What's the deal with old, cheap marantz receivers?

You'd have to specify what CDP your using and what your plugging it in to.

Just my opinion, in my experience this sounds anything but middle of the road:

 

The box may need going through. And the power consumption, provided it is biased correctly, can't be as high as many bigger tube amps.

The Marantz solid state tuners were very good-they are much in demand by DXers today.

 

Hi,

Superscope purchased Marantz in 1964. The 10B development and teething problems cost Saul Marantz the company.

 

This was news to me, but as I mentioned, I had recently heard this. I'm really confused now. I had heard in the day that the quality went way down shortly after I bought mine in 71 and Superscope was blamed. Now I don't know what to think.

Can anybody else verity that there was a quality drop off around 72 or 73 or was I just misled? It wouldn't be the first time.

 

I think their quality took a decline with the "SR" series, starting around 1979. They sold well, but you see far less of them around these days, they almost always need substantial internal repairs when you do find them.

 

I've always understood the the drop off occured around 1980. Marantz's Legendary Audio Classics are specific in listing only Pre 1980 gear.

 

Sadly, it did.

Saul Marantz and Julius Futterman were very oriented to making a quality product. Sid Smith, Dick Sequerra and later James Bongiorno were all Marantz design alumni. Marantz used a lot of expensive parts such as telco grade electrolytics. I bet build cost of a Marantz 8B was probably double a MC275 at the least. The metalwork was more ornate and all painted, whereas Mc used prechromed low grade sheet steel. The original 8 had an outsourced output transformer. The 8B had that brought inhouse and it must have been an expensive startup.

But the 10B was the crown jewel and also the most cantankerous thing they ever built. It's valuable today because it has a swank little scope screen, but to be honest it is not a terribly good tuner except in strong signal conditions.

When Marantz outsourced the building of the repro line to VAC I understand there was no serious thought to making the 10B again.

 

A drop-off for many brands.

 

I recently purchased a 10B. It was built in 1964 and bone stock. Works like a dream. It's at least as sensitive as a modded Kenwood KT-7500 I bought from tuner guru Brian Beezley a while back. The sound is a completely different matter though. Absolutely stunning sonics with the right station.

I only added a CL-90 inrush limiter and it's good to go. The original opto-couplers are also in perfect shape!

The IF section on the 10B was second to none. IM distortion is totally benign and pretty much inaudible.

The 10B is more than the scope. You have to see/hear one in operation to understand...

The reason why VAC did not produce it was cost. At least $10,000 would have been the selling price, IMO. Also, VAC had no prior RF experience whatsover.

Oh, and BTW, I don't think the 8B would cost twice to produce as a MC275. No way!
The metalwork was clearly inferior. The 8B was mostly hidden from view in custom cabinetry. Definitely not a show piece!

 

The 10B is sweeter than honey!

 

Indeed!
And I was surprised to see many nice touches such as neon lamps strategically located in key parts of the circuitry. Most are located underneath the chassis and they light up in sequence when the unit is warming up. A cool way to ascertain that the circuit is ready to go.

There's also a neon lamp visible from the top of the chassis, right below the scope. It lights up between stations to indicate the muting action. How cool is that?

Sonically, the IF filter characteristics are notable in the sense that the design is extremely forgiving with moderate multipath on less than ideal reception conditions. On ordinary tuners, the distortion would drive me nuts. The 10B makes them listenable.

 

Man, that is one hell of a nice setup you've put together! I still think you should offer your custom squeezebox for sale. Surely you could sell as many as you felt like producing! And that 10B just makes me jealous like crazy; really top-notch...

 

Thanks!!!
Yeah, I'm very proud of my setup. It took me some time, effort and $$$ to put the whole thing together. The 10B was the finishing touch!

I'm figuring out a way to generate a worthy close circuit FM signal for the 10B. My plan is to get a Sound Technology ST-1000A generator to build my own super high quality FM station, exceeding FCC standards.

This way I can feed the signal from my Squeezebox to the ST-1000A and the RF would go to the Marantz. Imagine how those 128kpbs radio stations would sound on this setup!

