Home cinema with heart

Marantz rings the changes with this new-look home cinema amplifier. Steve May gets all emotional

- Steve May

What better way to put this Marantz high-end home cinema amplifier through its paces than with some high-brow music. Specifically, Winter, from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons (or, as I like to call it, Le quattro stagioni). The trilling of violins, beautifully elucidated by this amplifier's melodious HDAM amplification, is sublime, and I just love the way the strings are dramatically engulfed by a full orchestral storm... and heavy weapons fire.

John Wick is on the hunt (John Wick: Chapter 3 Parabellum, 4K Blu-ray). The aforementioned needle drop, featuring Slovakia's Cappella Istropolitana chamber orchestra, provides a glorious accompaniment to the symphony of violence about to unfold, and any preconceived notion that a Marantz AV amp is too refined to do justice to genuine cinematic mayhem is quickly dispelled. Automatic weapons discharge all around me, and the transients are fast and fabulous. My ears ring. Now this is what you call music!

Turn up the Wick

The heavily armed agents of The High Table are swarming The Continental hotel, but they don't stand a chance. Wick has access to guns - lots of guns - and he's getting through the armoury at speed. The barrage of gunfire from every angle is astonishing; this is Dolby Atmos audio writ large.

When Wick and concierge Charon upgrade to heavy-gauge, armour-piercing shells, the gun retorts become even more visceral. I feel an urge to nudge the volume up further, something I've been doing all through the movie. Yet the amp, like Wick, remains unflustered. It never sounds under strain, always teasing more power in the tank.

The Cinema 50 heralds a significant change to Marantz's home cinema line. Most obviously, it introduces an entirely new design, and I certainly approve. But the changes aren't just cosmetic, they're also under the hood, from the interface to connectivity.