Marantz Grand Horizon is easily the best one-box wireless speaker I've heard – but for this price, it'd better be

Marantz, nan Japanese hi-fi stalwart, has conscionable announced its first all-in-one wireless speakers: nan Horizon and nan larger, beefier Grand Horizon. They're big, information beasts made pinch a luxury look and materials, and packing successful immense amplification powerfulness and a batch of speakers. And they'll travel astatine a precocious value erstwhile they motorboat successful January 2025, pinch nan smaller Horizon costing $3,500 / £3,250, and nan Grand Horizon costing $5,500 / £5,250. (No Australian pricing has been confirmed yet.)

The information creation useful successful operation pinch nan speaker arrangement, which is filled pinch multi-angled drivers to present Dolby Atmos audio, arsenic good arsenic expansive stereo sound. The Grand Horizon is equipped pinch 8 drivers successful total, comprising 3 tweeters (firing up, near and right), 4 mid-range drivers (firing up-left, up-right, down-left and down-right), and 1 "Gravity" bass driver successful nan center. That's each backed up by 860W of highest amplification power. This is contained successful a 493 x 255 x 529.2mm (19.41 x 10.04 x 20.83 inch) body, pinch a built-in plinth made of marble.

The smaller Horizon is 364 x 210 x 387.5mm (14.33 x 8.27 x 15.26 inch), and truthful features less speakers. Here, you've sewage 2 tweeters and 3 mid-range drivers, and nan Gravity bass driver – each pinch up to 745W of highest power. Unlike nan Grand Horizon, location will beryllium an optional tripod guidelines for nan smaller Horizon, which costs a cool $700 / £650. Both models tin beryllium wall-mounted, though we don't cognize erstwhile these brackets will beryllium disposable yet (engineers are moving connected really to woody pinch nan unit levels these things generate).

For connections, you've sewage a stereo RCA in, optical, HDMI eARC and USB-C. The HEOS wireless level provides Bluetooth and Wi-Fi arsenic well, pinch support for AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect (in lawsuit you are, inexplicably, utilizing this pinch Spotify). Various streaming services tin play connected it straight via nan app.

In comparison to nan different best wireless speakers, they're fundamentally nan Charizard to nan Sonos Era 300's Charmander – bigger, stronger, much elite – and backed by nan sound engineering that Marantz is celebrated for.

I sewage to perceive them successful person, and I tin show you that nan Grand Horizon successful peculiar is easy nan best-sounding one-box speaker I've ever heard. But I besides heard thing other soon aft that put that elephantine value into crisp perspective.

Huge sound from immense speakers

I listened to nan Grand Horizon successful a sizable room (though astir apt not an unrealistic size of room for nan benignant of assemblage apt to bargain this) astatine astir 75% volume, and it provided nan biggest, astir enveloping sound I've heard from a azygous speaker.

The sound is highly detailed, pinch tons of nuance and scope to it. It tin sound saccharine and clear erstwhile it should, but arsenic you tin prime up each croak successful a gravelly voice. It manages to present awesome power and hit while still being incredibly revealing excessively – this isn't made to beryllium plain and analytical, but it's still a realistic and carefully-handled listen.

Bass is luxuriously heavy and tin beryllium roaring – astatine this volume, it feels a small for illustration having your ain nine system. But it’s 100% precise and controlled, and doesn't resistance nan sound down into debased frequencies – it cautiously adds resonance powerfulness to acoustic instruments to make them convincing, weighty and realistic successful a uncommon way. In nan demo, nan bass didn't really transportation into nan level either, truthful you tin ramp it up for thorax pushing nosy without it emotion ridiculous elsewhere successful nan house.

In stereo, nan sound is nicely dispersed and wide while still emotion deliberate and specific. The speaker past does an absorbing occupation pinch really spatial tracks – you tin perceive a halo of euphony spreading complete nan wall astir it, though it still sounds for illustration nan halfway of everything.

There's clear positioning happening, and though evidently this won't beryllium astir you successful 3D abstraction nan measurement it would beryllium from a Dolby Atmos location theatre system, it provides a clear consciousness that different sounds successful nan operation are coming from a view successful beforehand of you.

(I should statement present that, astatine nan moment, Dolby Atmos will only activity complete HDMI eARC, but streaming support is planned for later.)

I listened to this demo utilizing 44kHz, 16-bit tracks, successful nan Grand Horizon's Auto sound mode. This is nan default, and it's considered to beryllium a balanced mode, but you tin besides take Sound Master mode, which is considered much of a 'pure' mode, tuned by Marantz euphony maestro Yoshinori Ogata, and will springiness you sound that's a small much guardant and audiophile-friendly.

There's besides a 'My Mirage' mode, which is simply a customizable option. You don't set treble aliases bass; you set 'Warmth', 'Spaciousness' and 'Clarity'.

Marantz suggests adjusting it based connected usage cases – if you ever beryllium successful nan aforesaid position successful beforehand of it, possibly you adjacent down nan Spaciousness option, and dainty nan remainder to your taste. But if you usage it successful a large room for a party, you want nan aforesaid sound floor plan everyplace successful it, truthful you spell afloat connected nan Spaciousness, which should execute that. I didn't effort these out, though.

The problem is slick separates

I came distant from my clip pinch nan Grand Horizon emotion wholly impressed by nan sound for a single-unit speaker, though fixed nan size, value and nan magnitude of engineering involved, that's not really a surprise.

The problem that nan Grand Horizon has, though, was highlighted to maine soon aft I heard it, erstwhile I went to a different Marantz demo. Here was Marantz's caller M1 streaming amp ($1,000 / £899) paired pinch a group of Bowers & Wilkins 607 S3 speakers ($899 / £549), and nan scale, powerfulness and value of nan euphony was highly adjacent to what I heard from nan Horizon.

For a 3rd of nan value of nan Grand Horizon (and successful a room that was not very optimized for testing speakers) I recovered myself reasoning that this combo delivered expansiveness and item to rival nan Grand Horizon, and pinch much than capable powerfulness for astir rooms. Sure, you won't get nan Dolby Atmos positioning effect, but that's a bully to have, acold from an essential.

This setup honestly wouldn't beryllium overmuch harder to accommodate successful a room than nan Grand Horizon – it's conscionable that you'd person to woody pinch immoderate speaker cabling, and it's adjacent that immoderate group would want to debar that.

You besides don't get nan striking creation of nan Grand Horizon, pinch its ringing of LEDs that lights up erstwhile you attack (and indicates nan measurement level successful a circle), its beautiful Midnight Sky (black) and Moon Ray (off-white) finishes, and cool EcoFiber covering. The Moon Ray is made up of different shades, and moreover a sparkly decorativeness to nan fabric.

The Grand Horizon is incredibly impressive, and if you fresh nan 'money nary object' little of these articles and want a azygous speaker pinch stunning sound, I would happily urge it – but I came distant from my demos scheming astir creating a caller amp and speakers setup, not readying connected really I could spend a Horizon.

The Horizon and Grand Horizon will beryllium released connected January 14, 2025.

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