Even our hardened delivery driver made comments about the weight of the SM-11S1 power amp and we rather cynically expected heavyweight casework to be the culprit. In fact, the main contributing factor is one of the biggest transformer enclosures we’ve seen - there’s a screening can (with inaccessible fixing screws) over something that’s probably big enough to weld with!

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, Marantz took the whole THX concept to heart. The technology has since been widely implemented on its AV amplifiers and receivers down the years, even as some other AVR brands appeared to lose interest in the philosophy, with the SR8002 the latest to boast certification, this time in the form of THX Select2.

With the basic PM7001 (£350) firmly established as one of the key amps to beat below £500, the KI version has quite some reputation to live up to. As usual with Marantz's 'Ken Ishiwata Signature' range, the basis is the same set of circuits