Marantz NR1504 AV Network Receiver

Marantz NR1504 Airplay AV Reciever

For home cinema users short on rack space and therefore seeking a compact AV receiver solution, the low-profile Marantz NR1504 is a fully featured and powerful 5.1 AV receiver small on the outside but with plenty of features and great Marantz audiophile sound quality. For those customers lacking the available headroom in your TV rack, the NR 1504 is a breath of fresh air thanks to it's skinny 155mm height, whilst it's depth is only 367mm - width is the standard 440mm.

With a power output of 50 watts per channel into 8 ohm speakers (the most common loudspeaker impedance), the NR-1504 has more than enough power for small to medium sized living rooms. Heavy duty binding posts make a secure and simple connection to your speaker cables. Connectivity is abundant too, with six HDMI inputs to cover all of your sources (one conveniently mounted on the front panel, great for cam-corders or game consoles), with one 3D compatible HDMI output to feed your TV or projector. One nice feature is, for occasional viewing, you may not want to switch on your surround sound system - in this case, the 1504 allows HDMI pass through from any HDMI source to the HDMI output even when the NR1504 is in standby - great for watching the news, for example. The HDMI connections also offer CEC which enables the remote control of your TV to control other compatible devices eg blu-ray player. Audio return channel allows the audio output of your TV to be transmitted to the AV receiver without needed the usual optical toslink cable.

Analogue sources can also be connected to the NR 1504 thanks to three stereo analogue inputs, whilst a toslink optical digital input and coaxial digital input allow even more flexibility when connecting set top boxes and CD players for example. A front panel USB connector allows you to connect to your iPhone or iPad with a digital audio connection for even better sound quality, and also charging your iDevice ready for mobile use. A re-designed back panel has made all inputs have black labeling, whilst all outputs are designated with white labeling, making it much clearer for the consumer to connect the unit correctly in the AV system.

As expected all HD media is decoded to either DTS HD or Dolby TrueHD surround sound for the best in movie sound quality, Auto sound calibration is achieved by the industry standard Audyssey MultiEQ microphone system to compensate for non-ideal speaker placement and room acoustics, giving you a much better balanced sound than otherwise possible.

Many users will find the networking functions of great benefit - Spotify and Last.fm can be streamed directly, as can Internet radio. Digital music files in MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC or WAV can be streamed from your computer or NAS drive across your home network to the NR1504 for enjoyment in your move room. Not only that, but your Airplay mobile devices can stream music directly to the 1504 - great for parties or get-togethers. A free app is downloadable for iOS and Android devices to allow complete control of the 1504 from your hand held smart device.

Ease of setup is a critical success factor in achieving the best possible sound quality from movies and music, so a colour graphical user interface (setup assistant in nine different languages) makes the entire process crystal clear and easy to follow, in bite size steps. To begin the setup process, simply connect the NR1504 to mains power, then connect an HDMI cable between the HDMI output of the 1504 to your TV and follow the steps outlined on the menu.