Marantz ES7001 SSX review

Marantz didn't send along the matching SW7001 subwoofer ($200), so we can't comment on how the ES7001 would sound with it.

The ES7001 comes with a three-year warranty; most single speaker surround systems offer just a single year of protection.

Performance
We used the Black Hawk Down Blu-ray to test the ES7001's home theater stamina. The film covers the true story of the American siege of the Somalian city of Mogadishu in October 1993. Before the action got going we were impressed with the sound of the dialog, it was more natural and full-bodied than what we've come to expect from single-speaker surround systems.

When the Black Hawk helicopter gets hit by rocket-propelled grenades, the ES7001 delivered the impact with gusto. Still, when the helicopter crashed we missed the room-shaking bass we'd get from a subwoofer. We hooked up our Aperion Bravus 8D subwoofer to the ES7001, which improved the experience noticeably. Not only did it add bass, but the ES7001 sounded better overall and dynamics improved thanks to the sub.

At this point we compared the ES7001 with Denon's single speaker surround home theater system, the DHT-FS3. The Denon is a whole lot smaller and half the weight, but comes with its own subwoofer. The first thing we heard from the Denon was that it projected a bigger and more precisely defined surround field. The Marantz--with or without the Aperion subwoofer--sounded more substantial. The Denon was tonally thinner, and scaled back the battle scenes' explosions and gunfire. When the helicopter crashes and its rotor blades are ripped off, the Denon lets you hear each sheared blade's destruction as a separate sonic event. The Marantz blurs the sounds together, but portrays the same scene with greater visceral force.

The Denon's surround can be heard by listeners seated over to the left and right, as well as the center of the couch; the Marantz's surround is best only for the centrally located listener.

That said, the ES7001 (with or without a sub) is an above-average sounding virtual surround speaker. The Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds Live At Radio City Blu-ray sounded clear and clean. When Reynold's string-bending slide guitar solos were cheered on by the crowd, the ES7001 put us in the best seat in the house.

We finished up listening to CDs. Again, the ES7001's clarity came to the fore. Thunder, by bass players Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, and Victor Wooten made the case for the speaker's musicality. Sans sub, the bass went deep enough, and the pitch definition of the three players was decent. Turned up nice and loud, the Black Keys blues rock was also beyond what we expect from this type of speaker.

As always, that's not to say you couldn't buy much better sound for the price of the ES7001 by opting for a 5.1-channel satellite/subwoofer system, like the Energy RC-Micro. But even a microsatellite system like that would involve a lot more wires and potential clutter than the single-speaker Marantz.