Marantz CD6000OSE CD Player.

Manufacturer: Marantz America, Inc., 440 Medinah Rd., Roselle, IL 60172-2330; 630/307-3100

Price: $499.99

Source: Manufacturer loan

Reviewer: James T. Frane

The latest Marantz CD player is the CD6000OSE, not a name that exactly rolls off the tongue. Its black cabinet is 17.25" wide x 3.5" high x 11.5" deep. Included accessories are a pair of standard, lightweight interconnect cables with gold-plated RCA phono ends, a second cable to connect the CD player with a Marantz tape deck, and a remote control with two AAA batteries. A front-loading drawer opens with the touch of a button. The drawer closes on command from the open-close button, a gentle push on the drawer, or the play button. The Marantz is designed to play recordable CDs, CD-Text, and standard CDs. The selectable play options are: all of the tracks in order, shuffle (random play of all tracks or selected tracks), programmed order of tracks, or specifying a play time to fit on an identified tape length. This can be done with the tracks played in sequence or programmed in any order you choose. Fade in an out can be varied over the range of 2 to 10 seconds.

Starting from the left of the front panel are the power switch, the drawer, and the display window, followed by the buttons for edit, track switching, stop, pause, and play. Below the window are the peak search, open/close, scroll, and CD text buttons. Below these is the 1/4" headphone jack. Headphone volume is controlled from the remote. The window can display up to 18 different pieces of information related to the CD being played. From left to right, and as numbered in the manual, these are:

1) displays the play time with a standard CD or text with a CD-TEXT compatible disc

2) lights the word "TEXT" when a CD-TEXT disc is in the machine.

3) shows the disc tracks (1 through 20), along with a symbol to indicate if there are more than 20 tracks on the disc. Track numbers disappear after each is played

4) shows the output level

5) blinks when the disc table of contents is being read

6) indicates when the total number of tracks is displayed

7) indicate "random play" mode is selected

8) lights in the "program" or "program" delete mode

9) shows the number of the track being played

10) indicates when the player is in the "edit" mode

11) A or B lights during playback of the tracks intended for tape side A or side B, respectively, when the CD player is in "edit" mode

12) lights the "index" indicator for CD track index in play

13) lights when "repeat" is selected

14) lights during "peak search" and when the peak passage is playing

15) lights in "pause" mode

16) shows remaining disc or program play time

17) indicates "play"

18) lights in "time display" mode. The display consists of dim blue dot-matrix letters and numbers.

The back of the Marantz has left and right channel RCA phono analog jacks, a digital output optical jack, a digital output coaxial jack, and remote control in/out jacks to connect to a Marantz tape deck for automatic recording. There is also a remote switch for independent or system remote operation with other Marantz components and the nondetachable AC cord.

The RC6000CD remote control is a smallish plastic unit with the following buttons, starting from the top:

- first row, time display and open/close

- the next row comprises CD text, scroll, and automatic music scan

- below these are numbers 0-9 for direct track number selection

- then program and program cancel; headphone volume up and down

- play and stop, flanked by track forward and back; forward and back search on either side of pause

- forward and back index are on either side of an A-B button that is used to set the starting and stopping points of a repeat play passage

- and at the bottom of the remote are edit, repeat, and random.

The remote's signal is received by the player over at least a 60-degree angle, making it handy to use without have to carefully aim. When a command is given, either by remote or from the front panel, there is always a delay of a fraction of a second. My first reaction was that the command had not been received. This pause became an expectation, but I didn't get used to the delay.

The first 17 pages of the owners manual are English text, followed by a repeat in French. The manual is clear and comprehensive, a real treat compared to some manuals. The warranty is 3 years parts and labor.

The Marantz's smoothly operating drawer is the familiar plastic tray on which one places a CD in a circular depression. A peek inside the unit revealed circuit boards taking up all of the room in the chassis except for where the drawer mechanism and laser were located. Two smaller circuit boards were stacked on the main board.

