies to compressed music for significantly better sound from your iPod or iPhone.
Other special features include a Bluetooth wireless receiver to allow wirelessly streamed music from your Bluetooth device; a USB input that works with your iPhone as well as most other portable music devices; XM/Sirius radio capability; and an Infrared receiver that allows you to hide your equipment in one room and control it from another.
here's the thread i read about all the failures: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t… 46% seems awfully high for such a highly rated receiver – this winston guy does seem on a warpath
have read on avforums and avsforums they seem to be dropping like flies…run of the mill cable box throws them into protect mode. looking at denon 3310ci. just seems marantz is ignoring the problem.
One year + of using a authorized dealer refurbished 6004 almost daily driving 4ohms speakers…I can say the unit has given no major issues. Sound quality indeed superb…which is what you buy the Marantz for….not for the latest gadgets (get a Denon, Onkyo or Pioneer for that).
Hi as a Marantz owner for 2 years I will have to weigh in. I debate the comment about the age of internet gives more voice to the minority. I bot a Marantz SR5001. I loved it, it sounded awesome. It was refurbished and had a 1 year warranty, I thot I will have no worries! Thankfully right BEFORE the 1 year mark, it popped. I forget what I was playing. I sent it back, they fixed it (although it took a month). I was committed to taking very good care of my Marantz. Fast foward another 1 year + 3 months. I just got an Apple TV. I had only ran the Marantz for about 30min and once the Apple TV was on standby – POP! Marantz turned on again and would play but shorter and shorter, that finally I could play the radio only for 30 secs before it self-shut off. I 'm very mad since I bot a Marantz for quality and the fact that it only lasts for about 1 year on average upsets me. What did i do? I've given up on Marantz. I went on to buy the Onkyo HT RC180. The sound is also unreal. I liked that in the review you mention that it knocked your socks off, and you didn't say that about the Marantz.
Man… I ordered a factory refurbished one two days ago. I should have it by Friday. This was before I saw all the post's about the pop of death. I hope the refurb fixed the issue. Wish me luck and thanks for the great review and the last string of info.Thad
Thanks for the response Caleb.Did you use a cable box/dvr or htpc? From the forums, it appears these are the components that give the 6004/5004 trouble. I just can't believe Marantz has denied the problem to so many users. Worries me as a potential buyer that i might have warranty problems.Also saw the 3310ci now has audyssey dsx via firmware – nice touch
I have to say my SR6004 is the best avr I have ever owned. The sound quality is a revelation andis as good as the stereo separates it replaced along with my previous jvc avr. So now i have a system that does it all. Mine is just over 18 months and is an early, supposedly at risk serial numbered model. It has been in daily service for several hours since first installed! so go figure.
I just received an SR 5004 (refurbished) and hooked it up yesterday. I am losing video signal from my blu ray to TV via the receiver using HDMI. It will lose signal when the disc is switching between the previews and actual movie trac.
Guess what… bought one yesterday in Dubai installed it today. Sounded beautiful for about a half hour video cut out, while on the phone with the service center and no sound coming out of the system, it just died right in front of my eyes. Checked all connex, turned on, lit up for a second and went dead. Disconnected everything, same thing again. Looks like I got a bad one too and I even visited this site before buying… ugggh. They will replace it and install it themselves for free but I'm thinking I don't want one now. Only alternative is to dish out another $500 bucks and get a Denon AVR3310 – not happy with that prospect but haven't heard of them crashing only software issues.
I just picked up my SR6004 on Friday from Hippo Audio in Albany, NY. Switched out my old Marantz SR880 I bought maybe 8 – 9 years ago. The SR6004 definitely has more punch even though it is rated at 110 watts/ch like the older SR880. I didn't expect the SR6004 would sound THAT much better, but there is NO question digital music from BluRay via HDMI is a real advancement for sonic performance. Once again, it's Marantz and it has the signature warm sound with detail across the entire range. I'm running 5.1 setup with KEF Q55's front and KEF center and surrounds and Velodyne FSR1500 sub. I haven't even tweeked it out with the Audessy setup or hooked up my two KEF Q10's on the SpeakerHigh option. I am astonished how much my listening experience has improved in the same room with the same speakers I've been listening to for more than five years.The menu's are vastly improved. The remote is simple and laid out well and easy to learn and use.I listened to some U2 Boston DVD and new Joe Bonamassa London Royal Albert Hall and Neil Young's Prairie Wind DVD. I know these note by note on my setup driven by the old SR880 and it is like I've gotten a new pair of ears, or somehow my hearing has improved. I was close to the Onkyo NR8007 and have had and liked Onkyo surround equipment before, but decided to stay with the Marantz sound. I am happy I did and want to spend another day or two adding two more speakers and dialing the system in with the Audessy programming. I can't imagine it can be better.
