The hi-fi landscape is changing and, not surprisingly, it all revolves around Apple if this high-end piece of kit from Japanese brand Marantz is anything to go by. The Marantz Melody Media was crowned as the, “world’s first AirPlay certified music system” when it was announced last summer, though the Apple AirPlay functions didn't go live until firmware updates were issued in November.
It’s no longer alone - other gear from Marantz and Denon now features Apple AirPlay, as does B&W’s new Zeppelin Air - but this employment of the lossless streaming tech is seriously impressive.
Amusingly, the Melody Media’s forbear was described as a “DAB microsystem”, but despite this sleek and solid “networked CD receiver’s” inclusion of a digital radio DAB tuner this is so much more than a simple radio, with streaming, web radio Napster and Last.fm included. Is this just Apple TV without video? No way - it offers some serious audiophile quality that, at its best, breathes new life into any crumbling collection of MP3s of varying quality - though its preferred diet is CD or lossless WAV files.
If you’re in any doubt that this a serious slab of hi-fi kit, take a glance at the Melody’s ample rear. Back there you’ll find connections for stereo speakers alongside three auxiliary inputs (two phonos and one optical digital audio) and some phono outputs. There’s also a subwoofer pre-output, a link to an M-XPort (for adding an optional wireless Bluetooth audio module), and a full suite of antennae ports, though the key connection is wired Ethernet LAN. Providing a direct, wired link to a home network means there’s no fussing over entering WEP keys and suchlike, though it does mean that the unit must live near a broadband router. In our test it immediately found both a PC laptop running Windows 7 and a Mac installed with TwonkyMedia.
The front is visually user-friendlier, housing a CD drive (something of a rarity on gadgets we review these days), a USB slot (that is capable of charging, too), a 3.5mm jack input for non-Apple MP3 players, and a headphones jack.
Getting the Melody onto a home network is no problem, and nor is streaming from computers sitting on that network wirelessly. Streamed from a Mac, stereo imaging within Björk’s Homogenic is seriously impressive, and though the Melody can't quite remove the sharpness of treble highs in this 192kbps track, it does an immaculate job at the other end of the frequency range. Swap to Radiohead’s The Bends at 320kbps and that CD drive suddenly seems rather pointless.
