Marantz NA7004 Review

[Staxxx]

Can I ask owners how good it is as an audiophile internet radio tuner please?

 

[srisaikat]

As an internet radio device it sounds charming if one listen to a high bit rate channel, quite engaging for some Jazz & Classic channels. But there is absence of quality Indian channels.

 

[Staxxx]

Thanks for the input. I am planning on using it to listen to high bit rate western classical channels mostly broadcast out of Europe.

 

[KiranPS]

An Update,

miniDLNA seems to be more stable with NA7004 than Twonky server on linux. Twonky server used to show up randomly so I needed to restart NA7004 many times before it discovers twonky, miniDLNA on linux does not seem to have this issue. miniDLNA server is discovered every time I switch on the NA7004.

 

[Jams4znik03]

I have a Onkyo TX8050 and wanted to upgrade to a Audiophile Grade Streamer.
So I went ahead and got the Marantz NA7004.

NA7004 Is Great Sounding but is full of Basic Functionality Issues and software bugs.

I don't know Why What*HiFi gave it 5 Stars. I guess someone should tell them what a Streamer should really do in terms of functionality.

From my experience with it, One Star is actually too generous.

Onkyo TX8050 is a million times better in terms of setup, playback from
Network over DLNA or from USB Drives (Thumb and HDD).


First The Good.

When you get it to play something eventually, It sounds really great.


The bad, Really Bad.

1) The first time you switch it on It asks you to update the Device,
It allows only update over the Internet and it takes over 30 mins to
update.
During the Update the Messages that appear on the screen have
nothing to do with what is actually happening and it takes a long time.
I assumed that the Box had Hung When it stayed on "Authenticating" for a long time,
So I kept restarting the Box. I assumed authentication is sending my Mac/Serial
number to the server and should take no more than a few seconds.

I Prefer Onkyo Firmware Update Over the USB, there you download the
firmware and copy it to USB and use this to update the device.
This way, the slow Update Process is not hindered by dropped connections unavailable server etc.

2) It takes at-least a minute (1:12 to be exact) to discover the DLNA Server.
I am using foobar2000 on a XP machine.
It goes thru 4 steps,
1) Initializing ,
2) Connecting,
3) Checking Info
4) Waiting for reply.

3) It takes very long to discover the USB media also.
Most of the Times it come up With Empty List Error
I tried with FAT32 8GB HP Flash Thumb drive.
I even tried a Fat32 2GB Trancend Thumb drive, No luck.

The funny thing is that it goes thru same 4 steps for USB also
1) Initializing , Ok ...
2) Connecting, Well ok ...
3) Checking Info
4) Waiting for reply. eh ???
Their own Manual says
"This function is activated arrould 1 or 2 minutes sfter the power is turned on"


4) I am yet to get songs to Play from the USB.
Update: I got it to play, You should have only One partition in the thumb drive for the device to list the files.

5) Does not support NTFS USB thumb drives / hard-disks.
Only supports FAT and FAT32, who has their FLAC collection on FAT16 Thumbdrive ?
No Support for USB Harddisks/ NTFS either.

6) Only the First Partion in the USB Device will show up. ( WHAT ?????? )

7) Only MP3 files can play from USB (According to the manual). I could not test FLAC
since I could not get the USB to work in the first place.
Update: FLAC Also works from USB.

8) Marantz's own Android Remote App does not discover it. You need to use a third party app called AVR-Remote. If AVR-Remote can discover and control it, why cant Marantz's own software do it. I use the Onkyo remote app to send playlists from my server to the Streamer. Its much easier to locate and navigate thru a big collection on a server using a touch device. Actually Onlyo remote app only loads a few items at once which is pretty irritating when you have a lot of files, but atleast it works.

I guess I can use this as plain DAC with a PC. This way I can bypass all the software issues.

The funny thing is that I had read a lot of complaints about the software issues with Cambridge Stream Magic 6 , So I went with Marantz. I guess these audiophile hardware guys are yet to get their act together on software.

We all assume that Audiophile Grade hardware vendors have very stringent quality procedures that make their hardware so much more expensive than consumer class devices. With the software issues like this on a shipped product, I wonder what kind of Actual Internal Quality control procedures do they really have for other things like hardware, parts etc ?

Thanks for sharing this..Thats quite a revelation.. for all Marantz as a brand was the flawless & perfect one ?

 

[Anurag]

Hi
i have the Denon DNP720AE network player.. the think the software interface would be very much similar to the Marantz one..

I suggest you use a Upnp/Dlna controller on the PC or phone to control the streamer rather than using the streamer's interface/remote to search the Dlna servers..
Like using the builtin controller of foobar or something like BubbleUpnp on SmartPhone..that way the streamer instantly starts playing the track..

