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Super Bowl Sunday is almost upon us and the excitement is just going get higher with each passing hour! You’re ready: chips and dips are stocked, the number for the pizza house is near your phone, the folding chairs are out of the closet and dusted and house is getting clean.
But how well are you prepared, audio wise?
The Superbowl is broadcast in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. With 20 or so microphones recording every kick, grunt and tackle you’ll want to be sure you system is set up perfectly. If you already have a Marantz Home Theater receiver you’re all set. If not there is still some time to get one. Listening to the game is just as important as watching it. It is a critical part of Super Bowl Sunday.
More interesting facts about how much technology it takes to deliver a Super Superbowl.
What’s your favorite sounds during a football game?
ABOUT THE PARTNERSHIP
Because you read the Marantz blog or are a Facebook fan you’re finding out this exciting news before everyone else! Marantz America is proud to sponsor world-renowned German classical and rock violinist David Garrett on his 21-city U.S. Tour. Marantz is a longtime supporter and proponent of  both classical and rock music, leading to a natural fit between David and the brand. David’s arrangements convey both the excitement and emotion of classical music while engaging younger audiences with his stunningly modern rock and pop compositions.
Just as Marantz has been renowned for our unmatched performance and build quality, David Garrett sets the highest quality standards for himself, his music and his performances. In fall 2007 the recording artist made his appearance in Germany with the release of his crossover album Virtuoso, becoming one of the most exciting crossover stars in the music world today and has been redefining standards in the classic and crossover scene step by step ever since.
ABOUT DAVID GARRETT
Listen - David Garrett - Summer Listen - David Garrett - The 5th
Garrett was discovered at the age of 9 by the world’s most revered violinist, Yehudi Munuhin, making his first public appearance in Hamburg, Germany at age 10. By age 11 he was playing symphony concerts around the world and at age 13 he was signed to the world’s most prestigious classical music label, Deutsche Grammophon, becoming the youngest classical artist ever to sign a contract with record label.
David Garrett is not only a technically brilliant recording artist, who has received the praise and support of such eminent violin virtuosos as Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin and in particular Ida Haendel, but his greatness is also reflected in his mental countenance. As one of the few classically versed artists, David has an undistorted perspective on tradition and modernity. This balance of tradition and modernity is how Marantz approaches its beautifully classic yet modern product designs, combining our commitment to creating the best sounding products using the most advanced audio technologies.
In 2009 GQ Germany named David the Man of the Year for Music and in 2010 David was named The World’s Fastest Violinist by the Guinness Book of World Records, breaking the record for the fastest-ever account of The Flight of the Bumblebee.
NEW ALBUM- ROCK SYMPHONIES
 Already hugely popular in Europe, David is quickly building a new global audience in support of his latest Rock Symphonies album. He recently performed live on NBC’s The Today Show and unofficially kicked off his U.S. tour with a surprise flash mob performance at New York’s popular Eataly restaurant, where he performed a crowd-pleasing version of Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal with a little help of restaurant employees and onlookers!
 Denon and Marantz are really looking forward to this year’s Macworld Expo. The companies have both signed on as sponsors for a very special Cirque du Mac kick-off party, hosted by The Mac Obsever and BackBeat Media and set for the evening of Thursday, January 27th. Guests will enjoy a performance by the Macworld All-Star Band, plus a host of other fun surprises.
Check out this link on how to win tickets, and we’ll see you there!
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/win_tickets_to_cirque_du_mac_8.0_party_with_the_macworld_all-star_band/
If you have a Marantz SR7005 AV Receiver, AV7005 7.1 pre-amp, NA7004 Networked Audio Player or a M-CR603 Networked Audio Receiver you can take advantage of our new App for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
Incredible Remote Control
Our new Wizz App lets you control almost every aspect of your component from choosing zones and source material to music and the volume. Control at your fingertips. Below you’ll find some screen shots. To download the app go to the iTunes app store and search for Wizz app. It’s easy to use and has a neat demo mode too.
One of the advantages of HDMI is the ability to use only one cable to move sound and video. But if you use your receiver as the hub to your home entertainment system you might have needed more than one cable if you wanted to say watch your TV without turning on your receiver. Today’s receivers allow for what is called HDMI pass-through. This allows the signal to go directly to the TV as long as the receiver is in standby mode.
