In the early days of audio recordings, records suffered from inconsistent recording characteristics. In 1952, unhappy with equipment available at the time, music lover, freelance graphic artist, and amateur musician Saul Bernard Marantz, created what was for the time, a revolutionary pre-amplifier. The Audio Consolette was equipped with every equalizer curve necessary to handle erratic recording characteristics and immediately struck a chord with his friends. As a result, Saul established the Marantz Company in 1953 and opened a factory in Woodside, Queens, New York.

This was over 70 years ago, and the story of the Audio Consolette is worth a deep dive into for another blog, and because it involves RIAA curves I’m going to have to tap into Haden’s mind for some more knowledge on this.

Did you know! Saul Marantz built the very first Audio Consolette at his kitchen table..

I also can't help but feel a bit guilty about not covering Marantz's 70th Anniversary last year with a blog or acknowledgement of how they have contributed so significantly to Hi-fi over the past seventy-plus years. Watch this space for a separate story on that.

For now though, we would like to take quick look at the brand new 50 series combo from the Marantz Hi-fi collection…

I think that’s too casual chromey, our readers want a little more focus please.

The Marantz Model 50 amplifier and the CD50n (CD and network player) both fall in the middle tier of the Hi-fi range from Marantz. We'll run through some of specs and features here.

The CD50 Network streamer and the Model 50 amplifier

Marantz Model 50

A high-current, dual-device A/B amplifier, rated at a healthy 70 watts into 8 ohms and 100 watts into 4 ohms. This will partner a wide range of speakers from floorstanders to difficult to drive bookshelf speakers too.

The amp feels hefty because of the double layer bottom plate, which keeps the chunky power supply and thick metal front plate in place without any flex. Always a good sign for your engine room.

As regards to the styling and the new look from Marantz, which is all encompassing across the range, including the new AV surround amplifiers, I like it!

The wave ripple effect on the front fascia looks great in my humble opinion, Certainly not boring, reminds me of radio waves. Also, just like the Audio Consolette from 70 years ago we have bass and treble tone controls.

Around the back you have six analogue inputs including upgraded connectors for CD and phono, the most commonly used inputs. The moving magnet phono stage uses a new circuit without distortion-inducing coupling capacitors.

And as you can see the chunky binding posts let you connect 2 pairs of speakers to the Model 50, so you can, if needed, stick another pair in a different part of the house like the sun room for example and enjoy your music in there.

Marantz CD50N

Marantz's combined CD player & network player, things start to get a bit more interesting.

The CD playback comes courtesy of a 32bit/384 DAC that gets those digital bits converted. The mechanism for the drawer is super smooth and so quiet, and if you're wondering “what's the big deal” well, it feels like an age since we have had CD players that can hold a candle to our regular British brands that tend to use manual drawers that you open by hand, pressing a button and having a drawer present a CD to you in this fashion, seems pretty cool again.

The CD50's streaming credentials are underpinned by HEOS. A now established streaming platform that can claim to hold its own against other tried and tested platforms by Naim, Yamaha and Linn.

Within the app you can control streaming services from Tidal, Deezer and Spotify with the potential for more in the future.

You can also stream music from your own server to access music you may have previously stored on your computer or NAS drive. There's access to a tuner via the HEOS App, opening up thousands of radio stations for your perusal.

Ahh, a close inspection of those wonderful copper screws that hold everything in place

Two aerials on the back of the CD50N give you Bluetooth and Wifi, you can then stream directly from your phone to your hi-fi, podcasts, radio shows, YouTube even audiobooks. The addition of Airplay 2 affords you the ability to stream directly from your iphone and ipad too.

Aerial acrobatics coming up from chromey (alley-oop)

Another feather in the cap of the CD50N is the addition of digital inputs to the rear panel, you have a USB DAC for a direct PC/MAC connection for asynchronous file playback. An optical input and a coaxial input make up the rest.

More importantly, as regards to inputs, the CD50N has a HDMI ARC input. So if your stereo speakers are positioned on either side of your TV, you can connect a HDMI cable from the TV via the HDMI ARC and TV sound now extends to your wonderful Hi-fi speakers.

The source

And talking about wonderful speakers, we connected our Dynaudio Evoke 30s to the Marantz combo for an audio workout. So, firstly, we tried out the CD playback courtesy of that wonderfully smooth mech.

And to be fair, we were quite impressed, the DAC in the Marantz CD50 is from a lineage not to be sniffed at. Our Ali Farke Toure, Niafunke CD sounded great, a nice open sound that wasn't harsh like a lot of cheaper CD players can be.

The streaming playback followed suit, accessing Tidal through the HEOS app was a breeze.

And 24bit playback, again sounded smooth and refined, there is never a sense that the CD50 is shouting at you, but just gently talking to you with dulcet tones.

Now, to be honest, we didn't get to try out the HDMI ARC option on the CD50, however, we were quietly confident that the 32/384 DAC would do a way better job of being honest to one of Jools Holland's guests than a soundbar.

The final touch of super convenience for all, is the Airplay 2 and the Bluetooth function.

Everybody's phone connected seamlessly. We have a mixture of Android and iPhones in use at the store, and they all connected with little fuss. So YouTube audio here we come.

Ok, so to the engine room.

Everything we have spoken about regarding the CD50's sound wouldn't qualify were it not for the Model 50's handling of the Dynaudio Evoke 30's. The 100 watts into 4 ohms is more than ample for the speakers to sing along at loud volumes without missing a beat. Lower volume control is also great, which is always a good indicator, when the volume needs to be dropped for late night listening the sound stage is still full and rounded.

We tried some German electronic music from one of our faves Robag Wruhme, just to put the amp through it's paces, and sure enough, it didn't disappoint, The track Thora Vukk sounded huge with bags of bass filling our listening room, without sounding slow or wallowy.

So to wrap up. combined and individually, the series 50 from Marantz are a great new addition to Marantz's range, purchased together or as addition to an existing system, you'll be pleasantly surprised.