Marantz STEREO 70s 2-Ch AV Receiver (75W X 2) - 4K/120 and 8K Compact Home Theater Receiver, Class A/B Amplification, Supports Spotify Connect, Airplay 2, Bluetooth, & More via Wi-Fi & HEOS Multi-Room

Well here are my dislikes. My dislikes are that the HEOs app does not work. At least none of mine and at least on anything I've seen when I review. I've seen a lot of people have a problem with it now. Spotify connects immediately but that's the only app that connects immediately and I have tried everything and I probably going to call Marantz about 15 times and it just does not work and I don't really want to return it because this amplifier really really rocks. But the bass sounds absolutely amazing but if you turn it off to where you can set the hurts on your subwoofer it won't let you. You have to use the hz on the amplifier and and it's really good now. It goes from like 40 60 80 and onward all the way. Up to 250 I believe now I set mine on 90 and it sounds actually amazing with movies and I turn it down to 60 when I'm listening to music because it doesn't produce very good bass. When you turn it down to 40 it's like there is no base. It just does not produce low frequencies to 40. I don't believe for a second. It's my subwoofers because the last amplifier I had you have to use the knob on the back of the subwoofers and my subwoofers are Klipsch 12-In Black label and 12-in reference and I've turned it down as loads of the go and it absolutely kicked rock and roll but so I don't believe for a second. That is the subwoofers but anyway, I've got a whole Black label hooked up to it. Two Tower speakers and two bookshelf speakers and it is extremely loud. Thick sound just sounds absolutely phenomenal and it sounds phenomenal with movies. And like I said, Spotify sounds phenomenal with my turntable my fluance rt83. It sounds phenomenal with my PlayStation. My DVD player is just absolutely amazing. I cannot recommend it enough. It just sucks that you can't string music but it's not really a deal-breaker for me. I'll just buy a streamer and hook it up because it definitely is not going to work. I've done tried everything and like I said the volume is just amazing and even when I have all four speakers hooked up it's just the volume does not get low. It still sounds absolutely amazing and you can bi amp your speakers and that makes it sound a little Fuller. I really really like it and I'm going to tell you right now I wasn't too sure what I thought when I first hooked it up and they say give it 12 hours to break in. Well that's false honest to God. You need to give it about 72 hours to break in before it sounds 100% amazing. At least that was my opinion was 12 hours 24 hours 36 hours. I was pretty disappointed with the sound but when it broke in about the 72-hour marker I was absolutely blown away. I mean it sounds amazing. After 48 hours it's 72. Really really just sounds amazing. It doesn't even sound like a $500 amplifier. Sounds more like a $800 or $1,000 one and like I said customer service it's amazingWell this is an update 27 days after I got it. The sound on this thing is amazing but there's a butt to it. The problem is is the HEOS app which is will not connect. It just won't do it. Another problem is after listening to it for about 3 hours the volume starts going low. One song will be loud. The next song will be mediocre without even touching the volume. It's crazy. I tried to call Marantz which is an amazing customer service. They truly are amazing and they tried to help but there is no help. I don't know what the problem. This thing is then last night for the first time ever I hooked up a DVD player to it or a better. He had a Blu-ray and the movie sounded like a really bad movie. I'm just going to have to watch my language but it sounded like poop. You feel me and it was really disappointing. As of the PlayStation 5 it kept major butt but there's a butt if it was been on for a little while. The volume fluctuates and it sucks. My turntable would sound awesome on direct mode but other days it would sound like straight poo poo you feel me and it's just really disappointing because those first 3 hours that you're listening to it everyday it was really really good. I mean the sound is just amazing but unfortunately I have to return it and I really hate that

