Multi Award winning CD player Marantz CD-6004 pristine Boxed with all accessories fully serviced

CD6004’s predecessor is our reigning CD player champion under £500, though, so unsurprisingly Marantz has made slightly more cautious, less substantial changes.

Mind you, a new CD mechanism, upgraded power supply, brand new DAC, new amplifier module and a new, vibration-eliminating solid metal bottom-plate still sounds like a great deal of work to us.

Oh, and the USB port on the front, which could always digitally access iOS devices, can now charge iPads as well as iPods and iPhones.

According to Ken Ishiwata, Marantz’s Brand Ambassador, that’s a particularly tough nut to crack, as the amount of power needed to charge an iPad can all too easily have a detrimental effect on the audio signal.

Upgrades make a big improvement
Blimey, those upgrades on the CD6004 really have made big improvements to what was already an extremely accomplished performance.

Play Little Dragon’s recent electro-pop hit Ritual Union and this is immediately apparent: the delivery is significantly more spacious and open, the vocals are clearer and more focused, and individual instruments have more space around them but are still rhythmically glued together to create a pleasingly complete presentation.

There’s an extra smidge of subtlety to detail and dynamics, too, so you get a little more of the reverb and echo on the voice – in other words, the disc sounds more as it was intended.

The brief harmony towards the end of the track is also better presented, with that extra space between the two vocals making it more dramatic and sonically interesting.

Core Specifications

DAC Architecture: Uses a high-current Cirrus Logic CS4398 multi-bit Delta-Sigma D/A converter paired with a precision system clock to minimize jitter. [1, 2, 3]

Analog Stage: Features proprietary Marantz HDAM-SA2 (Hyper Dynamic Amplifier Module) circuitry for high-speed signal processing and a warm, detailed presentation. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Chassis Build: Constructed with a double-layered bottom chassis plate and a centralized disc mechanism to eliminate internal vibrations. [1, 2, 3]

Audio Metrics: Provides a frequency response of 2 Hz to 20 kHz, a dynamic range of 100 dB, and a 110 dB Signal-to-Noise Ratio. [1]

Key Features

Front USB Port: Offers "Made for iPod/iPhone" digital direct connectivity, bypassing the Apple device's internal DAC to playback files via the player's premium Cirrus Logic chip. [1, 2, 3]

Format Support: Plays standard CDs, CD-R/RW discs, and digital audio formats including MP3, WMA, and AAC. [1, 2]

Audio EX Mode: Shuts down the digital outputs and the front panel display to eliminate potential noise sources when using the analog RCA outputs. [1, 2]

Headphone Amplifier: Includes a dedicated front-panel 1/4" headphone jack with its own physical volume level control. [1, 2]

Output Connectivity: Equipped with gold-plated stereo RCA analog outputs, alongside one optical (Toslink) and one coaxial digital output. [1]

Ideal System Matching