Marantz BD7004

More and more blu-ray players are introduced into the market each week. Some manufacturers sugar coat the player by adding additional features that can easily tempt any movie lover to make the switch, but the Marantz BD7004 universal disc player plays its cards differently by supporting more formats than the standard models and incorporating some nice Blu-ray technologies too.

Marantz BD7004 | Player Details

Design

The design of the Marantz BD7004 universal disc player closely resembles its entry-level cousin, the BD5004. It is fully made of aluminum, which is new to the lineup and sports a reinforced resin front panel and a center mount drawer. The chassis has been redefined as well to help reduce vibration.

On the front of the player lies the same familiar layout of the info display on the center with the disc tray on top. But rather than the horizontal layout of playback controls, the BD7004 goes for a two-column approach with the three common playback controls on the right of the info display and the seek controls along with the open/close button on the opposite end. The power button can be found on the far left while the SD card slot can be found just below the right column of buttons. The only difference between this and the BD5004 are the logos found on top hinting that the BD7004 is more universal than the cheaper model.

Features

Internet features can be used here with the full Profile 2.0 for BD-Live support. It is as easy as plugging in the Ethernet port on the back and then inserting any Blu-ray disc that has Internet features and then downloads them to an SD or microSD card that should be inserted in the card slot on the front of the player.

On the audio side, the BD7004 is slightly more superior to the rest of the players including the BD5004. It has DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD audio capabilities, but it also manages to have internal decoding and 7.1 channel support without producing much noise due to the unique way the parts were designed. Combined with the clever design, the sound quality is one of the best features of the BD7004.

Since it is a universal player, the BD7004 can play all the common WMA, MP3, and JPEG formats via SD card for quick operation as well as playback support for DivX HD and AVCHD discs.

Performance

DVD upscaling is top notch with the Anchor Bay VRS Technology Video Scaler. Anchor Bay was previously known for its award-winning DVDO technology and now the boundary has been pushed even further with this new processor that combines multiple smaller technologies including Progressive ReProcessing, RightRate, Mosquito Noise Reduction, Precision AV LipSync, and many others to process a really good 1080p 24 fps image. The Anchor Bay 1030 chip in the Marantz 7004 does an exceptional job at color accuracy, detail reproduction, and motion. Blu-ray picture quality is outstanding.

In terms of loading times the player is quite responsive, but not outstandingly fast like the Oppo BDP-83. Powered off eject times are roughly 13-15 seconds and non-java discs load in about 20 to 40 seconds. Discs with heavy java content takes around 50 to 60 seconds to load.

In terms of audio performance the 7004 delivers a detailed and warm sound during music playback. For movies, the dialogue from the center channel is crisp and clear. The 7.1 CH analogue output is terrific and has speaker settings and distances. One shortcoming is that it does not allow you to set the crossover.

Bottom Line

The Marantz 7004 is not cheap by any means in this competitive niche where prices are dropping and playback quality inching up all the time. With the introduction of the excellent Oppo BDP-83, competing in this segment gets even harder. But what you are paying for here is not only performance quality but also design and build quality that other cheaper players can’t match. With such an excellent picture and sound quality this player is definitely worthy of serious consideration if your budget permits.

Actual user review:

“The mid to higher end Blu-ray Player landscape was dramatically changed by the $500 Oppo BDP-83. It matched performance and value in a wonderful package. That said, there remain some players that offer higher quality audio (via analogues) and a bit more style and panache, namely the Denon DBP-2010CI and its Marantz cousin the BD7004.

The Marantz is a heavy, solid player sits a bit taller than most. The player is profile 2.0 for internet-based special features, which creates a spandrel in making firmware updates easy via the internet. Although the player is nearly identical to the Denon DBP-2010CI, I have found the Marantz BD7004 to be devoid of any weird handshake issues that caused brief green flashes at power up. DVD upscaling is top notch with the ABT VRS scaling chip. I would venture to say that it is 98% of the Oppo’s performance for normal content.

The Oppo’s chip (ABT 2010) is a bit better at recognizing obscure film cadences used in animation and anime, but the ABT 1030 chip in the 7004 does an exceptional job at detail reproduction, color accuracy, and motion. The menus allow for detail PQ tweaking including NR, gamma, brightness and contrast (the menu gui is a bit dated). BD playback is excellent. The player gains a competitive advantage in audio performance. The DACs are tremendous and deliver very clean and warm sound. This player is truly a worthy competitor to the Oppo when you factor in the three year warranty and RS 232, but push your local dealer for a more realistic price.” – WDH (USA)

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