Marantz has announced the latest in its series of slimline AV receivers, the NR1603 and NR1403

Catering for those who don’t like statuesque boxes in their living room Marantz has created a slim design AV receiver line that promises to pack just as much of a punch as its bigger brothers, delivering full surround sound with an elegant look.

The NR1403, a slimline five-channel AV receiver, comes with a range of connectivity options. The 250W output can be used for a simple stereo set-up but is also powerful enough to run a full 5.1 system in your living room. Devices such as camcorders, smartphones and tablets can be connected via the front panel HDMI input.

The seven-channel NR1603 offers more intelligent features, including a variety of networking facilities for audio streaming, internet radio, and AirPlay from an iPhone, iPad or iPod, as well as incorporating an iPod-digital-compatible USB input and an M-DAX2 to produce the best quality sound from compressed audio. The new Marantz Remote App for iDevices is also available.

As for video, its HDMI inputs all support 3D video and ARC, while all analogue video signals are converted to HDMI level including I/P conversion and scaling up to 1080p.

Both receivers are equipped with six HDMI inputs and Marantz, keen to address unnecessary energy consumption issues, has designed both with very low standby power and auto power-off circuitry.

The Marantz NR1603 and NR1403 are available now in black and silver-gold priced at £550 and £350 respectively.