The BD5004 Blu-ray player and NR1501 AV receiver are being promoted as a combo. The entry-level Blu-ray player incorporates the Marantz ‘reference standard’ chassis design and M1 front panel, while the compact new AV receiver measures only 10cm in height.
The BD5004 also offers full Profile 2.0/BD-Live specification, 36-bit Deep Colour support, 24FPS capability, upscaling of SD sources via the HDMI 1.3a port, a 150MHz/12-bit Video DAC, and a ‘Pure Direct’ audio exclusive mode that turns off all non-essential circuitry. The player also features an SD-Card slot, offering playback of WMA/MP3/JPEG, as well as compatibility with Blu-ray, DVD, CD, DivX HD and AVCHD.
Meanwhile, the low-profile NR1501 is said to provide “all the functionality and convenience you would expect from a far bigger AV receiver”. Highlights of the device’s specification include 50W across each of its seven channels, Dolby TrueHD and dts HD Master Audio decoding, and four HDMI 1.3 inputs feeding one HDMI output. In addition, any analogue video signal from the three component video inputs will be ‘upconverted’ to HDMI quality automatically.
Jason Dear, Marantz UK managing director, told IE Residential: “Marantz believes the new slimline AV receiver, in combination with our latest Blu-ray designs, will have a big impact. It is so much more room-friendly, but not at the expense of performance or features. This is certainly something a particular tranche of consumers are after – the latest high-definition quality, but without the oversized products.”
