Marantz Push Into Magnolia Won’t Hurt Specialists, D&M Says

The push by D&M’s Marantz into Best Buy’s Magnolia gives the brand a long-sought retail showroom presence and won’t replace its several hundred custom install and specialty AV dealers, Robert Weissburg, D&M president of North American sales and marketing, told us.

Marantz gradually built a base with Magnolia, starting 3-4 years ago with standalone stores before expanding into new design centers in Chicago and Costa Mesa, Calif., Weissburg said. Each of Magnolia’s 380 stores will likely carry Marantz’s “core” AV receivers like the new SR5005 and SR6005, he said. Some stores may have a slightly broader assortment that adds a new two-channel model, Weissburg said. Marantz won’t provide derivative gear for custom install or specialty AV dealers as a buffer against the receivers sold at Magnolia, he said.

While Magnolia will give Marantz its first national presence -- the defunct Ken Crane’s Audio Video was among its dealers with showrooms -- D&M will seek to keep its position in the custom install market, Weissburg said. High-end speaker makers Thiel and B&W also recently struck distribution deals with Magnolia in an effort to offset the loss this year of specialty chains like Ken Crane’s and MyerEmco.

"We're dedicated to the custom installers and specialty AV group,” Weissburg said. “We're not changing our philosophy on that. Where we were deficient was in showroom presence and we didn’t have a lot of retail space. Now we picked up 380 retail stores where people will be able to touch and feel the products.” D&M will promote and market the Marantz brand this fall and “people are going to actually be able to find it easily,” Weisburg said. “People aren’t going to drive 150 miles to look at an AV receiver."

Meanwhile, Marantz is weighing the fate of its front projectors. The company has “emergency stock” remaining of DLP-based VP15 and VP12 front projectors for dealers that need to fill orders, said Kevin Zarow, Marantz America’s vice president of sales and marketing. It will make a decision on the category by the CEDIA show in September, he said. Front projectors are a “complete open book” now, and the company could go with “DLP or something else,” Zarow said. “To be perfectly honest, we could also walk away from the business,” he said. “If we decided that we are going to continue, that would be great. But if we don’t, we have so many other things to focus on."

With D&M’s recent decision to drop Escient products, the company will transfer technology and IP developed for it into Marantz, Denon and other brands, Weissburg said. Former Escient engineers continue to support existing products, including those built and sold under Loewe’s brand, he said. The engineers also are working with D&M’s brand group in Japan, he said. Production of new Escient and Snell products stopped this spring. D&M made Snell speakers at a plant in Peabody, Mass.

Marantz has renewed its push with universal Blu-ray players in adding 3D capability to the UD5005 ($499) and UD7005 ($799) that ship in August and September, respectively. The decks, which can play CDs, DVDs, DVD-Audio, Super-Audio CD, and Blu-ray, are DLNA 1.5-certified and use Anchor Bay video processors to replace Integrated Device Technologies (IDT) Realta ICs found in the high end UD9004 ($5,999). The players also feature Cirrus Logic DACs, including a 32-bit processor in the 7005 and a 24-bit version in the 5005. The UD9004 has a 297 MHZ Analog Devices’ DAC. The new models offer 1 GB of internal memory for BD Live. They've switched to USB from flash drives.

The Blu-ray players also boast improved disc loading times, Zarow said. For non-Java-based Blu-ray titles the time was cut in half from a year ago to 14 seconds, while Java-equipped movies moved to 15 seconds from 35 seconds, Zarow said. The decks also have a rubberized finish to reduce vibration and a center loading design, he said.

Meanwhile, Marantz overhauled its line of AV receivers, adding HDMI 1.4a connectors in allowing for pass through of 3D content. The line is led by the SR7005 ($1,599), the company’s first DLNA-certified model, which adds Internet radio streaming from 14,000 stations, company officials said. The SR7005, which replaces the SR7002, also is the first Marantz audio component to feature Audyssey Lab’s flagship MultiEQ Pro room correction technology and Audyssey DSX. Marantz fielded two AV receivers last year with Dolby Pro Logic IIz to add front-height channels. DSX brings in two left-right image widening channels. The 7005 has 125 watts x 7 power and moves to 6 HMDI connectors from the four of the 7002.

Marantz also brought HD Radio to the SR7005 and SR6006 ($999) AV receivers. IPod/IPhone USB 2.0 ports also appear on all new models along with the Marantz Expansion Port (M-XPort) connector. M-Xport allows the receiver to connect to an Optional RX101 Bluetooth receiver ($99) to stream music from other Bluetooth-equipped devices, including cellphones and PCs. The receivers also carry over Audyssey Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume, which appeared in Marantz products for the first time last year. The receivers also allow for streaming of Flickr, Napster, Netflix, Pandora and Rhapsody.

At the entry level, Marantz carried over 2009’s 5.1-channel NR1501 AV receiver and slashed the price to $399 as it readied the 7.1-channel NR1601 ($599) that ships Monday. The NR1601 continues with last year’s Slimline design, which features a 13-inch depth and 4-inch height. The NR1601 has four HDMI 1.4 connectors and USB ports for Apple’s iPod, and it’s compatible with Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio. It also is Bluetooth-capable.

While many CE manufacturers have added Wi-Fi to their products, Marantz has no immediate plans to do so, Zarow said. “As a manufacturer who is selling to installers, we can’t guarantee the robustness of a Wi-Fi system, so we leave that to our installers, who can easily add a wireless bridge,” Zarow said. “The Wi-Fi network inside a product is a little radio station itself, and everything we do is about sound quality so it’s better that we remove that from the product.”