Marantz has announced the Marantz MCR 60n, a compact all-in-one at 1,000 dollars. It has a CD tray, an MM phono input, one HDMI eARC socket, a subwoofer output, HEOS streaming, AM and FM radio, and Dirac Live available as a paid upgrade.
The Marantz MCR 60n, a 1,000 dollar all-in-one with a front-loading CD tray, announced 8 September 2026
I added it to our database while writing this, so the numbers below are counted with it included.
Quick facts
- 1,000 dollars, black only in North America. Marantz lists it as Out of Stock with a Notify Me button, so it is announced rather than shipping.
- 2 x 65 watts into 4 ohms, or 4 x 33 watts if you drive both speaker pairs. There is no 8 ohm rating published at all, which matters more than it sounds and gets its own section below.
- Of the 297 stereo amplifiers we list, 6 have a CD drive. This is the first new one in three years.
- It is the only one at any price with a CD drive, a phono stage and an HDMI eARC input together.
- 11 of the 297 can run Dirac Live. This is the cheapest, and the next one up is 600 dollars dearer.
A CD drive, three years after the last one
A few days ago we counted how few amplifiers still have a CD drive, and why the radio tuner survived when the disc mechanism did not. The count has moved by exactly one, and this is it. Here are the six we hold, cheapest first.
The Denon was the newest until now, and it came out in 2023. So this is a feature that stopped appearing in new products for three years and has just reappeared, in a more expensive box than the one Marantz used to sell.
| FEATURE and SPECS COMPARISON | |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Model | Marantz M-CR612 | Denon CEOL RCD-N12 | Marantz MCR 60n | Technics SA-C600 | Audiolab Omnia | Naim Uniti Star |
| Type | Stereo Receiver | Stereo Receiver | Integrated Amplifier | Stereo Receiver | Integrated Amplifier | Integrated Amplifier |
| Amplifier Class | Class D | Class D | - | Class D | Class A/B | Class A/B |
| Power into 8 ohms | - | - | - | 60 watts | 50 watts | 70 watts |
| Power into 6 ohms | 60 watts | - | - | - | - | - |
| Power into 4 ohms | - | 65 watts | 65 watts | - | 75 watts | - |
| Minimum Impedance | - | - | 4 ohms | 4 ohms | 4 ohms | 4 ohms |
| THD | - | - | 0.1% at 1 kHz, 5 W, 4 ohms | - | 0.003% | - |
| Signal to Noise Ratio | - | - | 90 | - | 76 | - |
| Frequency Bandwidth | - | - | 10 Hz-40 kHz | - | 20 Hz-20 kHz | 20 Hz-20 kHz |
| Built-in DAC | | | | | | |
| DAC | - | - | - | - | ES9038Q2M Sabre 32-bit | Burr Brown |
| Max Bit Depth | 24 | - | 32-bit | - | 32 | 32 |
| Max Sample Rate | 192kHz | - | 384 kHz | - | 768 | 384 |
| Analog Inputs | - | - | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| Phono Input | | | | | | |
| Phono Type | - | - | MM | MM | MM | - |
| Optical Digital Inputs | 2 | 1 | 1 | Yes | 2 | 2 |
| Coaxial Digital Inputs | - | - | No | Yes | 2 | 2 |
| USB Input | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| HDMI Input | No | No | Yes | No | - | Yes |
| HDMI ARC | - | - | eARC | - | - | ARC |
| XLR Input | - | - | No | No | - | - |
| Preamp Outputs | Stereo RCA | Stereo RCA | Main pre-out (AUX assignable), Sub | - | Stereo RCA | Stereo RCA |
| Subwoofer Output | - | - | 1 | - | - | - |
| Headphone Output | - | - | Yes | Yes | 1/4 | 3.5mm |
| Bluetooth | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Wi-Fi | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 802.11ac | 802.11ac |
| AirPlay 2 | | | | | | |
| Chromecast built-in | - | - | - | | | |
| Roon | - | - | Ready | - | Tested | Ready |
| BluOS | - | - | - | - | | |
| HEOS | | | | - | | |
| Room Correction | - | - | Opt. Dirac Live | - | - | - |
| Tone Controls | - | - | | - | - | - |
| Handheld Remote | - | - | | | | |
| Height | 112.8mm | 108.0mm | 111.8mm | 94.1mm | 116.0mm | 96.0mm |
| Width | 280.9mm | 280.9mm | 279.4mm | 340.1mm | 442.0mm | 434.0mm |
| Depth | 302.3mm | 320.8mm | 302.3mm | 341.3mm | 358.0mm | 316.0mm |
| Weight | 3.30kg | 3.40kg | 4.20kg | 4.81kg | 9.14kg | 12.02kg |
| MSRP | 650 USD | 699 USD | 1000 USD | 1300 USD | 2300 USD | 5699 USD |
| Check Current Price | Amazon, B&H Photo | Amazon, B&H Photo | Amazon, B&H Photo | Amazon, B&H Photo | Amazon, B&H Photo | Amazon, B&H Photo |
The combination is the new part
A CD drive on its own is not the story. Four of the six also have a phono stage. What none of the other five has is a socket for your television.
