Marantz’s latest A/V receiver slims down in size, but doesn’t skimp on features

By Kris Wouk April 21, 2016

Generally when you’re looking at an A/V receiver, you can opt for a slim, sleek model that offers only the essentials, or a hulking, feature-packed model that dominates your living room. Marantz’s Slim Design Receivers have aimed to combine the best of both worlds and have done a great job so far — and the latest member of the family looks like it could be the best yet.

On Wednesday, the company announced the first model of its 2016 home theater line-up with the NR1607, a follow-up to last year’s NR1606. This 7.2-channel network A/V receiver claims 50 watts of power per channel, packed into a chassis that is just a little over four inches tall.

The NR1607 features a total of 8 HDMI inputs including one on the front, all of which support HDMI 2.0a and HDCP 2.2 and offer BT.2020 pass-through. Each input also support 4K/60Hz video with 4:4:4 color as well as HDR, Wide Color Gamut compatibility, and the 21:9 aspect ratio. On the off chance your 4K TV doesn’t feature upscaling, the NR1607 even offers a built-in scaler.

In addition to standard 7.1 or 5.1 setups, the NR1607 also supports 3D surround sound via Dolby Atmos, and a firmware update planned for September will bring support for DTS:X as well. Dolby TrueHD lossless decoding is supported, as are high-resolution audio files in FLAC, AIFF, WAV and DSD (2.8/5.6MHz) formats.

Connectivity comes in the form of 2.4GHz/5GHz dual band Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth. Local music can be streamed from NAS devices or by using AirPlay, while Spotify Connect and Pandora streaming and both Internet radio and SiriusXM radio are supported as well.

All the features in the world don’t count for much if you can’t get the receiver set up in the first place, and Marantz has gone a long way toward making that process easy for users with a graphical user interface, setup assistant, and Audyssey MultEQ room calibration. The company is also offering a remote app for iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire devices, so there’s no need to sweat if you’ve temporarily lost the remote in the couch.

The Marantz NR1607 will retail for $700, and the company expects it to be available starting next month. For more information, see the product page on the company’s website.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…

Audio / Video

You have until June 9 to save $500 off an 85-inch Samsung The Frame TV

A painting being displayed on a Samsung The Frame QLED.

Looking for great TV deals? You still have time to save $500 on the Samsung 85-inch The Frame QLED TV when you head over to Samsung. It usually costs $4,300, but right now the popular and stylish TV is down to $3,800, making it more affordable than before. If you’re keen to invest in a large TV but love to save money too, this is a good opportunity. Here’s what you need to know about the TV before you decide to buy.

Why you should buy the Samsung 85-inch The Frame QLED TV
One of the best QLED TVs around, the Samsung 85-inch The Frame QLED TV is a delight in so many ways. At its core, it’s a fantastic QLED TV with 100% Color Volume with Quantum Dot technology saturating the screen with a billion colors. QLED adds a layer of quantum dots to a TV’s LED backlight with these dots, once exposed to light, emitting their own light with a high level of efficiency to provide great picture quality.

Audio / Video

It’s your last chance to get up to $1,900 off a Samsung OLED TV

The Samsung S90C in a living room environment.

There’s still a little time left to snap up one of the best TV deals available today, with Samsung still selling the 83-inch S90C OLED TV for $3,500 instead of $5,400. The $1,900 discount is a pretty vast one and one that you certainly don’t want to skip. If you’re looking for a great new TV for your large living space, you’re going to love this deal. Let’s take a look at how great the Samsung S90C OLED TV is.

Why you should buy the Samsung 83-inch S90C OLED TV
Samsung makes some of the best TVs around and we’re huge fans of the Samsung 83-inch S90C OLED TV. It has an OLED panel so you get self-lit pixels which can light up independently of each other. That means that you can enjoy the deepest blacks and the brightest colors all on the same scene, ensuring you never miss a detail. The Samsung 83-inch S90C OLED TV uses a Neural Quantum Processor with 4K upscaling so its AI-powered processor can transform whatever you’re watching. There’s also HDR OLED which uses AI deep learning to analyze each scene, detecting areas that need to brighter, darker, or simply richer in color.

Audio / Video

This Sonos Bluetooth speaker has a discount in time for beach weather

Sonos Roam SL in black on a rainy rock outdoors.

A day out at the beach. Cooking outside using a discounted grill or smoker. Pool party madness. What do they all three have in common? A lot of fun, but also a great chance to get any sound equipment ruined by a sudden downpour or a splash of inevitable water. That's why there are models of waterproof Bluetooth speakers, of which the Sonos Roam SL is one. And the good news is that you can get yours at a discounted rate before summer officially gets here. Right now, the Sonos Roam SL is just $127, which is $33 down from its typical price of $160. To get yours, all you need to do is tap the button below. Consider also reading below, as we examine the speaker and see why it is considered an easy pick up.

Why you should buy the Sonos Roam SL
The Sonos Roam SL is an easy-to-use, compact speaker for wherever you roam. Connect to it easily over Wi-Fi at home or Bluetooth on the go, giving you easy options to control the sound in a way that makes sense for you and your location. If you're at home and connected to your Wi-Fi system and have other Sonos speakers, you can even get the Sonos multi-room experience, which syncs everything in a nice way. So, you can keep the Sonos Roam SL out on the patio (where it might get rained upon) and keep the best Sonos speakers indoors and have a really cool, worry-free party experience that not many others will be able to replicate.