Marantz MODEL M4

The Marantz MODEL M4 is a compact streaming amplifier, larger and more powerful than the MODEL M1 but built on the same idea: a small box that drives real passive speakers and handles all the streaming itself.

Marantz’s styling is doing a lot of work here. Where most compact amplifiers look like network equipment, the M4 is finished as a piece of hi-fi.

What Apple Home actually does with it

This is an AirPlay 2 speaker rather than a HomeKit accessory.

• It appears in the Home app as a speaker you can play to, and as an AirPlay target in Control Centre.
• You can assign it to a room and group it with HomePods for synchronised multi-room audio.
• Siri can send music to it by room name.
• It can be the audio output in a scene or an automation.

You cannot switch it on or set its volume from the Home app the way you would a light. Those stay with the speaker itself and its own app.

Before you buy

Compare it against the M1 on power rather than features. The larger model exists for bigger rooms and less sensitive speakers.

HEOS provides multi-room across Marantz and Denon equipment, alongside AirPlay 2 for HomePods.

An HDMI ARC input means it can be the television’s sound system as well as the music system.

Specifications