Marantz MCR-612 'Melody X'
Featuring wi-fi, Bluetooth, Internet radio, HEOS and a huge range of built-in music services, the Melody X has you covered for streaming music. It goes much further, though. A CD player lets you keep on spinning your favourite discs. DAB and FM tuners let you listen off air. Finally, a wide collection of digital and analogue inputs make connecting up your other music sources a cinch.
When it comes to streaming music your way, the Melody X is ahead of the game. Apple AirPlay 2 is now standard and Amazon Prime Music, Spotify (Premium account required for full features), TIDAL, Napster and Deezer are all on board. There’s also TuneIn for Internet radio and Bluetooth music streaming.
AirPlay 2 takes this popular wireless streaming format and makes it better. Controllable by simply asking Siri or using your Apple device, AirPlay 2 lets you effortlessly stream music and podcasts around your home – and all in perfect sync. Alternatively, use the Bluetooth connection for a direct stream from your smartphone or other device.
HEOS multi-room music systems connect together by dual-band Wi-Fi, making them easy to set up with your existing home network. Up to 32 HEOS units can be set up at one time, ensuring even the largest of homes are covered for multi-room music. With HEOS already built-in, the Melody X is ready to go as a single ‘zone’ without any further adaptors.
With support for Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Siri, the Melody X has your every request covered. Simply add an Alexa or Google Home device or use Apple AirPlay for effortless voice control of the main functions, such as volume and input.
As a further bonus, the Melody X MCR612 features a built-in CD player. Marantz make some of the best CD players on the market, so it's little surprise to find this one plays CDs to a very high standard. For added flexibility, it will also play MP3 and WMA music files stored on disc.
Another very handy feature is the built in DAB/FM tuner radio. A choice of DAB and FM gives you access to a wide range of local and national stations. For ease of use, RDS (Radio Data System) is included on the FM tuner. At the back of this versatile system you'll find two optical digital inputs and one RCA phono analogue pair. Perfect for connecting sources such as your TV, games console or set-top box, the Melody X improves the sound of much more than just your music. As a further bonus, it even works with your TV’s remote control – perfect for adjusting the volume or mute without having to use two remotes.
Q Acoustics Q3050i
Striking Floorstanding Speakers with twin 165mm (6.5 in) and 22mm (0.9 in) precision drivers, this can be floor-mounted using rubber feet or spikes (provided), also featuring rear outrigger plinths for extra stability.
The internal structure of the Q 3050i has been designed to incorporate what we have learned about minimising organ piping using Helmholtz Pressure Equalisation (HPE™). This greatly improves the linearity of the bass performance and the cabinet uses Point-to-Point (P2P™) bracing techniques to reduce intrusive cabinet vibrations both coming from our experience with Concept Series.
Foam bungs are provided for the rear-facing ports to help with less than ideal room positioning. The level of bass can be reduced to compensate, but definition and bass extension are increased.
Conventional terminal panel cut-outs have been removed, giving greatly improved structural integrity to the enclosures and new low-profile binding posts have been incorporated with sockets deep enough to accept 4mm (0.16 in) Banana Plugs (We always recommend QED Speaker Cables).
