Marantz Model 40n Integrated Amplifier
Company & Product Overview This review is on the latest addition to what is becoming a classic series of components for Marantz. The new Model 40n joins the Model 30 integrated amp and SACD 30n network player that were introduced in the fall of 2020. It combines the best of both of these two great pieces into one unit that also allows you to get into the sound and look of this great series at a much lower price point. One quick check for vintage Marantz on eBay will tell you that the gear built by Saul Marantz in the late 1950s and 1960s is highly desired by audio enthusiasts all over the world. These pieces now go for 10 to 50 times their original selling price even though they are 60+ years old! Even the Marantz gear from the 1970s is in high demand. The reason for this is the classic signature sound developed by Saul Marantz that made them big hits when they were first released. What is pretty neat about Marantz is that they have a group of engineers in Japan whose only job is to keep the best of Marantz having that same sonic signature. They are trained to recognize this sound and spend all of their time listening to new Marantz models to fine-tune the circuitry to meet that standard. These engineers are called Marantz Sound Masters. The first two 30 pieces embodied all of this great heritage in an analog-only integrated amp and SACD player/music streamer. The Model 40n has the same great cosmetic touches as the 30 models and actually gives us a few new features not found on the earlier units. It is an integrated amp, with music streaming built-in, and a couple of other neat features too. Design & Build Quality The design of the 40n is classic and follows that of its 30 Series brethren. Almost all of the original Marantz gear had a very symmetrical appearance with the same number of knobs, dials, and buttons on each side. The 40n captures this with perfect symmetry, even putting the power button and headphone jack on opposite sides. The controls are on a smaller faceplate that appears to float on top of a carbon fiber-looking larger box. And we just love the classic Marantz portal right in the center that we first saw in the 1960 Model 9 tube power amp. It was hard for us to tell any build quality change from the great feel of the 30 series components. This is pretty impressive too when you consider the combination of the 30 pieces is well over twice the price of the Model 40n. You get the same very high-quality speaker binding posts on the rear that accommodate bare wire or a banana plug. The included remote is also nicely done with a bit of heft to it. The Model 40n has that look that makes you just want to reach out and turn one of the knobs. Everything moves as smooth as silk with a wonderful fit and finish. It certainly embodies audio luxury! Even more impressive is the fact that the Model 40n is made in their Shirakawa Audio Works plant in Japan where all final assembly is done by hand. Features & Technology Don’t let the beautiful elegant look of the Model 40n fool you, this unit has all of the features you need to make it the centerpiece of a great audio system. The Model 40n gives you an integrated amp and streaming device in one combined package. First, let's talk about the integrated amp section. If you know audio, you probably know an integrated amplifier is a preamp and power amp combined into one box. The preamp handles all of the controls, input switching, digital processing, and more, while the job of the power amp is to simply drive the speakers. The internal layout of the Model 40n is as equally impressive as the Model 30 integrated amp. The large transformer and power supply sit on the left side with massive heat sinks in the middle for the power amp section, which appears to have very short connections to the binding posts. All the critical low-level components are on the right side with some of them in a totally shielded box. It really is super impressive how the Model 40n is put together considering its cost. Marantz rates the power amp section at 70 watts per channel into 8 ohms and we are happy to see this is an honest power rating from 20hz to 20,000 Hz at a low distortion level. We are seeing some brands just measure at 1K with high distortion, which is misleading in our opinion. And while it does not fully double down into 4 ohms like the Model 30 does, it does deliver 100 watts per channel into a 4-ohm load. Marantz uses a pretty big toroidal power transformer in the Model 40n, which accounts for its very stout weight of over 36 pounds. The Model 40n uses the same type of Hyper Dynamic Amplifier Modules found in the bigger Model 30. These are fine-tuned to give you that classic warm Marantz sound that draws you deep into the essence of your favorite music. On the analog side of things, there is a very good moving magnet phono preamp built-in. This trickles down from the phono preamp they created for the Model 30 and is more than just an afterthought. You can feel confident you are at about a $250 separate phono preamp level with the one they include. There are three line-level inputs labeled, CD, line, and recorder. Like its bigger brother, Marantz also gives you a record out. You may ask what that is all about. Well, there is a resurgence of people buying vintage cassette and reel-to-reel tape recorders and going back to making their own mixtapes. The tape out allows you to get the signal over to your tape device, which