Smart Speaker Reviews

PRICE: $4,400 (MSRP $5,500)

AT A GLANCE

Plus
Enveloping sound from one speaker
Fidelity of a proper hi-fi rig
Sophisticated aesthetics
Futuristic touch volume interface
Intuitive sound modes
Minus
No built-in phono preamp
Only one set of stereo RCA inputs
No dedicated remote
Expensive

The Verdict
The Marantz Grand Horizon looks like a sculpture and sounds like a serious stereo system. It produces room-filling scale, deep bass, and refined detail from a single enclosure that blends naturally into real homes. It is expensive, but for listeners who want audiophile sound without racks of gear, the Grand Horizon is one of the best all-in-one systems available.

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Introduction
Marantz’s Grand Horizon is a lifestyle speaker aimed squarely at listeners who care about both aesthetics and fidelity. This $5,500 unit is pitched as “musical art,” a marble-based, fabric-wrapped, circular speaker intended to live in shared spaces rather than audio dens. The premise is simple: deliver the scale and emotional impact of a full hi-fi system in one enclosure using advanced DSP, a powerful amplifier, and a multi-driver array. No extra boxes, no external subwoofer, and no visual clutter.

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Features & Design
The unique, circular design sets the Grand Horizon apart from everything else on the market. It's evocative of the porthole motif that is signature Marantz. The enclosure is wrapped in a seamless recycled fabric and perched on a real marble base for stability. Inside is an eight-driver array powered by a combined 370 watts of amplification. An 8" front woofer handles bass duties, while a ring of midrange and tweeter drivers fires across a broad arc. Marantz’s DSP processing keeps vocals centered and widens the stage to mimic two-speaker playback.

Connectivity is more robust than typical lifestyle speakers. You get HDMI eARC for TV audio, optical, RCA analog, USB-C for playing local files off mass storage, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, Tidal via HEOS, Bluetooth, and HEOS multiroom support. The HEOS app also provides placement profiles: Corner and Free-Standing, a Spaciousness control that affects perceived stage width versus focus, and variable voicing with the Warmth/Clarity control. Two Grand Horizons can be paired as left and right speakers to form a true stereo system, although this review focuses on the performance of a single unit. One thing you do not get is a dedicated remote, the Grand Horizon is primarily controlled with the HEOS app.

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Setup & Use
Unboxing feels premium from the start. The box itself is huge but it's so nice, you'd think it was for jewelry, not a speaker. Marantz includes a carry bag with handles, which is a necessity for a 47-pound speaker but also a clever touch that makes the system more mobile than you would expect. I moved the unit between my main listening room, my bedroom, and even to my car for a trip to my wife's aunt's Cape Cod home without drama. It's on the very outer limit of what you'd call portable.

Setup is straightforward. Plug it in, connect via AirPlay or through the HEOS app, and the system joins the network fast and easy. The touch-sensitive LED ring on the front provides local volume control and visual feedback of the modes, and HDMI eARC integration means TV volume works through the TV remote once you connect the cable. When the speaker sits on a dresser, console, or tabletop near walls, the Corner placement mode keeps bass controlled; on open furniture the Free-Standing mode makes appropriate adjustments to keep the sound balanced.

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Listening Impressions

Main Listening Room
Placed centered between where my stereo speakers sit in my living room, the Grand Horizon immediately produced a wide and immersive soundstage. To the point where there's a believable illusion that the tower speakers are what's making the sound.

With Daft Punk's Tron: Legacy Reconfigured, "Derezzed (Remixed by The Glitch Mob)" showed off the detail and power of the system. The stuttering synth riffs shot outward with impressive width, while the growling mid-bass line remained tight and rhythmic, with a bit of visceral feel to it. On "End of Line (Remixed by Boys Noize)" metallic textures and shimmering effects filled the room above and to the sides of the speaker. The bass stayed controlled and did not swamp the mix. "Fall (Remixed by M83 vs. Big Black Delta)." features descending synth hits that the Marantz rendered with tangible physicality. For a single standalone speaker, the weight and impact of the output were surprising. My stereo speakers still win on pinpoint imaging, but the Grand Horizon produced a soundfield that felt as large.

Dub & Reggae
Bass-forward material highlighted just how capable the Horizon is when asked to move air. On The Dub Factor by Black Uhuru, "Ion Storm" opens with a sub-bass swell that shook my listening room while still retaining texture and pitch definition. That's because the speaker hides the fact it contains a highly competent 8" bass unit. So you get subwoofer-level impact.

The rubbery bassline felt alive and tuneful rather than just a wall of low-frequency pressure. "Puffed Out" demonstrated the Horizon's ability to throw reverb and echo effects well past its physical boundaries, it offers true envelopment. Spring reverbs and delay trails (which don't need pinpoint rendition) drifted across the soundfield in a way that reminded me of a well set up stereo rig. Black Uhuru's The Dub Factor continued to impress. On "Big Spliff" the drum and bass groove was thick yet controlled, with a snare that snapped sharply in the mix. "Android Rebellion" stacked analog echo patterns and atmospheric details, and the speaker preserved the airy openness of the production while keeping the powerful bass line in check.

