Marantz Just Killed the PM6007. Meet the Model 70 and CD 70

If I had a euro for every comment asking me whether it's time to upgrade from a PM6007, I could almost afford the amp that just replaced it.

Almost.

Marantz has officially retired the PM6007 integrated amplifier and the CD6007 CD player, two machines that spent nearly six years as the default answer to "what should I buy for my first proper system?" In their place: the Model 70 and CD 70, landing on 15 August in black or silver-gold.

The end of an era, and the end of a look

The old 6000-series styling is gone for good. Both new units adopt the current Marantz family design: textured front panels and, on the amplifier, the circular porthole display you'll recognise from the Model 50 and its bigger siblings. I've had the Model 50 on my rack for a review, and I'll say this much: the porthole look is divisive in photos and genuinely handsome in the flesh. Your shelf will thank you.

But nobody buys an amplifier for its face. So what's actually inside?

The Model 70: familiar power, modern brain

The Model 70 is a Class A/B design rated at 50 watts per channel, built around a larger power transformer than the PM6007 had, with a reworked power supply and preamplifier stage. You still get a built-in DAC, a moving magnet phono stage, pre-outs and a subwoofer output. New to the party: Bluetooth with aptX HD and aptX Adaptive that can transmit as well as receive, HDMI ARC for your TV, and a low-phase-noise clock to clean up jitter on digital sources.

One change will raise eyebrows. The analogue volume pot is gone, replaced by an electronic volume control.

And honestly? Purists will grumble, but a well-implemented electronic volume gives you better channel matching at low levels, which is where most of us actually listen most of the time. I'd rather have precise attenuation at 11pm than a warm feeling about a potentiometer.

The CD 70 might be the quiet star here

The CD player shares the same DAC as the amplifier, and it does far more than spin discs. There's a USB Type-A input on the front that reads WAV, FLAC, AIFF and even DSD straight from a hard drive. There's a 6.3mm headphone socket fed by a fully discrete headphone amplifier, with adjustable gain buried in the on-screen menus. Add an upgraded power supply, a double-layered chassis and rigid isolation feet, and you have a disc spinner, a file player and a desktop headphone rig in one box.

CDs refuse to die. Marantz clearly knows it, and I respect the commitment.

Now, about those prices

The CD 70 comes in at £499 / €600 / $750, up from the CD6007's £399 launch back in 2020. Given what's happened to component costs since then, that's a shrug.

The Model 70 is a different story: £749 / €850 against the PM6007's £499 launch price. That's a fifty percent jump, and it means "entry-level Marantz" now starts where mid-range used to live. You're getting real hardware for the money, but let's not pretend the ladder's bottom rung hasn't moved up a step.

The strangest detail? There's no US price for the Model 70, because the amplifier isn't coming to North America at launch. The CD 70 is. Make of that what you will.

So, should you panic-buy a PM6007 while stock lasts?

If you find one heavily discounted, it remains a lovely little amplifier and I won't talk you out of it. But on paper, this new pair looks like the Model 50 philosophy trickling down to the entry level: cleaner design, smarter connectivity, more serious engineering underneath.

Whether it sounds like a worthy successor is a question specs can't answer. I'll be chasing review units, and my ears will report back.