is pretty cool to see this nod to the vintage trend. We were really happy to see the addition of a subwoofer out on the Model 40n, and they even give you variable crossovers every 10Hz from 40Hz to 120Hz, which is great. There is a connection set that puzzled us and that is a set of power amp inputs. These allow you to use the power amp only of the Model 40n, and this would be cool were there a set of preamp outs, but there are not any preamp outs. We feel like the more likely use case would be you would love your 40n but want a bit more power, which you could do if it had preamp outs. In our mind, Marantz should have included preamp outputs instead of preamp inputs. The digital section has a Toslink and coax digital in. Another connector we think is really great to see is the HDMI Arc connection. This will let you connect your Arc capable TV to the Model 40n to send the audio from its internal apps or anything connected to it back to the Model 40n. The neat part about an HDMI Arc connection is that it takes over the volume/mute and power controls, meaning your TV remote will operate the Model 40n and switch it to the HDMI Arc input when you turn on your TV. Most TVs made in the last 5 years have Arc features on board. If you have a USB drive full of music, you can connect it to the rear of the Model 40n too. There is a wired ethernet connection and wireless antennas. You can stream any Hi-Res music on your network right into the Model 40n. And like the Model 30 SACD streamer, Heos is on board too. Heos was developed by Marantz’s sister company, Denon, and has evolved to be an excellent streaming platform. Heos gives you most of the popular streaming services. Heos used to get a bad rap, but it has greatly improved and worked solidly for us although we do recommend if you are going from Heos to Airplay that you stop the Heos app first to avoid any switching noise- we did encounter one. Integration between the app and the stick remote with the 40n was seamless which was kind of nice being able to just pick up the remote and pause or fine-tune the volume without having to open our smartphone. In addition, there is Airplay 2 plus Bluetooth 4.2. Those of you into voice control will be happy to know it works with Alexa, Google, and Siri too. We did wonder a bit why Marantz did not include Chromecast or Bluetooth Apt X HD, but it was likely a decision to keep the price down on this very high-value unit, plus Heos does give you almost every streaming service you would want with the exception of Qobuz, which they might add at some point. When you consider the way it is put together, how it sounds, and the features they even added to it like HDMI Arc and subwoofer out you do not even get on the two separate 30 series pieces, this unit offers just a ton of great stuff for its price. Performance The Marantz 40n was fun to set up. We love those heavy-duty binding posts! Getting it on the network was easier than most pieces of gear as we just looked at network devices, clicked on it and our iPhone loaded all the network credentials via Airplay. It might require using the Heos app for Android users. Just for grins, we have set up an area with a somewhat weak WiFi signal to see how well units do in this situation, as let's face it, not everyone has a hard-wired connection where they want to put the gear. Some other units have had streaming dropouts in this same position, but the large dual external WiFi antennas on the 40n did the trick as we never had any issues. We used Roon via Airplay and Tidal via Heos and both worked well. We expected we would get dynamic and well-controlled bass from the 40n based on the large power supply and we were not let down at all. Our reference tracks there came through quite well, although some larger amps we have tested including the Model 30 had even more impact and control as you might expect. The 40n continues that classic Marantz warm sound as even when cranking things up, it still held together without a sense of strain. The soundstage was also very 3 dimensional. When we connected back up our reference McIntosh stack, it was obvious the Mc stack had far more warmth and inner detail, but when you consider the price of the 40n, it is extremely musical for what it costs and on the right recording was throwing out a huge soundstage with ease. We were driving some pretty sensitive speakers with the 40n during our tests so its power rating of 70 watts per channel never really came into play. In modest-sized rooms, it should work really well with speakers that are 88 dB or greater with no issues. Summary One big question that will come up for many people looking at the Model 40n versus the Model 30 series stack is which one is better? If you can afford the 30 Series units, you will get a much beefier power amplifier that is capable of controlling your speakers a whole lot better, but the DAC/streaming part of the 40n seems really competent to us and the amp is better than we expected. Of course, you don’t get a CD player like you do with the 30 Series model, but you do gain HDMI Arc in the 40n, which is a great feature for those of you who want to use your two-channel stereo with your TV. Plus, you get that classic appearance we love about the 30 series, and the touch and feel of the controls is just first class. When it comes down to it, the Marantz 40n offers a great feature set, beautifully built quality, and sound that is going to be very hard to beat for its cost.
