Inherited marantz gear

bssmith1220

New Member
I recently went to a friends house that is a vintage equipment/music lover and got hooked to look for my own gear. I made a call to my dad who I knew had had the same Marantz stuff since I was born. He had packed the stuff away about a year ago because it stopped working. He still didn’t want to give it up but my mom convinced him if he wasn’t using it and hadn’t fixed it in a year that giving it up would get some junk out of the house. So I ended up with his setup he bought new in 1983. A SR620CX receiver, tt1080 turntable, sd320 cassette deck, and two M10 speakers. So after poking around on here the equipment may be meh but I scored on the speakers! Funny thing is he never knew what he had in the speakers. He knew he paid $1500 in 83 for the whole deal but what he didn’t know was the speakers were almost $1k by themselves. My best guess since the speakers are older than 83 is the small marantz shop in his hometown had them leftover and packaged them with some new gear to sell as a package. And btw nothing was in fact broken, all works fine! I am missing the vari q plugs though on the speakers. One speaker was reconed in the 90’s but the rest of the woofer was kept so it seems to sound the same.
My only real hang up is would the speakers be done more justice by a higher end Marantz receiver? I mean this stuff worked for him for 35 years. Sorry for the long post. Just excited to find some rare speakers! 499DB976-0EFA-46A9-A811-E56A690C2032.jpeg58AFAE0D-4157-406C-BB14-A68EFE7FECFF.jpeg
 
Can't speak to the gear so much because I have no experience with it. It definitely was after the "golden age" of Marantz units, but it might sound really good. As for the speakers - they look really good. If the Vari-Q plugs are for the purpose of sealing the ports, you might get lucky if they are an even size -- 3", 3-12", 4", etc. I took advice from someone in the Speakers forum when I built new crossovers for my JBL L-100's. I used plumber's plugs from Home Depot. They work great and seal perfectly. They come with a big wing nut that I replaced with a hex nut to keep them as small as possible.
Steve







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It must be very nice to inherit something from your parents. For the sake of keeping the memory, I'd just use the same setup. The speakers can surely use more power, but 60wpc should be fine unless you want to shake your walls. Congrats and welcome to AudioKarma.
 
Does anyone know what year(s) Marantz made the “M” series (M16, M10 etc) speaker line? I know it was after 1980 because I have the 1980 and earlier brochures.

In 1980 Marantz made the Model 600,400 &200 series speakers which is very close in design to the M series. Both are focused field and some have glass tops which look very nice.

Anyone with brochure of the M16 could you contact me please?
 
Does anyone know what year(s) Marantz made the “M” series (M16, M10 etc) speaker line? I know it was after 1980 because I have the 1980 and earlier brochures.

In 1980 Marantz made the Model 600,400 &200 series speakers which is very close in design to the M series. Both are focused field and some have glass tops which look very nice.

Anyone with brochure of the M16 could you contact me please?

I thought the m series were made in 80 as well but I’m very new to this and it seems hard to find any info on the m series.
 
Very hard to get info. I will post on another thread, I did not mean to side track your post. Was hoping maybe your dad had some literature about the M10’s. They are very similar to the Model 400. Both sound excellent. The M16 is 4 way with a 12” woofer and much bigger than the M10. Congrats again, fine system, enjoy.
 
Very hard to get info. I will post on another thread, I did not mean to side track your post. Was hoping maybe your dad had some literature about the M10’s. They are very similar to the Model 400. Both sound excellent. The M16 is 4 way with a 12” woofer and much bigger than the M10. Congrats again, fine system, enjoy.
No worries. I’d love to have more info too. My dad didn’t have anything with them. He ho early almost threw them away. He had no idea what he had.
 
Those speakers are definitely keepers. Not sure if they are a Ed Mays design or a revamped HD or DS speakers, which were a Ed Mays design. Ed Mays worked at JBL for years until Marantz lured him away around 1976-ish. He passed away in 1980 so this M series could have very well been his last speaker design.

M-10: 1979-83, $900/pr new. According to Orion, the 3rd most expensive speaker Marantz made. Enjoy!
 
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Those speakers are definitely keepers. Not sure if they are a Ed Mays design or a revamped HD or DS speakers, which were a Ed Mays design. Ed Mays worked at JBL for years until Marantz lured him away around 1976-ish. He passed away in 1980 so this M series could have very well been his last speaker design.

M-10: 1979-83, $900/pr new. According to Orion, the 3rd most expensive speaker Marantz made. Enjoy!



What site are you getting this information from? Orion??? Could you provide link, thank you!
 
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