-with-a-ground-post,-HDMI-eARC,-a-subwoofer-output,-two-speaker-pairs,-and-a-Dirac-badge-printed-on-the-chassis.jpg)
The rear panel. Phono (MM) with a ground post, HDMI eARC, a subwoofer output, two speaker pairs, and a Dirac badge printed on the chassis
That is the whole argument for this kind of product. One box takes your record player, your CD shelf, your streaming subscription and your TV sound, and drives a pair of speakers. Nothing else we list does all four, and the rear panel is the proof: a PHONO (MM) pair with a ground post, an HDMI socket marked eARC, a subwoofer output, and two sets of speaker terminals rated for 4 to 16 ohms.
For scale on the television part: 45 of the 297 amplifiers we list have an HDMI ARC or eARC input, and only 18 of those do the full eARC. It is still an uncommon socket on a stereo amplifier.
And it is the cheapest Dirac Live amplifier we list
Room correction on a stereo amplifier has been an expensive thing to want. 22 of the 297 have any form of it. Eleven can run Dirac Live. Before this week the cheapest of those was the Onkyo Icon A-50 at 1,600 dollars, then the NAD C 389 BluOS-D at 2,549 and the NAD C 399 BluOS-D at 2,599.
At 1,000 dollars the MCR 60n takes 600 dollars off the entry price for that feature.
The Dirac licence is a paid upgrade and Marantz has not said what it costs. NAD charges 99 dollars to go from the Lite version to the full one, so budget something in that region rather than nothing.
The number that is missing, and why it matters
Now the part that should slow you down.
Marantz publishes one power figure for this amplifier: 65 watts per channel into 4 ohms. There is no 8 ohm rating and no 6 ohm rating anywhere in the official specification. Most speakers you would put on a shelf next to this thing are nominally 8 ohms, and an amplifier almost always makes a smaller number into 8 ohms than into 4. So the figure you actually need is the one nobody has published.
At 11 inches wide it is a shelf component rather than a rack one, which is most of the point of the category
This also breaks the comparison the announcement invites you to make. The M-CR612 that this replaces is rated at 60 watts per channel into 6 ohms. Sixty-five into 4 and sixty into 6 are not a five-watt improvement. They are two different measurements, and on the same amplifier the 4 ohm number is normally the larger one. Several write-ups have called the new model a substantial step up in power on exactly that arithmetic. It is not supported by anything Marantz has published.
Our own row for the M-CR612 was carrying some of this badly, so it is now fixed: its power was stored as 50 watts rather than 60, its HEOS support was recorded as No on a product literally sold as Powered by HEOS, and its depth was 29 mm too deep. That is our mistake, and it is corrected.
Two Marantz amplifiers at exactly a thousand dollars
The other thing worth knowing is that Marantz already sells a 1,000 dollar amplifier, and it is a completely different answer.
The top plate, with the four Smart Select buttons that recall a source, a volume and a listening mode in one press
The Marantz MODEL M1 is a small streaming amplifier: 100 watts into 8 ohms, 125 into 4, HDMI eARC, HEOS, and that is it. No CD, no phono, no radio, no headphone socket. The MCR 60n has all of those and a published power figure less than two thirds as big at a load that flatters it.
So the choice at this price is not better or worse. It is whether you want more sockets or more watts. If your speakers are easy to drive and you stream everything, the M1 is the more powerful amplifier for the same money. If you own discs and records, it cannot help you at all.
