This article is about the new Marantz Horizon and Grand Horizon wireless speakers. We discuss features, sound quality, and whether these speakers will work in your home.

Company History

From humble beginnings, Marantz got their start in the audio business. Unsatisfied with the available equipment, Saul Marantz designed and built his own preamplifier, which unknowingly would start a revolution in audio equipment. With the inconsistent recording techniques in the 50s, many different EQ curves were used in producing records. This led to Saul’s preamplifier including every EQ curve available at the time that could be selected from the front panel. Having this option was a first in the audio world. After encouragement and help from his wife and friends, he started producing the Audio Consolette Preamplifier, and the rest is history. Marantz has since been a force in the audio world, with many music lovers choosing Marantz for its warm musical sound and solid build quality.

Features & Technology

With Marantz’s rich history of high-quality audio, it’s surprising they hadn’t ventured into wireless speakers—until now. Marantz has always been quick to adopt the latest tech to improve how we enjoy our media, which is clear from their impressive line-up of home theater and high-end audio gear. But around three years ago, Marantz set out to change things in a big way. They wanted to create a product that brought the magic of high-end sound to everyone without the hassle of complicated setups, messy wires, or bulky speakers that take over a room. Their goal? A luxury experience right out of the box, giving users elegant craftsmanship, a great in-room look, and great sound. These new Marantz speakers are pure luxury and will reward owners with upscale functionality to go with their great looks.

Elegance For Any Environment

The new Marantz Horizon and Grand Horizon speakers are a brand-new take on wireless home speakers. They are designed and built with the best materials, like Marantz RadianceTM 360° Seamless fabric, which wraps around the speaker. It is a bespoke, sustainable fabric made from recycled ocean plastics and has gold lurex elements. These fabrics are available in three colors, allowing the Horizon and Grand Horizon to offer three color tones to match home interiors.

This stand, crafted from American walnut, gives the speaker a cool "vintage camera tripod" vibe that a lot of people will love. We’re fans of this retro touch, as it really adds to the speaker's overall look. Plus, the unboxing is something special: the Horizon speaker arrives in its own protective case, making the whole experience feel extra elevated right from the start. One of our favorite features of the Horizon speakers is the unique volume control. Marantz’s AuraControl™ trim ring has 100 hidden LEDs that light up as you touch and hold your finger around it, creating an intuitive way to adjust the volume. A built-in sensor even detects when you’re nearby, bringing the speaker to life and ready for you to take control. With this smart system, Marantz clearly aims to make home music playback smoother and easier for everyone.

Great Sound Is In The Details

Marantz knew that as good as the Horizon speakers look, they must also perform at a high level. So, they went to work packing these speakers with some of the best technology that Marantz knows how to design. Each Horizon speaker is packed with proprietary, high-quality Marantz Gravity™ drive units. The Horizon has a 6.5” front-firing subwoofer driver with a cool-looking color-matching cover over it on the front panel, while the Grand Horizon moves up to an 8” subwoofer. Flanking these subwoofer drivers are strategically arranged sets of midrange and tweeter drivers to ensure the best sound possible. The Horizon has two 25mm (1in) silk-dome tweeters and three 50mm (2in) full-range drive units, while the Grand Horizon has three 25mm (1in) tweeters and four 76mm (3in) midrange drive units.

These drivers are arranged in their locations within the Horizon speakers to give the best performance and allow the Marantz Mirage™ DSP built into each speaker to tune the speakers for the best sound in your room and allow users to tune the Horizon speakers to tastes. This complex DSP was explicitly designed for the needs of these speakers to allow them to fill the room with full stereo sound while still being a single unit in the room. The ability to fully control the speakers' clarity, spaciousness, and warmth is essential to getting the sound right in each location. Marantz has even added their “Sound Master Mode,” which will tune the speaker to your room and allow users to hear the Horizon speakers like Sound Master Yoshinori Ogata would want them tuned. All of this is baked into Marantz’s own HEOS app to give users easy access to these controls in the same app as they get their favorite music.

A proprietary power amplifier technology Marantz calls Marantz Rise™ amplification powers all of these drivers. This amplification is based on the highly efficient and sonically superior GaN FET amplifier technology. Gallium Nitride FETS are special devices that operate much faster than standard silicon MOSFETs in most amplifiers. This allows them to switch quickly and to perform with much higher efficiency and fidelity.. Still, for this article, we will say that many experts believe GaN FET devices were the missing link that has now taken class D amplifiers to a higher level than many thought possible. The Horizon speaker gets a 310-watt amplifier section (FTC-rated) with a peak power of 745 watts (not FTC-rated).

Meanwhile, the Grand Horizon gets a full 370 watts (FTC-rated) with a peak power of 860 watts (not FTC-rated). The amplifier is housed in the back of the Horizon speakers, with connections for Stereo RCA in x1, Optical in x1, HDMI eARC x1, and USB-C x1. These connections allow users to plug in a TV with full eARC volume control and connect a digital component to the optical digital connection. Also, with Dolby Atmos decoding built in, your TV and movies will benefit from full Atmos support. USB-C is there for USB music drives, and there are even legacy RCA connections for CD players, tape decks, or a turntable if you use a separate phono preamp (the Horizon speakers do not have a phono preamp built-in).

Your Favorite Music Streaming Built-In

Like all of Marantz’s smart home products, HEOS is the show's star. Marantz has worked tirelessly to make HEOS one of the top app-based control and streaming platforms. Heos has Universal Search, allowing you to search through all your streaming services at once to find your music. You can even make playlists from different services, and HEOS will do the rest. This universal search and playlist option is excellent as it allows you to find your favorite tracks without searching through all your services to get them. Amazon Music, Deezer, and TIDAL are all invited to the party, and Marantz said they will be adding more in the future. Spotify Connect, Airplay 2, and Bluetooth 5.4 are also supported for even more flexibility. With the Horizon and Grand Horizon having full HEOS support, other HEOS-enabled devices can interact with these speakers to make a whole home audio system that can fill your house with music.

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