Anyone made a DIY Marantz 7/7C?

The Garak PR-7S with outboard power supply would be the perfect Marantz 7C clone to build, if someone could recreate it....

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That Garak preamp looks great! Keeping the Marantz look and style but omitting the unnecessary tone controls and filters. I also like the outboard power supply.
 
That Garak preamp looks great! Keeping the Marantz look and style but omitting the unnecessary tone controls and filters. I also like the outboard power supply.

They were made by an artisan in the far east, Korea, if I am not mistaken. Retired now. A very limited production run. And yes, I agree the whole design concept was ideal.
 
The top hat switches were standard items back in the day, and they do cover some of the lettering as they are so big.

I changed mine to white, including the power switch for a different look...

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Crooner, that"s a beauty! I'd like to build a 7 clone point to point for my next project, minus tone controls and filters, I'm super curious about your build and your thoughts on it now, plus any recommendations for parts or things to stay away from. How is the selenium rectifier? Thoughts on diode? Did you use the stepped attenuators from china or build something more like the original. Any pictures or drawings of the layout would be awesome to see. I think that's the best homemade preamp i've seen!
 
Crooner, that"s a beauty! I'd like to build a 7 clone point to point for my next project, minus tone controls and filters, I'm super curious about your build and your thoughts on it now, plus any recommendations for parts or things to stay away from. How is the selenium rectifier? Thoughts on diode? Did you use the stepped attenuators from china or build something more like the original. Any pictures or drawings of the layout would be awesome to see. I think that's the best homemade preamp i've seen!

Thanks! The unit is not homemade. I am not that talented! It's a 1963 unit with parts updates and a new stepped remote attenuator from Khozmo in Poland. I made a thread on it a while back (search for "Ultimate Marantz 7 Restoration"). Since then I've made a few improvements. I recommend Schottkys to replace the heater selenium rectifier and a specialized industrial rectifier to replace the HV. I can't recall the exact model of this rectifier, but you can find it in the thread..

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Russian PIOs beat Bumblebees and cost a lot less honey. More stable over time, great sonics. Don't like hitting cold tubes with diode HV supplies so I'm going tube there, as well. Diode bridge on filaments and adding varistor to line but no other mods. Thinking about using Vector turret tube sockets for minimum lead length and maximum compactness and cramming a stereo version in an old Heathkit WA-P2 mono preamp chassis I have laying around with outboard power supply. Nice, retro look and very compact.
 
... Thinking about using Vector turret tube sockets for minimum lead length and maximum compactness and cramming a stereo version in an old Heathkit WA-P2 mono preamp chassis I have laying around with outboard power supply. Nice, ...
That sounds interesting. I would like to see that.
 
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