| FEATURE and SPECS COMPARISON | |  | |
| Model | Marantz MODEL M1 | Marantz MCR 60n |
| Type | Integrated Amplifier | Integrated Amplifier |
| Amplifier Class | Class D | - |
| Power into 8 ohms | 100 watts | - |
| Power into 4 ohms | 125 watts | 65 watts |
| Minimum Impedance | 4 ohms | 4 ohms |
| THD | 0.02% | 0.1% at 1 kHz, 5 W, 4 ohms |
| Signal to Noise Ratio | - | 90 |
| Frequency Bandwidth | 20 Hz-20 kHz | 10 Hz-40 kHz |
| Built-in DAC | | |
| Max Bit Depth | 24-bit | 32-bit |
| Max Sample Rate | 192 kHz | 384 kHz |
| Analog Inputs | 3 | 1 |
| Phono Input | | |
| Phono Type | - | MM |
| Optical Digital Inputs | 1 | 1 |
| Coaxial Digital Inputs | No | No |
| USB Input | Yes | Yes |
| HDMI Input | Yes | Yes |
| HDMI ARC | eARC | eARC |
| XLR Input | No | No |
| Preamp Outputs | Stereo RCA, Sub | Main pre-out (AUX assignable), Sub |
| Subwoofer Output | 1 | 1 |
| Headphone Output | - | Yes |
| Bluetooth | Yes | Yes |
| Wi-Fi | Yes | Yes |
| AirPlay 2 | | |
| Chromecast built-in | | - |
| Roon | Tested | Ready |
| BluOS | | - |
| HEOS | | |
| Room Correction | - | Opt. Dirac Live |
| Tone Controls | | |
| Handheld Remote | | |
| Height | 86.0mm | 111.8mm |
| Width | 218.0mm | 279.4mm |
| Depth | 253.0mm | 302.3mm |
| Weight | 2.20kg | 4.20kg |
| MSRP | 1000 USD | 1000 USD |
| Check Current Price | Amazon, B&H Photo | Amazon, B&H Photo |
Marantz's own comparison puts the MCR 60n against the Marantz Model 60n at 1,600 dollars, which has the phono stage and HDMI ARC but no CD drive, and 60 watts into 8 ohms.
Who this is not for
If you want an amplifier for a pair of demanding 8 ohm floorstanders, this is not it, and you cannot even work out how badly it is not it, because the figure is unpublished.
If you were hoping for the direct rival, note that the Eversolo Play now has a CD Edition at 799 dollars with a touchscreen and room correction of its own. We do not hold that version yet, so we cannot put the two spec sheets side by side, and I would rather say that than pretend otherwise.
And it is not on sale. Marantz has it listed as out of stock with a notification signup, so nothing here has been reviewed, measured or lived with.
Marantz MCR 60n Key Specs
- 65W into 4 ohms
- Integrated Amplifier
- Minimum Impedance: 4 ohms
- 0.1% at 1 kHz, 5 W, 4 ohms THD
- Signal to Noise Ratio: 90dB
- Frequency Bandwidth: 10 Hz-40 kHzHz
- Built-in DAC
- Max Bit Depth: 32-bit
- Max Sample Rate: 384 kHz
- Phono Input (MM)
- HDMI Input
- 1 Subwoofer Output
- Headphone Output
- Bluetooth
- Wi-Fi
- HEOS
- Ready Roon Ready
- Opt. Dirac Live Room Correction
- Weight: 4.20 kg
- Dimensions (H x W x D): 111.8 x 279.4 x 302.3 mm
- Replaced Marantz-M-CR612 Compare
- Read the Review
Questions answered
How much power does the MCR 60n really have?
Into 4 ohms, 65 watts per channel, or 33 watts across four channels if you use both speaker outputs. Into 8 ohms, which is what most bookshelf speakers are, Marantz has not said. Treat the 65 as a ceiling rather than a rating for your speakers.
Does the Dirac Live cost extra?
Yes. Marantz describes it as an upgrade rather than an included feature, and has not published the price. The chassis carries a Dirac badge, so the hardware is ready for it, but the licence is a separate purchase.
Is it a straight replacement for the M-CR612?
In the lineup, yes. It is the same size of box in the same part of the range, and the M-CR612 is now archived on Marantz's own site. On features it is a clear step up: the M-CR612 has no phono input and no HDMI at all. On price it is 350 dollars more, and on power the two figures are quoted at different impedances and cannot be compared.
Can I run two pairs of speakers from it?
Yes, A and B with individual volume control, and the power rating changes to 33 watts a channel when you do. It also supports bi-amping and a parallel bridged mode. The terminals are marked for 4 to 16 ohm loads.
Does it have aptX Bluetooth?
No. Marantz's specification sheet says aptX and NFC are both absent, although at least one report of the launch says aptX is included. It does transmit Bluetooth to headphones, which 23 of the 297 amplifiers we list can do.
If you still buy discs and records and also want your TV through the same box, is a thousand dollars a fair price for stopping at one amplifier, or would you rather have the watts and keep the CD player separate?