How Does the Marantz ES7001 Compare?

How does the Marantz ES7001 SoundBar compare?

I was just looking at various deals on the Marantz ES7001 soundbar. I know many people haven't heard about this soundbar but my friend bought it last year (for quite a bit more) and it is amazing. I would put it up there with the Polk Surroundbar 50/YSP 4000. It doesn't rely on walls to bounce the sound off either which is a plus. For this price, it is a steal considering it is selling for 3 times more on pretty much every other site. You can also get a matching subwoofer.

Having spent three years developing the ES7001, Marantz claims to have "ironed out" the bumps that have been an inherent flaw in many existing sound bar designs.

Nicknamed the "Cinemarium", it sports three 32-bit processors, one used for Dolby/DTS decoding and the other two to implement the complex algorithms that produce "room-filling surround sound with ultimate accuracy and speed".

Connectivity is taken care of by dual HDMI inputs and one out, along with three optical digital and two analogue phono inputs ensuring tremendous hi-def sound quality and eliminating signal loss. There’s also a subwoofer out that’s compatible with every brand of active sub.

The Cinemarium does not tread the path of some rivals such as the Yamaha YSP range by creating a surround effect using walls to bounce the sound around. Instead it has developed a proprietary technology called OPSODIS (Optimal Source DIStribution) in conjunction with the institute of Sound and Vibration Research in Japan.

Marantz is so confident of the Cinemarium’s sound quality in fact, that it says it can happily be used as a hi-fi system with hook up to a CD player or iPod incorporated.

The Marantz ES7001 Cinemarium is available now.