Review on 🎵 Marantz ND8006 Digital Media Player: CD Player, Music Streamer, DAC, and Pre-amp with Airplay 2, Bluetooth, HEOS, and Amazon Alexa Compatibility - Low-Profile 4-in-1 Solution by Anthony Wiley

I bought the Marantz ND8006 mainly as a CD player, but the possibility of connecting the device to my home network appealed to me and use it for internet radio. I also needed a USB DAC input to play from my laptop and was intrigued by the ability to bypass the laptop entirely and play straight from a USB drive. All of these options work more or less well. The CD player is excellent and produces a rich and clear sound. This also applies to the DAC converter, which either plays directly from my laptop via the USB DAC input or uses the USB input to play from a 2TB FAT formatted hard drive. There are even user-configurable DAC filter options. No complaints. I was honestly surprised that the device could play a 2.5" Toshiba USB hard drive directly, but this was done via the HEOS app on my Android smartphone. Unfortunately, the main downside to this setup is the HEOS app. It works well at its most basic level, but it's quite obviously an underdeveloped piece of software with a lot of annoying omissions. If you are used to a multifunctional music player on your PC or smartphone, you will be disappointed with the HEOS app. For example, the HEOS app can't read m3u or m3u8 playlist files, so the music files in the folder will load in alphabetical order - meaning you'll have to rename files with a starting number if you want to preserve the playback order. You can create your own playlists with the app, but for some strange reason, once created, they can't be edited, and they can't even be deleted in the Android app. Frankly, that's absurd. However, the app gives you access to many streaming services (which I don't use) and internet radio (which I use). It works well and a very wide range of stations is available through TuneIn. Software issues aside, the ND8006 itself is a very reliable and functional piece of hardware. Build quality is excellent for a device in this price range, and the wide range of inputs and outputs allows for many different configurations. I currently use it to play internet radio via the wired ethernet input, CDs and music files from both offline USB sticks and my laptop via the USB DAC input. I have an ND8006 connected to a PM8006 amp and can control it with either the included remote or the HEOS app. There are some issues with that too - the volume control on the amp doesn't work smoothly with either the remote or the HEOS app, so I ended up manually adjusting the volume knob. Overall the sound, while great, is everything I needed and a definite upgrade for my aging NAD hardware. So overall satisfied. Other device features like connecting to remote HEOS speakers or Alexa control are available but I don't use them. One day I could. One of the good features of the device is the automatic firmware update, which is available through an internet connection and allows you to improve and expand the capabilities of the device. The Android HEOS software certainly needs an overhaul, and surprisingly no manufacturer supports a Windows app to control this device.