I am willing to bet that you have no issues with it.
I tested optical, digital coaxial and HDMI inputs with a Dish HD DVR, OPPO BDP-83 Blu-Ray player, a Panasonic Laser Disc player, a Playstation 2 and a PC with optical output. I was switching sources and surround codecs constantly. I would imagine that if the review unit we had was faulty in any way, I would have certainly have triggered the problem.
I am sure that if 46% were that bad, Marantz would have done something by now. I just checked and all the reviews out there are positive.
Looks like Caleb responded to you below.
Hey Guys, Caleb here. I was not aware of the pop issue when I wrote this review otherwise I most certainly would have addressed it in the course of my write-up.Thanks for calling it to my attention! I've spent some quality time reading at a couple of forum threads and read several posts made at some popular internet retailers that offer this model. Here are my observations thus far:1. A problem certainly does exist. To have so specific a failure that a name gets virally applied to it (Pop of Death AKA POD) is a sure sign that a technical problem lay within an unknown percentage of the receivers. 2. The popularity of this topic and high search rank it has earned is due to both the aggressive efforts of a very dissatisfied owner (he has posted his experience at at least two retailers and a couple of forums and been sure to keep the threads alive) and enough owners that are savvy enough to do an internet search on the problem. That Marantz has not publicly addressed the problem is essentially fanning the flames of a handful of disgruntled owners. 3. It would seem that the problem is not confined to just one receiver model, but affects the SR5004 as well. Here are my thoughts: In the world of electronics manufacturing, all it takes is one faulty part to create a catastrophic problem. For the sake of argument, let's postulate that the problem is due to a resistor somewhere on the power supply board. This resistor was no doubt supplied by a third party and in large quantity to the manufacturer. Let's also imagine that the resistor maker has no idea how many bad resistors were made and, of those, how many were sent to this manufacturer. As the manufacturer, you would have NO idea how many bad resistors made it into your receivers. Based on the small amount of information that is available, you don't have a segment of receivers that you can recall. You would have to recall ALL of them and that would break you. Now, unlike Toyota, Marantz is putting no one's life is in danger here. In fact, according to most reports, there is no damage to speakers or any other connected equipment. The receiver just fails. So, you wait to see how many problems there are and it turns out that, of every 1000 receivers sold around the globe, only 3 fail. That is just not cause for a recall of the entire production run. You fix what comes up right away and do your best to ensure future runs don't exhibit the problem. Problem is, this is the age of the internet and the vocal minority gets all of the attention from prospective buyers. Unfortunately, those that have a wonderful experience rarely jump online to tell everyone about it, so we hear mostly from the folks that are having problems. I don't mean to minimize the disappointment of those that experience the problem. Were it to happen to me, I'd be very upset, too. But, to discredit every SR6004 on the planet due to a small percentage of problems would irresponsible. Marantz could use some help with their PR, to be sure, but I can't hold it against them for refusing to announce the specific technical issue that is at play here. I think the best thing that Marantz can do in this situation is provide expedited service to anyone that has a problem and let them know that they care about providing the best equipment available. Should you buy a Marantz or Denon? I can't say. Both of the pieces that you are looking at are great performers. I CAN say that I put the Marantz SR6004 that I reviewed through the wringer. I dare say I put it through more hard work than it would see in a year at most folks' homes and I had no problem with switching inputs, pausing and restarting or anything else, for that matter. For the record, I have not yet spoken to Marantz about this issue but I will contact them to see if they have any comment that they would like to issue. I'll keep you posted!Best Regards, Caleb