Marantz Apple Airplay Upgrade Feature Review

Frans

Frans

Junior Audioholic
Hey guys and girls,

On January 6 Denon and Marantz released their long awaited Apple Airplay upgrade. I wrote a review for Audioholics shortly afterwards, but somehow I got caught up with life and didn't submit changes Gene wanted me to do. So anyway, it's not world shocking news or anything, but I have it sitting on my hard drive and one or two of you might like it still, though not being an official Audioholics review.

So here it is. Please note I'm using the Marantz AV7005 with this review.

With the upgrade installed, you can (wirelessly) stream songs from your iTunes library (Mac or PC), iPhone (Touch) or iPad to your Marantz or Denon Airplay enabled device:

  • Denon AVR-3311
  • Denon CEOL/N7 Network Music System
  • Denon AVR-A100
  • Marantz M-CR603
  • Marantz AV7005 (used in this review)
  • Marantz NA7004
  • Marantz SR7005

The upgrade process only takes a few steps and shouldn’t be too hard to execute. Before you start, please gather the following information:

  • Product number and serial number (a 14-digit located on the back of the device)
  • Dealer name and purchase date
  • MAC address of the device (access Menu-> Network-> Network Info-> MAC ADDRESS from your units On Screen Display or OSD).
  • Upgrade ID (access Menu-> Other-> Add New Feature from your unit OSD. Select the Airplay update and make a note of the Upgrade ID)

Now you’re ready to buy the upgrade using your credit card (VISA or MasterCard) or PayPal account. Once you’ve successfully purchased the upgrade, you’ll get confirmation per e-mail. Funnily enough, the web link pointing to the upgrade manual didn’t work for me. Let’s hope this is something Marantz has fixed by now.

The last step is to upgrade your unit. I’m using my Marantz AV7005 for this review. Go to Setup Menu-> Manual Setup-> Option Setup-> Add New Feature from your units OSD. The process takes up to an hour to complete, but my AV7005 needed around 35 minutes. Give it some time and be patient. Whatever you do, don’t disconnect the power! It’s not uncommon for the unit to display “1 minute remaining” for about 5 minutes, only to start over.

The upgrade seems to be permanent, meaning there’s no uninstall feature available. Once upgraded, the unit reboots and is now it is AirPlay enabled.

Establishing a connecting
Establishing a connection is not always effortless and it can take up to 20 seconds for the “handshake procedure” to complete. Nothing much happens on iTunes or your iPhone in the first five seconds or so, which will trigger impatient persons (such as myself) into repeat mode: I tried multiple attempts to force a connection. However, after a while I found all it takes is a little patience.



You can use iTunes (Mac or PC) to connect to your Denon / Marantz AirPlay enabled device or use an iPhone (touch) or iPad with the free Apple Remote App. The image to above shows an iPhone4. Note the AirPlay icon next to the control buttons. Tap for a list of AirPlay enabled devices currently found on your network. By the way, you can change your unit name by going into: Setup Menu-> Manual Setup -> Network Setup -> Other -> Friendly Name Edit from your unit OSD.



The AirPlay icon will appear next to the “Start Genius” icon, located in the lower right part of iTunes. It will list all your AirPlay enabled devices found on your (wireless) network.

User experience
Once the unit has established a connected, you can use the remote to change track and play / pause playback. So these are your basic control features; you can’t display or change playlists, for instance. The AV7005 is slow to respond. It takes up to three seconds before new track information is displayed via the OSD. More annoyingly, going from pause to play also takes three seconds. I found myself pressing the Play / Pause button more than once, pushing the AV7005 into overdrive. When browsing or skipping tracks, I strongly advice using the Remote App or iTunes.

What I do like is that you can change volume of the receiver using the Remote App or the iTunes App with the iPhone. This time, the unit is happy to respond instantly. There’s a volume limit of -6dB; more than enough for most situations. However, the AV7005 is capable of running at an ear pounding 18dB above reference levels, meaning you have to use the volume knot to get more volume.

Considering my rather large fingers, I applaud the -6dB volume limit when using the Remote App. I find it's hard to select the exact volume setting I want, but I am rather compulsive. Also, it's easy to go way overboard and select a very loud volume you really don't want. Lastly, the plus and minus buttons on the side of the iPhone do not work to set the volume of the receiver.



Most important, the connection is rock solid. Streaming Apple Lossless songs (up to 1200 kbps tested) isn’t any issue. Nor should it be using a modern cable or wireless connection. Songs are send as is, meaning there isn't any compression involved with the streaming process. This means you can stream WAV, FLAC or Apple Lossless songs to your unit without having to worry about sound quality.

I've used this update for quite some time now and I have noticed little ticks in the sound that occur about two times a second. I doesn't occur all the time (meaning with every song, or every time I use AirPlay. The thing is, I haven't been able to pin down the problem, but it's definitely not there using a normal cable connection.

I couldn’t find a way to display photo’s from iPhoto or the iPhone to my Marantz receiver. Technically, this should be possible with AirPlay, but the Marantz upgrade doesn’t seem to support it.


The OSD. Album art, artist, album and track information is displayed.


Track and artist information is also displayed on the unit’s main display. Pressing the “Status” button on the unit will change the display to either track progress mode (minutes : seconds), artist mode or the unit’s “friendly name display” mode.

Disconnecting the unit by selecting a different AirPlay device is a lot faster than connecting to the unit. Incidentally, the OSD of the AV7005 will freeze, meaning it won’t go back to its NET/USB main screen. This isn’t really an issue. Still, rather negligent programming for a $50 upgrade in my opinion.

With the Marantz AirPlay upgrade, don't even think about changing the source input of the receiver into something else, after having established an AirPlay connection with your computer's iTunes library. It won't be able to reconnect easy, which is a huge pain, in my opinion.

If you own relevant Apple devices or software, you're in luck. Without them, you probably find Airplay rather useless. There are some alternatives to Airplay, however. Most notably Twonky, that turns your PC or MAC into a media server that any DNLA certified player (such as most modern receivers) can use.

Reference Equipment
  • Marantz AV7005 Pre/Pro
  • Apple iPhone 4
  • Apple MacBook Pro 2.6 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo running OS X 10.5.8 and iTunes 10.1.1
  • Marantz MM7055 power amplifier
 
Cruise Missile

Cruise Missile

Full Audioholic
Thank you.

After reading this review I felt I should point out how similar ( read: identical ) this is to the already installed windows player.

I have a p.c. running windows 7 and which ever version of windows media player that is current. All of my music is DRM free .WAV files.

My Denon AVR-4311ci plays my music in the exact same manner all the way down to the laggy response to inputs from the remote.

If you own a bunch of iTunes media I could maybe see this being for you. If not however, you're paying $50 to add a feature that your receiver already has.

Makes no sense to me.
 

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