Judging from stem admonitions from Marantz about returning the CD player within 30 days in like-new condition, they must have had numerous problems with other reviewers. I was out of the country when the unit arrived, so some of my allotted time had expired, but Marantz kindly granted me an extension. I always take great pains to maintain loaned items in as-new condition and return them following a review, but I have to say that Marantz's letter added just a bit of uneasiness.

Associated Equipment: My system is a Parasound HCA-1000A power amplifier controlled by a Carver CT-17 preamp-tuner used alternately with a SimAudio P3 preamplifier. Speakers are Mach One model M-Two 2-way supported on a pair of NHT SW3 subwoofers run in dual mono and separately driven by an NHT SA-3 power amplifier with integral electronic crossover. The Mach Ones were run full-range, and the NHT low pass control was set to about 40 Hz. Interconnect cables were by Mach 1, Gotham, WireWorld, and Monster Cable, and speaker cables were Kimber 4PR alternated with Mach 1 cables to the Mach ones and Original Monster Cable to the NHTs. Sources were a Sony CDP-XA20ES CD player and the Marantz unit under review.

Tests: I performed a listening test designed to show up differences in D/A converters. The Sheffield A2TB Test Disc, titled My Disc (Sheffield Lab 10045-2-T) has a number of D/A converter test tracks. Tracks 33 through 40 contain the same 45-second music sample, but the record level of each successive track is reduced by 10 dB. At some point in the series the distortion and/or the noise will become audible, and perhaps make the track unlistenable. Sheffield states that track 40 (-70 dB) can be clearly heard on an excellent system.

Comparing the Marantz with the Sony, I found that both players sailed through levels down to -40 dB without difficulty. At -50 dB both players showed up a slight noise, at -60 dB both played noise as loud as music, and at -70 dB on both units the noise was louder than music, but the music was still distinguishable.

I used the CD-Check Disc (DR 2002 from Digital Recordings) to test the Marantz's ability to correct disc errors. There are five tracks to this disc, each with increasing playback difficulty. A signal is combined with larger blacked out areas (from 0.375 mm to 1.500 mm). The Marantz did well on track 1, exhibited a few clicks on track 2, played the more difficult track 3 without noise, had a few clicks on track 4, and more on track 5. My Sony player had no trouble with tracks 1-4, and had more clicks on track 5 than did the Marantz.

Use and Listening: The peak search function went about its task silently until the loudest passage was located. At this point, it repeated the loudest passage to allow time to adjust a tape deck input level.

The automatic music scan plays about 9 seconds of each of the tracks. You can select the track you want to hear by pushing the number of the track on the remote--a handy function.

Repeat can be chosen while a track is playing or it can be pressed followed by the track number desired. Random play has the CD6000OSE select the order of play. Programming is a straightforward task of choosing the tracks and order in which they are to be played.

Edit allows fitting tracks into a length of tape. When a tape length is identified, the Marantz will show what the last tracks will be on tape side A and side B. You can then use program edit to record those identified tracks in any order.

Tapping on the side of the unit while playing did not cause dropouts, indicating a stable play mechanism.

I used several CDs for comparison listening between the Marantz and my Sony. I had to adjust the preamp volume control each time to match the two players, as the Sony had slightly more output than the Marantz. My listening sessions resulted in both players sounding alike. If levels were not matched, the slightly louder player had a more pleasing overall sound. I used number of CDs during my evaluation. They represented different types of music, different recording techniques, and different eras.

Conclusion: The Marantz CD6000OSE Compact Disc Player is a good performer, appears to be well-built, and is a decent value. Its performance on the CD-Check Disc was not quite as good as the Sony on tracks 2 and 4, but I think that if your CDs are in good shape, you probably wouldn't notice the difference.

Sonically, there was no apparent difference. The Sony is heavier, has a very sturdy drawer and additional features, and generally looks and feels more substantial, but the Marantz is 2/3 the price. I enjoyed the sound and ease of use of the Marantz. If you're in the market for a CD player, the Marantz could be a Sensible choice for you. --JTF