High-end Marantz amplifiers are renowned for their warm, wide and inviting sound and the PM5005 is a great budget (under $500) amp to dip your toes into this experience. This integrated amplifier offers suburb performance to cost ratio and is perfect for a budding audiophile.
Pros
- Warm sound
- wide soundscape
- well equipped
Cons
- Not powerful enough for large rooms or extremely high volume
- missing mid-range tone control
The PM5005 is an attractive unit. The faceplate has a combination of brushed black metal and slick sides on either side of the larger volume and input selection knobs.
The front also has control knobs for bass, treble, and balance alongside switches for loudness, speaker selection, and source direct mode.
The unit is a reasonably small size at (W.H.D)17-3/8″ x 4-3/16″ x 14-9/16″ so could fit in nicely within smaller rooms which match perfectly with its small power stage of 40w at 8ohms.
You will get the familiar sound you would expect from a more expensive Marantz unit with the PM5005. The soundstage is wide with a warm tone and a clear quick and accurate response. The tone controls allow for some customization of the sound but there are only controls for bass and treble and no control for the mids.
This means you are unable to boost or scoop the mid frequencies however we believe the out of the box sound in the mids is outstanding and will please most users. The “loudness” switch on the front of the PM5005 boosts both the bass and treble automatically for listening to music at low volumes.
Specs & Features
RMS power @8ohms 40w,
Frequency response 10 Hz-50,000Hz
Dimensions (W.H.D)17-3/8″ x 4-3/16″ x 14-9/16″
Weight 14.8lb
This amplifier comes with switchable speaker outputs so you could have two separate sets of speakers connected at a time. There are 4 RCA line-level inputs as well as duel RCA recording input/output loops and a ¼” headphone out at the front of the unit.
Marantz PM5005 vs Onkyo A-9010
Both of these amplifiers are of a high standard and offer similar specs in terms of inputs, outputs, and features. The Onkyo unit offers a slightly more powerful output at 44w at 8ohms compared to 40w from the Marantz amp (check Denon and Marantz amps compared). The Onkyo has a more energetic presentation at the cost of some of the warmth that the PM5005 has.
Marantz PM5005 vs NAD C316BEE
The C316BEE looks a lot more dated in its design to the Pm5005. It is also missing certain features such as duel speaker outputs, and RCA record-through loops. They are Both powered at 40w for 8ohms. The NAD unit can reach a little lower in its sonic capabilities, getting as low as 20Hz.
Video
You can find a video review of the Marantz PM5005 here
Last update on 2022-03-01 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