First, this purchase was to replace an older Denon (model AVR-X3000) that maxed out at 1080p, and had none of the latest bells and whistles. In addition, I had always been happy overall with its performance, etc.It's many years later since the Denon's purchase, and with 4K Apple TV streaming player and a fairly recently acquired 4K LG television in the house, it felt like a good time to upgrade our receiver to take advantage of 4K content, and the latest bells and whistles.However, I was annoyed by the idea of yet again spending dollars on a 5.1 or 7.1 AVR and not having any use for those additional channels as we do not have, and will not have, a home theater setup. It has rubbed me the wrong way for a long time that manufacturers didn't also cater to those of us who simply stick to 2.0, 2.1 or 2.2 channel configurations, but still needed to pass through television content. Honestly, I've never personally known anyone who had an actual home theater set-up in their home. And I'm almost 59.But I have been pleased over the past few years to find a few manufacturers making these sorts of receivers: stereo, but with HDMI inputs and video passthrough at 4K and even 8K. Saints be praised! And so I began looking for one to fit my wants and needs, which led to Marantz and the STEREO 70s."Wait," you may say. "You didn't buy the 70s." and that would be correct. While it is an awesome product with very solid reviews and a very nice aesthetic, it was also $1,000, which was more money than I wanted to spend. And I had almost resigned myself to spending the cash when I caught wind of this NR1200 (discontinued by Marantz and replaced by the 70s) lurking about upon pages of the internet, AND here on Amazon.Basically the NR1200 and the 70s are the same unit with some minor interior updates, but mostly an exterior one. Plus the 70s handles 8K, but that wasn't a selling point for me. And in the end our checking account is much happier as the NR1200, nicely discounted, was about 55% of the cost of the new 70s. So if the only things I'm not getting are a nicer exterior and 8K, which I didn't want/need, then why would I not have purchased this NR1200?!Now, how good or bad is it. I'll start with a comparison: clearly better than the aged Denon. This NR1200 cost at full retail about what I paid for the Denon years ago, but the Denon spent money on multiple amplifier modules, which meant they were clearly cheaper per unit than what is gone into this Marantz. I had not really expected this, especially with Deion and Marantz being sister companies, and likely sharing a lot of components across their lines.But what a pleasant surprise to find the bass was tighter and better controlled and with just a bit more punch. Mids, especially voices, are clearer and ever so slightly more forward, making this really good with watching television. And highs.. highs are a bit more refined... less edgy. Smoother. In hindsight it makes the Denon's highs sound a tad shrill when pushed.The Marantz also does wifi, Bluetooth and HEOS. HEOS is alright... I've seen better implementations of such things, but it's serviceable and nice to have. I have thus far mostly used it to tune in BBC radio stations via the internet radio option within HEOS.As for video, the upgrade to the Marantz has brought about visual improvements on par with the sonic. We can now actually take advantage of 4K content (yea!) and the overall picture quality has improved mostly in the realm of deeper hues of color and improvements in dark scenes (better contrast).So it's really a shame this is a discontinued unit, but if you're in the market for a newish AVR-like receiver that eschews the useless additional channels of audio, grab this before it's gone forever. It is money better spent than on any 5.#/7.# AVR where you won't be using those additional channels (at least in this price point).

Pros: Excellent sound quality and connectivity. Good solid built. Premium streaming audio quality with HEOS from many sources. Playing HiRes formats from external USB Storage. Relatively straight forward menu navigation from remote. Good tuner sensitivity on FM. I like the ease of connecting directly to hundreds of internet radio stations.Cons: An integrated higher resolution visual display with information about the song being played would be nice.Although arguably it is not the business of a power amplifier, I would have liked a better tone adjustments/equalizer options. It only allows +/- 6db adjustments on bass and treble.

Overall, this is a decent product. I wanted something 2.1 with decent power that integrated with the samsung eARC and smart remote, and it does this; turns on/off when the TV turns on/off, auto selects the TV input, and full control over mute/volume. For a slim unit, it has 5 HDMI inputs (5 more than I'd typically use, lol!) As for the warts: The subwoofer out has a configurable low-pass filter (useless!), but L/R does NOT have a matching high-pass filter! I find this very odd. Also, the built-in HEOS app for local media supports Samba v1.0 (long since deprecated) and no higher revision, which is also very odd. To get local media to this device you need to use DLNA, which works without configuration once you set up a DLNA server. Lastly, the HEOS app on the unit and phone is horrid; you cant apply filters (say, for multiple artists, generes, etc.) and it wont let you multi-select to throw together a playlist. Forget about telling it to just play everything from an artist or genre...you have to drill down to each and every track and enqueue them individually! Anyhow, it fits nice under the flatscreen, and looks unobtrusive...