Does anybody have a Marantz NA7004 Network Player?

[Mellow7]

Hi there,

After a few months deliberating over various options including Sonos Connect, with or without an M-DAC or rDAC, Pioneer N50 or similar I've just bought a NA7004 in the very rare silver colour (trying to locate one was a bit like JR Hartley!) for £369. I will be using it with an Arcam AVR200 Receiver and was hoping to "improve" the sound from my 26 year old Philips CD960 by routing it through the Marantz DAC (having been blown away by the improvement when testing it through the admittedly much more expensive M-DAC).

It's just arrived at the door as I am typing this, so appreciate any user thoughts. One question however, if I were to pass the optical output from my tv/bluray/stb through the Marantz DAC and then using the optical out into my AVR200 will it retain the 5.1 sound spectrum, will it improve the sound, or simply pass it through unaltered?

Cheers,

Greg

[nonuts]

Mellow7 said:

One question however, if I were to pass the optical output from my tv/bluray/stb through the Marantz DAC and then using the optical out into my AVR200 will it retain the 5.1 sound spectrum, will it improve the sound, or simply pass it through unaltered?

I wouldn't even try this unless trying to use your bluray as a transport to play CDs etc, the NA7004 is aimed at Stereo rather than multichannel.

How are you finding it, I'm trying to decide between the N50 and the NA7004, think the Marantz is going to win just for having DAB?

[Mellow7]

nonuts said:

I wouldn't even try this unless trying to use your bluray as a transport to play CDs etc, the NA7004 is aimed at Stereo rather than multichannel.

How are you finding it, I'm trying to decide between the N50 and the NA7004, think the Marantz is going to win just for having DAB?

Hi there "nonuts" (really?)

Still early days but I think it is fantastic so far. So many different ways of listening to music and I doubt I'll need to buy many CD's in future. Internet radio and Last FM are proving a hit, DAB also very good. I'm still waiting for my NAS to arrive (ordered yesterday) before I re-rip all my CD's in a higher quality, but as always, quality of the output depends on the quality of what's being played through it - MP3's ripped at 128 or WMA at 192 sound predictably thin in comparison to original CD versions. Best results have been using my Netbook to stream Spotify Premium via USB.

I don't have particularly good interconnects, just IXOS £30 analogue (4 pairs left over from my Sony SACD) and similar value IXOS coaxial. Tried them both into my Arcam AVR200 and both approaches sounded lifeless and cold, so I dug out the matching analogue leads from my Philips CD (also 26 years old!) and these were a revelation - produced a really warm but wide soundstage.

Also, I preferred the Philips going straight into the Arcam via coaxial rather than through the DAc of the Marantz - again probably down to the qualitry of the interconnects but you can go on and on spending money on leads, can't you.

It's a shame but my also excellent Sony DVP NS900v DVD/SACD is pretty redundant nowkeep an eye on the classifieds. If I'm honest the Philips probably is as well but I can't bring myself to sell it after getting it fixed and hearing just how good it is compared with new stuff costing silly money.

As for the Marantz, I can't recommend it highly enough - it's the best hifi equipment I have bought for some time.

[Mellow7]

nonuts said:

I wouldn't even try this unless trying to use your bluray as a transport to play CDs etc, the NA7004 is aimed at Stereo rather than multichannel.

How are you finding it, I'm trying to decide between the N50 and the NA7004, think the Marantz is going to win just for having DAB?

Hi there "nonuts" (really?)

Still early days but I think it is fantastic so far. So many different ways of listening to music and I doubt I'll need to buy many CD's in future. Internet radio and Last FM are proving a hit, DAB also very good. I'm still waiting for my NAS to arrive (ordered yesterday) before I re-rip all my CD's in a higher quality, but as always, quality of the output depends on the quality of what's being played through it - MP3's ripped at 128 or WMA at 192 sound predictably thin in comparison to original CD versions. Best results have been using my Netbook to stream Spotify Premium via USB.

I don't have particularly good interconnects, just IXOS £30 analogue (4 pairs left over from my Sony SACD) and similar value IXOS coaxial. Tried them both into my Arcam AVR200 and both approaches sounded lifeless and cold, so I dug out the matching analogue leads from my Philips CD (also 26 years old!) and these were a revelation - produced a really warm but wide soundstage.

Also, I preferred the Philips going straight into the Arcam via coaxial rather than through the DAc of the Marantz - again probably down to the qualitry of the interconnects but you can go on and on spending money on leads, can't you.

It's a shame but my also excellent Sony DVP NS900v DVD/SACD is pretty redundant nowkeep an eye on the classifieds. If I'm honest the Philips probably is as well but I can't bring myself to sell it after getting it fixed and hearing just how good it is compared with new stuff costing silly money.

As for the Marantz, I can't recommend it highly enough - it's the best hifi equipment I have bought for some time.

[nonuts]

Thanks, interesting to hear. I'm currently ripping all my CD collection to FLAC and it's going to take an age but will most likely be buying the NA7004 in the coming weeks!

PS. username was a result of a silly drive around Scotland with a bunch of PHers and then writing off my car which was linked to my old username!

[StescoG66]

In a similar boat with regard to projects. I too am ripping my CD collection but in WAV format -quality is just fine to my NAS drive. it's taking an age though.

[Mellow7]

StescoG66 said:

In a similar boat with regard to projects. I too am ripping my CD collection but in WAV format -quality is just fine to my NAS drive. it's taking an age though.

Me too. Tried to launch Autoflac a few times but it seems to get into a loop and keeps on re-booting eventually crashing my PC and needing the reset button. Tried EAC on it's own but I can't work out how to "discover" the files on Windows Media Player and the Marantz can't find them either, so it's Windows lossless WAV files until someone can point me in the direction to fix Autoflac - although the ripping speed seems lightning compared to EAC WAV???

[Mellow7]

StescoG66 said:

In a similar boat with regard to projects. I too am ripping my CD collection but in WAV format -quality is just fine to my NAS drive. it's taking an age though.

Me too. Tried to launch Autoflac a few times but it seems to get into a loop and keeps on re-booting eventually crashing my PC and needing the reset button. Tried EAC on it's own but I can't work out how to "discover" the files on Windows Media Player and the Marantz can't find them either, so it's Windows lossless WAV files until someone can point me in the direction to fix Autoflac - although the ripping speed seems lightning compared to EAC WAV???

[nonuts]

EAC if used in secure mode is ripping them twice and checking it's getting a 'good' copy, and also checking them against other peoples copies if using accurate rip that's why it takes an age. There also seems to be a bug where it doesn't wait for your optical drive to reach it's full speed (which I'm hitting). If you can get the disc to spin up first then start the ripping it's much faster!

[skelters]

Raising the dead (thread) here!

Any updates on NA7004?

Have any of you used the App for it?

Has the Firmware updates improved the performance and fixed the gapless issues?