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Marantz MCR60n: Small System, Serious Sound

What if you could have a one-chassis stereo amplifier that takes up very little room on your desk or bureau, with plenty of power for most speakers? What if it could do all your music streaming, play your CDs, and offer great TV sound? What if it also has a phono preamp for your turntable, looks cool, and is from a well-known brand, all for $1,000? Today we look at the new Marantz MCR60n – both what it is and what it isn’t.

Let’s start with what MCR60n isn’t. Sometimes when we praise a high-value product, it can come across… a bit wrong. MCR60n is good value, because it can do so much. But it won’t equal a pair of 200-watt mono blocks, with a separate preamp, a high-end streamer/DAC, separate CD transport, and so on. A stack of full chassis separates will cost more – and it will sound better. 

But MCR60n is a lot of audio, in a compact form factor. Some folks have no interest in a stack of separates. Either they feel it will look clunky, or they don’t have room for it. MCR60n has an elegant design, looking clean and stylish. At 11” wide x 4.4” tall x just under 12” deep, it offers good sound - minus lots of boxes. 

This stereo amp has good power at 65 watts per channel @ 4 ohms - plenty for many speakers in a reasonably sized room. Sonically, this is a Marantz, tuned by a Marantz sound-master at Shirakawa Audio Works in Japan. It has the signature sound that makes Marantz so popular: warm, yet detailed. 

You also get the bonus of not just streaming, but playing CDs. We love CDs, as they take up very little room. You can easily access your favorite song, or play it over again, and you own the music. 

Let’s look at the features on MCR-60n’s clean back panel, then described what happened when we played some music: 

• It can run 2 sets of speakers, a great benefit
•  A network connection and USB port for a thumb drive loaded with your favorite songs, a nice touch
• Hook up your TV set’s audio with HDMI eARC connection. Your movies, and even the nightly news, will sound great
• FM and AM antenna connections for the built-in AM/FM tuner, a nice touch.  Both AM and FM antennas are included
• Moving magnet phono stage: you can hook up a turntable without needing a separate phono preamp, unless you have an MC cartridge, in which case you need a phono preamp
• Left and right audio inputs for another source; for example, your tape deck
• Left and right audio out, so you can connect to a bigger power amp if you move up to better speakers, or into a larger room. The audio out can be either variable or fixed
• A subwoofer out connection. This is huge, as the biggest thing missing from most compact systems is a power supply that’s able to deliver enough current for serious bass. Here, that’s less of an issue. Hook up a quality sub, and your bottom end is covered. You can even adjust the crossover 
• Optical in, a Bluetooth connect button, and a power socket

The MCR-60n’s ESS DAC can process your streaming and CD content in high res, at up to PCM 384kHz with 32-bit resolution. So, what did we hear when listening to music? We mostly used CDs, as a lot of people still have quite a bit of physical media – and this product has a player built-in! 

We started with a crazy pairing: driving a $20,000 pair of Totem Acoustic Element Metal speakers. You might ask, “What for?  Nobody would ever buy such a pairing!” Correct, but we were curious how it would sound, and it was really good. Bela Fleck’s Flight of the Cosmic Hippo did not have the same deep soundstage we’re used to when listening to Element Metal speakers, nor as much rich, tight bass. But it sounded much better than we thought it might.  Bass was solid and impactful. 

Similarly, the Diana Krall cut Girl in the Other Room sounded beautiful. Her melodic voice floated effortlessly over her smooth, lovely piano. Again, it had a better-than-expected soundstage, offering a well-balanced musical mix.  

We then switched to a more reasonable match, the $1,200/pair Bowers & Wilkins 606 S3 bookshelf speakers. Elvis Presley’s classic, Fever, came across clearly, with good balance between acoustic bass and his signature voice. The title cut from Cantate Domino has an impressive pipe organ. While it didn’t sound like Element Metals being driven by a premium stack of electronics, it was still quite nice. 

With costly separates, you expect soundstage and a sense of depth. MCR60n let the music through with a solid image. Overall, our listening session let us confirm that yes, this really is a Marantz. It won’t play as loud as a more powerful Marantz amp like the M1, or let you fill a big room as easily, but it’s powerful enough for some good music. 

Connected streaming: MCR60n is a HEOS device for multi-room streaming. You can connect wirelessly to other HEOS-enabled speakers from Denon/Marantz for a party mode, playing the same songs in several rooms.  

For music streaming, MCR60n has dual-band Wi-Fi, so you get Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, and Qobuz Connect directly with their respective apps.

MCR60n also supports:

• Amazon Music
• Tidal
• Qobuz
• Pandora
• TuneIn
• SiriusXM
• Deezer
• iHeart radio
• You can stream from Apple Music and YouTube Music via Airplay or Bluetooth LE audio. 

Bluetooth is 2-way, so you can send music out to your BT headphones, good for late-night listening. Or stream music from your phone into MCR-60n; great when you have visitors.MCR60n even has a nice remote control, so you don’t always have to use your phone to play music. The remote has lots of functions, making this system easy to use. I like the hard button on/off, volume up/down, and presets. A nice touch is the four “favorites” buttons at the bottom of the remote, mimicking four similar preset buttons on top of the unit.  Presets make it easy to get to your most often accessed services or stations. 

Dirac Live room correction upgradeability is included. That can make a big difference in enjoying your music, as some rooms are quite problematic. If you pay good money for a system, you want to hear it at its best. You need to pay for a Dirac license, but it’s a good way to minimize room issues for better sound. You can upgrade over time as your budget allows. 

To sum up, there is a lot to like with the Marantz MCR60n. It’s a space-saving, all-in-one system for a thousand dollars that offers almost every source you can think of – all the streaming services, CD, TV sound for movies, AM/FM, plus a connection for a turntable with an MM cartridge. You can even connect a subwoofer or bigger amp later if you like. Nice work, Marantz! For more information on the MCR60n, visit skybygramophone.com.