Marantz MCR 60n

Take a look at the network audio player section of Marantz's website, and you'll see it faces a bit of a problem. Its Melody X model remains, although at seven years old it's a little long in the tooth - especially when judged against the brand's own M1. Next to it is the Link 10n, yours for a cool £10,400.

It's certainly fair to say a new model with some modern fixtures and the brand's classier new design language is overdue – that's where the shiny new MCR 60n comes in. It's designed as a beefier follow-up to the Melody X, with more functionality built in.

This is an integrated stereo amplifier with network streaming powers and an integrated CD drive, complete with an ESS DAC that's ready to handle any digital content you want to throw at it at up to 32bit/384kHz PCM and 11.2MHz DSD resolution. And you can hook up a turntable to its moving magnet phono stage, confident you don't need to do anything else to hear your vinyl.

In terms of amplification, Marantz uses Class D amplification with 65 watts per channel into a 4-ohm load, while HEOS powers the streaming side for a competent wireless experience - this also gives this Marantz the ability to be hooked up to other HEOS-enabled equipment in a multiroom system. Perhaps one of those Denon Home speakers in a bedroom, or something else HEOS-based… 

Dual-band wifi takes care of connectivity for streaming from a phone, giving access to the 'Connect' flavours of Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz, with more treasures to be found in the HEOS app in terms of internet radio and more besides. There's also Bluetooth if you want to use it, with support for Bluetooth LE audio with compatible phones, and the MCR 60n  will also be fully Roon Ready any day now.

So it's quite a feature-rich bit of kit at its £800 asking price - it might even count as ‘good value’, on the page at least. It all comes in a new chassis that follows the brand's new design language - so it’s quite minimalistic, with a criss-cross pattern across the top. The unit feels weighty enough that you could conceivably use it as a weapon.

Sound Quality

Coupled to a pair of Q Acoustics Concept 30 standmount speakers (on their FS75 stands), the MCR 60n provides an entertaining listen.

Regardless of source, I am impressed with how organised and spacious the Marantz's sound is. It isn't the most spacious or three-dimensional sound you've ever heard, but as a one-and-done box that can be hooked up to a set of even quite demanding loudspeakers, it's luscious in depth and width.

The MCR 60n’s sound has a slight tilt towards the low end, but the reassuring meat on the bone is coupled with some nice texture and discernible detail. Spinning up some of my usual test tracks (such as Marillion's The Invisible Man) reveals some real power and depth. The slow-building, bass-heavy atmosphere is weighty and controlled, and has nice presence.

It has the seesaw effect of pushing treble back a little in the mix, but there is still some bright expression and some bite to help make up for a small loss of overall sparkle in the way things are tuned. The audiophile trope of Steely Dan's Do It Again has pleasant organisation and width for each of the competing percussion elements in the intro - though there isn't as much attack or punch as some brighter-sounding options deliver.

Cutting right through the middle is a clear midrange that puts vocals front and centre, with an immediate quality that's hard not to like. There’s good authority in the mix with a direct feel and some lovely weight to boot, giving vocal lines a real sense of presence rather than sitting them politely behind the instrumentation. The MCR 60n can sound demure in its presentation in some respects, but its forthright approach to vocals is anything but. Voices come through with real warmth and grain, and a close-mic'd vocal retains all its intimacy and texture. 

As for CD, the MCR 60n holds its own against streamed sources — fidelity is consistent across both, with the same neat and generally smooth presentation carrying over. Bass carries some pleasant texture and timbre alongside a weighty extension, vocals come through with real conviction, not smoothed into politeness, and percussion hits have some nice air to them. The one shortfall is metadata: unlike wifi-enabled streaming, which pulls track and album info automatically, the CD input leaves you working from the display's bare bones.

The MCR 60n is certainly an enjoyable listen that's insightful and tuned with a lovely warm emphasis that can make the right songs sing. Some folks may want a little more bite but, for the most part, if a well-mannered listen is what you're after, there's a lot to like. If it doesn’t seem to be your cup of tea, well, there are a fair number of alternatives in the streaming amp world to consider, and some even include a CD drive too.

