A receiver is something you want to spend money on. It's an investment. However, before making a purchase, you probably don't think about the space you'll be investing inside your home theater cabinet. Some of those components can be pretty big!
Manantz is making it easy to fit the latest and greatest into your A/V setup (and your budget) with a new pair of products for the company's Slimline collection. This lineup is known for packing a lot of features into products that are slim enough to slip into almost any A/V cabinet.
The NR1608 and NR1508 were made for 4K Ultra HD users, with Dolby Vision and Hybrid Log (via a future firmware update). Each one also has plenty of music perks, including Bluetooth, AirPlay, and HEOS support.
Having HEOS inside means that both receivers can be part of any HEOS wireless multi-room music system. This allows users to stream music from the NR1608 and NR1508 to any HEOS-enabled speaker in the house. When paired with the Marantz 2016 AVR Remote app, you can send different music to different rooms or have the whole house rocking the same sound.
Standing just 4.1 inches tall, the NR1608 promises 4K-60Hz video to HDR and Dolby Vision, as well as Hybrid Log Gamma once the firmware is available. The 7.2-channel receiver also works with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X 3D surround sound, so you can rock a 5.1.2-channel speaker configuration right out of the box. Once you get spoiled, know that the NR1608 also offers analogue-to-HDMI conversion and SD/HD-to-4K upscaling for your older content (and attached components).
Promising 7x50W (8 ohms, 20 Hz~20 kHz, 0.08% THD) amplification, the NR1608 also has eight HDMI inputs, ISF certification, Audyssey MultEQ setup and calibration, Audyssey Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume, the on-screen Setup Assistant, and Wi-Fi. The latter allows listeners to tap into music on a NAS drive at up to 192kHz/24bit and DSD5.6MHz. If your own collection isn't enough, you can also wirelessly stream thousands of songs on-demand through services such as TuneIn Internet Radio, Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Prime Music, iHeart Radio, Sirius XM, Sound Cloud, Tidal, Napster, and Deezer. (Just be advised that subscriptions and/or fees may apply.)
The NR1508 has a lot of the same features listed above. However, it doesn't have the Dolby Atmos or DTS:X support, the ISF video calibration, and the Audyssey MultEQ Editor App support. Instead, this 5.2-channel receiver promises 50 watts per channel, with six HDMI inputs, as well as Dolby True HD and DTS-HD decoding.
Marantz plans to start shipping the NR1608 and NR1508 sometime in May. The NR1608 has an MSRP of $749, with the NR1508 priced at $549.
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