Marantz ND8006...anyone had experience with it?


Intrigued by new Marantz ND8006 streamer cdp. Curious if anyone has heard or owned one of these and what their thoughts are? I believe the CD portion is the basic CD8005 which has gotten good reviews from pros and consumers. Not sure about the rest of it. 
joekapahulu
I haven't had the opportunity to hear or see, except online, this player.  I am currently using a Modwright  SA8005.  When I talked with Dan Wright about the stock machine, he said a main reason he chose it as a unit to modify was the fine construction quality and logical circuit layout.  All of the late vintage Marantz, made in Japan, gear is exceptionally solid and capable for its price.

I did not have it modified because I disliked the stock player.  It was more of a fascination with having a tube based output stage for digital.
Bringing this one back to life. I'm also very interested in buying one of these, as I'd like to consolidate some boxes. Has anyone here tried an ND8006 yet? I'd really be interested in hearing your impressions.
Okay, I just got one this morning, and am playing with it as I type this. So far so good, and I'm using the HEOS app that I downloaded to my phone and iPad, but I'll report further when I have some more experience with it.
I brought one in as soon as it was announced because it hit a bunch of the right checkboxes. It works great as a network streamer, CD player, and DAC assuming it meets the feature requirements you're looking for.

I did run into a minor problem with some of the buttons but that was quickly resolved with a firmware update and factory reset. It can be a pain to do any network setup that is somewhat abnormal, because you have to enter each character individually using the remote or front panel buttons, and the easiest for me was to have it transfer settings from an iOS device.
Thanks guys! Can you comment on how it sounds compared with other DACs or CD players?

can you hear any difference between airplay and the CD player?

Thank you!
Hello all - I have recently acquired the ND 8006.  Disclaimer - I provide the following to assist any perspective listeners considering buying one - not to try and impress anyone or accomplish anything other than assist to listening community. I also stress that listening preferences and pleasures are as varied as there are listeners.  While their is some obvious objective criteria in benchmarking a unit, beauty is - very much - in the ears of the beholder.  My personal view is that ND 8006 is beautiful, in its execution, build quality and value.

I have several systems comprised of Levinson, Krell and McIntosh gear.  However,  I am running the ND 8006 through mostly Conrad Johnson equipment - LP70s amp, Art 2 pre-amp.  Speakers on this systems is Vienna Acoustics Strauss. Cabling includes Siltech speaker cables, Cardas interconnects and  Furutech power cords. I felt this set up would nicely complement the indigenous warmth usually associated with Marantz gear.  And it did.


The detail in the mids on this $1200 player equaled, and, on some tracks, surpassed the Auralic Aries, Polaris and Berkley Alpha DAC streamers I auditioned.  The AVM excelled, but at $15K, it should.  And that is an unfair comparison in my view as the ND 806 has no channel amplification, plays SACD's (a noticeable deficiency on the ND 8006, but easily overlooked as it plays HQ DSD files)  Those units cost hundred and, in some cases, thousands more.  The Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ was a contender but without WiFi connectivity it was not an option for me. Yet, the ND 8006 had such exquisite detail, especially on voice, string and piano pieces of high resolution quality.  My speakers are quite revealing so I really was able to perform critical listening.

Convenience is also - as far as I am concerned - an important consideration for the serious listener.  The ND 8006 shines here, and the dual clock jitter reduction works exceedingly well, albeit Bluetooth playback loses coherence as it does on virtually every player I auditioned.  That is why WiFi was important to me as there is no capacity for ethernet in that particular listening room. 

The connectivity to a network and usage of the unit with Spotify and Tidal was so easy and intuitive that  a caveman can do it (my apologies to appearing insensitive to cavemen) .  The remote is at first overwhelming but I used it for all set up functions and survived. And no, it is not metal as most of my other remotes are, but that's okay by me.  

Turning to the CD function, as far as I'm concerned this is a throw in and a nice one.  I have thousand of CDs and while it is becoming more and more seldom, I might just fling one on and with this unit I can and the sound, up-sampled, is quite satisfying.  I extracted my Sony SCD-1 SACD player from the system to make room for this unit (I also have the Marantz UP7007 connected so I can still play SACDs), but, to be honest, the Sony was the best SACD player I ever experienced at any price - yes that includes DCS Puccini and Esoteric.  Just my ears folks. But I digress. The CD functionality of the ND 8006 is not an afterthought - it appears to be targeted at those getting into streaming Hi Rez and not willing to place their entire CD collection carefully amassed for years into the attic - or eBay. And it is quite nice on my tube based system. 

Instrumental air, soundstages and spaciousness and separation of the instruments are boxes the ND 8006 checks quite well.   Three year warranty is standard but this unit, made in Japan, seems solid and exudes reliability.  Time will tell on that one. 

To sum up, some will dismiss this unit out of hand and go for the more "audiophile" names some of which I discuss above.  They would NEVER consider Marantz in an "audiophile" application.  Same with the Cambridge units i.e. 851N  (which are also excellent and attractive alternatives which should be auditioned). This comes from years of experience and, in some cases, overpaying for gear where I shouldn't have. 

So, people have a choice - be a sound snob and focus on the nameplate (Saul Marantz was one of the audio pioneers who "invented" the high end BTW) , and exclusivity at inflated (sometimes grossly inflated) acquisition cost, or enjoy the sound.  If you put more of a premium on quality of sound and convenience, value and sheer enjoyment of listening, then audition this unit!!!!  

If you are the "other" kind of audiophile, then the more obvious choice to acquire a DAC/network/streamer is to hop in your Bentley and drop the first $5000.00++ as quick as you can. 


I've had the ND8006 for almost a month.  I like it ... mostly, but I'm a little concerned because I think the firmware and possibly HEOS are unreliable.

I normally use the Android HEOS app (v1.493.170) to control the unit.  Playing music from a NAS server worked fine initially.  BubbleUPnP (v3.2.2.1) also worked with similar functionality (this was nice; I didn't know that 3rd party apps were a possibility).

For about a week, neither HEOS nor BubbleUPnP could detect the ND8006, so I had to use the remote control (CD & NAS still worked fine).  That problem disappeared for some unknown reason.  Since two apps had the same issue, I think this is probably a problem in the ND8006 firmware.

Occasionally HEOS can start playback of a track, but the "Starting playback" dialog eventually ends with "Action could not succeed due to timeout".  In this situation, the "Now playing" tab usually shows incorrect information and the rewind/fast-forward buttons don't work.  This might be a HEOS issue or an ND8006 issue; I don't know yet.
To Negotiatorhog: Thank you for one of the more honest, informative and on topic user reviews I have read on my many years as an Audiogon member.