HDMI Pass-through is available in all current Marantz receivers.
Most of us know how much better watching movies becomes with surround sound on. Maybe not as well known is how much better sports can be in surround.
With the Super Bowl just around the corner and March Madness closing in it’s time to think about how to increase your Super Madness sports watching! Most of us don’t know what it takes to deliver a realistic surround sound experience.
In an interview from 2007 Jim Hilson, Senior Broadcast Audio Specialist for Dolby Laboratories, gives the inside scoop on how surround sound makes the biggest sporting events. It’s an incredible behind the scenes look at what it takes to bring surround sound to a sporting event.
Read or listen to the interview here. Then take a look at the latest surround sound receivers and components on the new Marantz site.
Do you watch sports with your surround sound on?
 This was the song that made me love and want to play music. It was this week in 1964 that the Beatles released their hit single “I want to hold your hand” which became the fastest selling single in Capitol records history. Believe it or not the label had turned down “Love Me Do”, “Please Please Me”, “From Me to You” and “She Loves You”, which were then released by Vee Jay Records.
For those of you luck enough to have this on a 45 why not pop it on to your Marantz TT-15S1 Turntableand give it a spin. Of course you could listen to it on your iPod. If you have a Marantz receiver with M-DAX2 you’ll hear it with greater detail and range. The Marantz Digital Audio Expander 2, also called M-DAX2 which recalculates the outputted frequency range and gives you to get a more detailed and clearer sound.
Did you own a copy of this on Vinyl, CD or MP3?
ARC or Audio Return Channel is a function of HDMI 1.4a. It lets you have a one cable solution between your receiver and HDMI ARC supported Television.
What is the benefit of an Audio Return Channel?
In many cases your audio is coming from a cable box, DVD or Blu-ray player. In this instance the audio and video source material is going from the source to the receiver and on to the TV. You can listen to your program through the receiver and the TV shows the video.
But what if you your TV is the source of the media as with over-the-air broadcasts, Netflix, Pandora or other streaming media available on many of today’s TV’s? Without ARC you’d need to run a separate audio cable out of the TV back to the receiver in order to play it through your audio system. With ARC you don’t need to do this, the signal can travel back through the same cable (see Note below) to the receiver. One cable solution.
All Marantz receivers with HDMI 1.4a support Audio Return Channel.
Here is a graphical representation of how Audio Return Channel works.
 Image via Wikipedia
According to an article on Discovery news researchers have discovered that people are drawn to music for the same reason they like life’s other pleasures. Listening to music you like causes the brain to release dopamine, a feel-good chemical. Dopamine-induced pleasure may help explain why music has been such a big part of human societies throughout history. Understanding why people like listening to music is helping scientists understand human pleasure. This may also help explain why some music gives you the chills.
“To solidify the dopamine link, the researchers recruited eight music-lovers, who brought to the lab samples of music that gave them chills of pleasure. Most picks were classical, with some jazz, rock and popular music mixed in, including Led Zeppelin and Dave Matthews Band. The most popular selection was Barbar’s Adagio for Strings”
To me there is nothing like a perfectly executed “blues guitar lick”.
What would your favorite “Dopamine-inducing” music be?
 This was an interesting year for music which saw Justin Bieber have the most watched music video on YouTube, but was only number 46 on Pandora’s list. As the year comes to an end there are endless sources of top songs of the year. Here are a few sources of top songs for 2010.
Pandora Top 50 by Genre (Pandora is available on select 2010 Marantz Receivers)
Slacker top 50 most popular and hearted songs for 2010. This station is actually hosted. You have to choose the Top 50 station
Billboards top 100 charts. You can’t listen here but it’s a great reference. Has lists from just about every angle including most popular songs on social circles.
AOL Radio Blog top 10 songs of 2010
Top 100 Views on MTV
NPR’s All Songs Considered Lists of the best in 2010. Also hear the top listener lists for 2010
AOL Radio Blogs top 10 Smooth Jazz
What are your favorites from 2010?
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