Marantzs from the 60's & 70's are very highly regarded, especially the HD's, particularly the HD 770's. The 12" high rigidity woofer and the cabinet acoustics are a perfect match and show a very flat response curve with the bass, which is the best output without boomy & rolling bass, which in my opinion doesn't appeal to me. The design series utilized the same drivers with cosmetically appealing unique angled veneer and rolled corner cabinets. My HD 770's are awesome and can throw out some serious SPL's on command from my SX 1980 or SA-7500II. The LPF dome tweets & super tweets and mids with their HUGE 50 Oz. Magnets, are very responsive and clean with no overtone or shrill whatsoever. Also often overlooked are the first HD series line from 1976 they are only two digit model #'s after the HD. Those actually can handle more power than their three digit bretheren. Comparing the HD 660's (125 Watts) versus the HD 66's (150 watts). The First two digit HD series are much much much rarer than the three digit later ones. I put a link to pics of my HD Marantz speaks for you guys to see, My HD 66's and My HD 770's.
http://www.audiokarma.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=5056&size=big&cat=
http://www.audiokarma.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=5061&size=big&cat=
The Prestige series came along in the 80's, and those are made in Korea specials(No Pun Intended towards Korea, Just the Big Business practice of subcontracting to another country for cheap parts, & cheap labor. I know a few Korean People and They happen to be very nice
), lol! The drivers are about the cheesiest you'll ever see and an insult to the Marantz nameplate. Be glad you passed them up
I would have done the same thing. Although they are good for what they are,...... High Definition, Design Series, or Imperials, they will NEVER be, LOL! Also the ones to avoid are the SP series. Just not well designed and they have a response curve that peaks up & down like a defibrillator, LOL!