Marantz MCR-612 'Melody X'
Featuring wi-fi, Bluetooth, Internet radio, HEOS and a huge range of built-in music services, the Melody X has you covered for streaming music. It goes much further, though. A CD player lets you keep on spinning your favourite discs. DAB and FM tuners let you listen off air. Finally, a wide collection of digital and analogue inputs make connecting up your other music sources a cinch.
When it comes to streaming music your way, the Melody X is ahead of the game. Apple AirPlay 2 is now standard and Amazon Prime Music, Spotify (Premium account required for full features), TIDAL, Napster and Deezer are all on board. There’s also TuneIn for Internet radio and Bluetooth music streaming.
AirPlay 2 takes this popular wireless streaming format and makes it better. Controllable by simply asking Siri or using your Apple device, AirPlay 2 lets you effortlessly stream music and podcasts around your home – and all in perfect sync. Alternatively, use the Bluetooth connection for a direct stream from your smartphone or other device.
HEOS multi-room music systems connect together by dual-band Wi-Fi, making them easy to set up with your existing home network. Up to 32 HEOS units can be set up at one time, ensuring even the largest of homes are covered for multi-room music. With HEOS already built-in, the Melody X is ready to go as a single ‘zone’ without any further adaptors.
With support for Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Siri, the Melody X has your every request covered. Simply add an Alexa or Google Home device or use Apple AirPlay for effortless voice control of the main functions, such as volume and input.
As a further bonus, the Melody X MCR612 features a built-in CD player. Marantz make some of the best CD players on the market, so it's little surprise to find this one plays CDs to a very high standard. For added flexibility, it will also play MP3 and WMA music files stored on disc.
Another very handy feature is the built in DAB/FM tuner radio. A choice of DAB and FM gives you access to a wide range of local and national stations. For ease of use, RDS (Radio Data System) is included on the FM tuner. At the back of this versatile system you'll find two optical digital inputs and one RCA phono analogue pair. Perfect for connecting sources such as your TV, games console or set-top box, the Melody X improves the sound of much more than just your music. As a further bonus, it even works with your TV’s remote control – perfect for adjusting the volume or mute without having to use two remotes.
KEF Q150
The remarkable Q Series bookshelf speakers excel when space is limited. Featuring the signature KEF Uni-Q driver array with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) port design, the Q350s deliver detailed natural sound with high clarity and tight bass.
"Sit anywhere" Uni-Q sound
At the heart of the evolved Q Series is the Uni-Q driver array. The signature innovation places the tweeter in the acoustic centre of the midrange and bass cone, bringing the acoustic ideal of a single point source closer than ever to realisation. The result is a more detailed, accurate three-dimensional sound image, which is dispersed more evenly throughout the room than is possible with any conventional speaker. Uni-Q's ultra-wide dispersion is further enhanced through KEF's 'tangerine' waveguide over the tweeter dome.
New system design
To optimise the high resolution purity of the Q Series bookshelf speakers, the Uni-Q driver is repositioned to the center of the cabinet to reduce unwanted internal resonance and adding refinement to sonic clarity and detail. With the addition of the damped tweeter loading tube providing a gentle termination of sound produced from the back of the tweeter, lower treble performance is improved dramatically and a new low-distortion inductor on the crossover provides cleaner bass.
CFD-designed port
Featuring a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) port design with the port repositioned to the rear of the speaker, clarity is improved by reducing the audibility of the midrange leakage through the port.
Ships with 5 Metres of Audioquest G2 Speaker Cable