KMFDM's In Dub pushed things in a more industrial direction. "Amnesia Dub" mixes crunchy guitar skanks with a wobbling dub bass foundation. The Grand Horizon kept the low end solid while maintaining clarity in the guitars and effects. "K•M•F Dub" delivered deep pulses that were impressively tangible, never turning muddy, and the spoken and sung vocal lines remained crisp and intelligible above the thunder.

Scorn's Evanescence is a little-known torture test for very deep bass and dark ambiance. "Silver Rain Fell" consists of slow, seismic pulses that often expose weaknesses. The Horizon reproduced those swells with steadfast composure, clean and free of distortion. "Exodus" moved through metallic and smeared ambient textures that the system spread across a wide, ominous field. Here the Spaciousness algorithm earned its keep, turning a minimal mix into an enveloping three-dimensional listening experience.

Electronic & Trip-Hop
The speaker's strengths in midrange clarity and soundstage projection came to the fore with Thievery Corporation's Culture of Fear. On the title track, Mr. Lif's vocal sat locked at center while a rolling dub bassline reached deep into the room. "Is It Over?" placed its vocal directly in front of me, silky and intimate, while sitar and guitar flourishes appeared around it with clean separation. "Fragments" revealed how well the Horizon handles layered percussion and subtle effects. High-frequency accents and reverb trails expanded outward, and engaging the Warm voicing preset added just enough richness to suit late-night listening without dulling the top end.

The Art of Noise album The Seduction of Claude Debussy blends orchestral, electronic, and spoken-word elements that can easily become congested. On "Il Pleure (At the Turn of the Century)" the Marantz maintained coherence as orchestral swells, electronic stabs, and narration arrived together. The speaker defined distinct depth layers and avoided turning the track into a blur. "Dreaming in Colour" highlighted both the airy, cinematic sweep of the arrangement and the smooth contour of its bass line. The Grand Horizon kept the rhythm section tight while allowing the ambient and melodic elements to float around the room. It's as if the album was made for this speaker.

Ambient & Room-Filling Playback (Cape Cod)
Listening a large, open Cape Cod living room, despite it being an unfamiliar space, was a success. While our hosts were skeptical before they heard it, the Grand Horizon wound up hugely impressing our relatives, who are audiophiles. We sampled classical music, and if there's a genre lesser speakers can't handle properly, it's classical. Not so the Grand Horizon, it can deliver the grandeur and gravitas of a full orchestra, and fill home with it. As people moved from the seating area to the kitchen and back, the tonal balance stayed consistent. No one was stuck in a dead spot.

What differentiates the Grand Horizon from other listening experiences is how you can use the app to apply the Warm/Cool and Spaciousness effects. It's almost shocking how quickly you can zero in on a "preferred" sound, and that can vary depending on the album. When vocals take center stage, a bit more focus is nice. For an orchestra, spaciousness makes it sound more real.

Even at genuine party levels, the system stayed composed. It reached volumes that most households will never need, yet harshness never crept in. Built-in protection is there if things get too wild, you can't "blow up" the Grand Horizon.

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Conclusion
The Marantz Grand Horizon is a rare all-in-one speaker that truly competes with traditional hi-fi gear in tone, fidelity, and musicality. It excels in real homes placed on dressers, consoles, kitchen counters, and in open living areas, and it does so without requiring racks of electronics or floorstanding loudspeakers.

Look, I'm well aware of what you can get for the money if you buy into a traditional stereo system, but the reality of the Grand Horizon is that it packages the vast majority of a system of that cost into such a unique device that it simply cannot be compared. It is, frankly, the finest single-speaker bedroom stereo system that I am aware exists. It is, in fact, a sexy speaker.

For listeners who want true hi-fi sound, a wide soundfield out of one speaker, deeper and tighter bass than you'd expect, plus industrial design that is more work of art than appliance, this is it. The Grand Horizon visually enhances room ambience whether off to the side or as a center of attention. The Grand Horizon stands out, it is unmistakable.

Its combination of thoughtful connectivity, advanced tuning options, and credible hi-fi performance makes it one of the strongest entries in the luxury lifestyle speaker category.

Certainly, the Marantz Grand Horizon begs the question: what audiophile would buy a device like this instead of a real stereo? And the answer I offer is a simple one: Any music lover who wants audiophile-quality sound in spaces where their traditional stereo systems are not welcome. It's as simple as that.

If a proper stereo is not welcome in the living room, a Marantz Grand Horizon fits. If tower speakers are not welcome in the bedroom, a Marantz Grand Horizon is. As a music lover, you just have to think to yourself, "Okay. I either want the best sound possible in this space where I'm not allowed to have a stereo, or not."

Granted, you pay for the privilege of having it all. But if you want a system that delivers emotional, room-filling sound from a single elegant object, the Grand Horizon is the one to beat.