Living With the Marantz MCR 60n

Getting up and running with the MCR 60n is as painless as can be. The unit needs mains power from a provided figure-eight cable, plus you can hook up an antenna cable included in the box if you want good-old-fashioned FM or DAB radio – internet radio may suffice, but it's nice to have an analogue option too.

All the other physical connections are laid out on the rear. Analogue inputs include a line-level RCA line-in, a dedicated moving magnet phono stage, plus an RCA out and subwoofer pre-out, and four speaker terminals. In terms of digital, you've got optical in, HDMI (supporting both eARC and ARC) and a USB-A port for an external music drive. If you want it, there's wired Ethernet for a more stable connection, although I find wi-fi  perfectly adequate.

The HEOS control app is the brains of the operation, and is a free download for Android and iOS. It's how you get the Marantz onto your home network and, once there, it's where you control its access to different streaming services, internet radio, or manage any files you have stored on a NAS. Compared to BluOS or WiiM Home, HEOS is far from streamlined or friendly - it takes me some time to work my way around it and to work out exactly how to beam music in from a streaming service or internet radio. You can, at least, choose four presets in the app for your most frequently accessed services or stations. There are HEOS updates in the pipeline which should address one or two little issues of operability I encounter - and, of course, you can bypass HEOS entirely and use the 'Connect' versions of streaming services, or AirPlay 2, once the MCR-60n is sitting on your network.

The remote control is very similar to the one supplied with the 60n - it’s a full-system remote and hilariously oversized, with many more controls than are required for controlling the MCR 60n. Nonetheless, it's reasonably tactile, and once you’ve established which of the bevy of small buttons does what, it's pretty useful.

If the remote or HEOS isn't your jam, then Marantz provides a degree of physical control. It has controls for power, those presets, wonderfully clicky volume buttons, along with play/pause, track-seeking, eject and input selection as capacitive pads. You also get a display that feels a little small to me. It's got a hefty bezel around it, and merely displays track information, run-time, and the source it's coming from (such as Tidal or AirPlay). For at-a-glance information it's fine, but a colour screen with a little more to it would be nice.

Conclusion

I haven’t seen many of these all-in-one boxes released in the last few years - so the MCR 60n is mostly lining up against the Technics SA-C600 and Eversolo Play CD. 

And Marantz is offering a perfectly agreeable piece of kit here - it’s a device that's easy to live with (and will be easier still if the HEOS updates are successful), is compatible with a vast array of sources, and offers a warm and agreeable sound even if outright excitement isn’t really its game. It's designed for long, comfortable listening sessions where cohesion and ease on the ear matter more than outright thrills, and at this price it's likely to hit the spot for a lot of folks.

Listening Notes

Marillion The Invisible Man
A slow-building, brooding recording that twists and turns into something deep and surprisingly heavy. It reveals the MCR-60n's tight and controlled low-end includes some lovely texture, while giving more than enough room to both a snarly vocal from Steve Hogarth and Ian Mosley's driving drum work.

Jack Johnson The Horizon Has Been Defeated
This 2003 track is simple in structure – a smooth vocal and flecks of electric guitar built around a bass and drum groove that the Marantz portrays wonderfully. Johnson's vocal is front and centre, while the bass and drums each have space around him. Before you've even got stuck into the groove, the short two-and-a-half minute runtime is up, and you've just got to listen to it all over again. 

‍George Benson Affirmation (live)
It was only a matter of time before this live cut reared its head. Recorded at Ronnie Scott's only a few years ago, it's a true exhibition in soundstaging. Pay close attention to the audience reaction before the band has even played a note, and the reverb from laughs and claps as the song begins. The MCR-60n provides enough breathing room to allow you to settle into a lovely instrumental.

If you want a compact system with plenty of power that just needs the space for one box, then the MCR 60n deserves a spot on your shortlist. If you're after consistent CD playback, streaming powers, and a phono stage without hunting down potentially costlier separates, then it's an easy recommendation. It's a warm, well-rounded, and thoroughly likeable product.

The Fyne Audio F55E are a lovely tonal match for the Marantz, priced very appropriately and ready to survive an upgrade to the electronics powering them as and when. If you fancy some speakers as compact as the MCR 60n, though, you could do a lot worse than check out the Monitor Audio Bronze 50 7G - they punch well above their weight (and dimensions).