 

[srisaikat]

Hi
i have the Denon DNP720AE network player.. the think the software interface would be very much similar to the Marantz one..

I suggest you use a Upnp/Dlna controller on the PC or phone to control the streamer rather than using the streamer's interface/remote to search the Dlna servers..
Like using the builtin controller of foobar or something like BubbleUpnp on SmartPhone..that way the streamer instantly starts playing the track..

Right suggestion, I also tried that way successfully. But opposite way (streamer's interface/remote to search the Dlna servers) is better and also worked smoothly. One thing I want to suggest, for optimum result turn off the trans-coding within Upnp/Dlna controller, instead leave it for NA7004. And I think when you use a Upnp/Dlna controller on the PC or phone to control the streamer, trans-coding is done by the that software (not by NA7004), so full potential of your streamer is remain unused.

 

[KiranPS]

I Actually use an Android App on a Viewsonic tablet to control the receiver. The issue is during cold start. The streamer starts from scratch booting up, bringing the network stack up and then looks for the DLNA servers and then connects to it. It takes atleast a minute every time for a cold start (Red Power LED). Since I switched on the Network Standby on , It is faster for warm start (power on from stand by, Orange power led).

Have you also noticed that we cannot pause a FLAC stream from the controller app ?

 

[srisaikat]

I Actually use an Android App on a Viewsonic tablet to control the receiver. The issue is during cold start. The streamer starts from scratch booting up, bringing the network stack up and then looks for the DLNA servers and then connects to it. It takes atleast a minute every time for a cold start (Red Power LED). Since I switched on the Network Standby on , It is faster for warm start (power on from stand by, Orange power led).

Have you also noticed that we cannot pause a FLAC stream from the controller app ?

I had not noticed that, but one thing I noticed during playback when I use a Upnp/Dlna controller on the PC or phone to control the streamer on pressing the "display" button it never shows the file type, bit rate etc..and a type of 'thick arrow' symbol is shown on the display screen of NA7004, probably indicates that it is remotely controlled. But when I use streamer's own interface to playback files of remote server it always shows the file type & bit rate. And I always prefer and recommend warm start for NA7004.

 

[KiranPS]

I use an app called AVR Remote on android. It uses the NA 7004's protocol to control the unit. I get what ever is displayed on the receiver, on my tablet.

 

[anm]

guys - how good/ bad is the headphone amp on this one?

 

[Shivam]

I have tried these network players -
Marantz NA7004
Musical Fidelity M1 Clic
Linn Akurate DS.

The most versatile was MF M1 clic and the ipad application to control is very useful. Linn's Kinsky was also good but I preferred the MF controller. Linn has better sound then MF but it is a matter of diminishing returns and I liked the MF more. I am not a good reviewer and so I have not yet written about my experience with the players.

 

[anm]

has anyone tried the heqdphone out? specifically with hd 650 and or orthos

 

[anm]

does anyone here own a NA7004?

 

[srisaikat]

I have, but never tried the headphone out.

 

[anm]

thanks Saikat. can you please try the headphone out and let me know how does it sound? Also, what other issues did you face, related to software etc. Can it handle an external hdd directly attached to it with say 2-3 TB capacity? How difficult/ easy is searching/ browsing music on a hard disk?

 

[srisaikat]

thanks Saikat. can you please try the headphone out and let me know how does it sound? Also, what other issues did you face, related to software etc. Can it handle an external hdd directly attached to it with say 2-3 TB capacity? How difficult/ easy is searching/ browsing music on a hard disk?

I have dedicated headphone amp, so no wish to use it as.... but will try to audition on leisure :indifferent14:

NA7004 is only FAT/FAT32 supported (no NTFS support), so 2/3 TB hdd is automatically not supported as part of the limitation of file system. But you can use NAS storage or Music sever feature to avail advantages of large hdd, though not usable as a standalone.

I haven't face any serious issues or difficulties using it's software. It's great sounded, I can tell you that for sure. NA7004 is almost like a computer, so there is little boot up time and there is a way of work around which you will be familiar within few days of ownership.

 

[anm]

saikat - can you please check it, as a friend is flying from the US in next few days and I need to close this so that he can get the delivery in time

 

[srisaikat]

saikat - can you please check it, as a friend is flying from the US in next few days and I need to close this so that he can get the delivery in time

"I need to close this" excuse me! I did not get that??? You want me to check the headphone amp section of NA7004, is that right?

 

[anm]

I mean I need to decide today/ tomorrow. It would be very kind of you if you can help me in that time frame. Typed communication doesn't really convey everything
Yes indeed, I would be obliged if you can check the headphone amp section of NA7004.