Marantz, a home entertainment equipment manufacturer, was out in force at CES 2006 in Las Vegas with a large array of new products. Among the more interesting items on display was the ZR6001SP, an audio networking system which uses powerlines in the home, the 7.1 channel flagship SR9600 A/V receiver, the reference quality DV9600 DVD player and the ST7001 XM/AM/FM tuner.
The ZR6001SP audio networking system, which is priced at $1,299 and available this spring, consists of an A/V receiver and a client. It uses Power Line Audio Communication technology to help set up a multiple room digital audio distribution system in the home. It works by using AC power lines as a transmission channel. The client is plugged into an outlet and receives audio from the A/V receiver, which it plays over its two high-performance loudspeakers and a built-in amplifier. Up to six clients (each costs $329.99) can connect to the A/V receiver over the power lines for whole house music streaming.
Marantz’s 2006 flagship A/V receiver is the SR9600, available now for $4,199. This top of the line product features 7 channels of discrete amplification, HD component video switching, surround sound headphone processing, 140 watts x 7 power output, two AM/FM tuners, component video upconversion, a built-in HDCD decoder and two HDMI inputs.
At the top of Marantz’s DVD player pile is the reference quality DV9600. Priced at $2,099 and available now, features include a HDMI 1.1 interface, 1080i and 1080p video scaling, progressive scan component video output, 14-bit/216Mhz video D/A converters, compatibility with DVD-Audio and SACD, IEEE 1394 output and seven video outputs.
The ST7001, priced at $449.99 and available now, supports XM Satellite Radio functionality. It is the first AM/FM tuner introduced by Marantz in five years and has a array of features including a built-in RS-232C jack, 200 channel presets, 100-station programmability with a custom name command function and an advanced sleep timer function.