As for the Super Squeezebox. Yeah man, perhaps I should start taking orders for it (if I can find the time!). I would need prospective buyers to supply the needed Squeezebox2, since it is no longer available new...

 

It's hard to say...

The original Woodside NY facility was closed around 1970 with high end production moving to Sun Valley, California.

The mid to lower end models were built by Standard Radio in Japan.

I believe Standard started building the top-of-the-line receivers around 1973 as well. My now departed 4400 quad receiver was built in Japan.

I do know the Marantz 250 and 500 power amps were still built in the US.

Speaking of Superscope and its relatioship with Saul, there's an interesting interview with Mr. Marantz in a 1980s issue of TAS. Joseph Tushinsky tried to boss Saul around and he didn't like it. He left in early 1968 and co-founded Dahlquist a few years later...

 

That's it, thanks.

It was when they went to Sun Valley that they supposedly went downhill. I guess I assumed that was when they were purchased by Superscope, but obviously that happened in the 60's.

Mine was most definitely not made in Sun Valley.

 

Yeah,
Sun Valley were the headquarters for Superscope when they functioned as distributors for the Sony tape recorder line. I believe that aside from the warehouse and corporate offices, they had some sort of service/testing facility on the premises.

When they closed the original Marantz factory in NY, they added a small production facility at Sun Valley. But the plan was to eventually outsource everything to Japan.

By the late 1970s they had moved to Chatsworth, CA and I believe everything was made in Japan at that point.

The infamous Marantz 500 was made at Sun Valley. This is the amp that was recalled due to fire hazard.

 

My Marantz 240 Amp I picked up today was built in Sun Valley.

Pat

 

New York used to have quite a number of audio manufacturers through much of the 70's. I believe Harman Kardon used to have a factory in Woodbury. Stanton and Empire were both based in Long Island. These days, there are not many manufacturing companies left in the Empire State.

 

Oh yeah, those were the days. The level of craftsmanship attained at those factories was second to none. Long Island City was also the home to the original Fisher Radio.

 

Don't think anyone's mentioned this guy's great Marantz restoration site: http://www.irebuildmarantz.com/ Commendably detailed with and pics. When I get a chance, I may replace the caps on my 2226B; and my other one (forget which).

 

The now defunct Dahlquist was based in Long Island as well.

 

Tell me about it. I bought one of the Marantz 500's in 1974 and it was a beauty to see and hear. I'd love to have one today to see if I'd still think it sounded so good. I may have been easier to impress in those days.

Mine went up in flames. Fortunately I was there when it did it's thing or it could have taken down the house we were renting.

Btw, I replaced it with a DC-300A and that was quite a sonic downgrade. The next year I sold that amp to the sound company I was working for. Before I sold it, Kiss was playing in SD and they called us up hoping to rent one for their show that night. I went home, pulled mine out of my system and brought it down to the Sports Arena. That was the beauty of Crown.

Btw, I replaced the Crown with a Spectra Sonics 700 modular amplifier system. That was most definitely an upgrade from the Crown, but not necessarily from the Marantz. That was not a consumer amp, so I'm guessing most here haven't heard of it. But anybody into pro audio back then would likely know about them. Spectra Sonics made some of the better sounding recording consoles.

 

Kind of interesting how hi-fi manufacturers were clumped into regions. Of course AR, KLH and many others were from the Boston area in the 50's. Out here, there used to be slews of companies in the San Fernando Valley in the 70's, such as Infiniti, Fisher, RTR, and many others. Most of them were right near each other.

 

The Marantz 500 was their first attempt at a super high power amplifier, after the success of Bob Carver & A.P. Van Meter's Phase[flame] Linear 700.

The result was a very powerful, yet refined amplifier. Too bad the flames remained!

The 500M, the revised version, was very well received by the press and buying public. The blue meters were reminiscent of McIntosh but with the Marantz classic brushed aluminum faceplate.

 

I believe Audio magazine reviewed a Spectra Sonics product sometime in the 1970s. I recall seeing advertisements for them as well. Sleeper products for sure!