Marantz 5 Madness

Nice setup and room.
I have a TD165 that started to rebuild. On hold for now. Bought as basket case.
Enjoy.
 
Greetings! I've enjoyed reading about the respective systems of other AK members so much that I'm going to throw my hat into the proverbial ring.

My current preferred system is based upon Marantz Model 5 monoblocks. I restored them to working order after they sat idle for 26 years, following a catastrophic failure. All electrolytic and film caps have been replaced with higher-tolerance modern equivalents, all carbon-composition resistors have been replaced with 1-5% metal or carbon film equivalents, and the selenium rectifiers in the bias power supplies have been replaced with silicon diodes and dropping resistors. The 6.8μf 630V Solen film caps used to bypass the stock bathtubs barely fit inside of the chassis. Ideally, I'd have left the bathtubs in-circuit, but replacement became necessary due to oil leaks. ☠️☠️☠️ The process of fitting all three 500V Sprague Atoms into the chassis proved interesting as well. Other caps used include offerings from Mundorf and Auricap, respectively.

Some would call this butchery, but they're ready for daily use for quite a while. The soldering isn't pretty, but they work very well. AK member Crooner helped me date them to 1959 production. ElectroHarmonix 6CA7s fill the power sockets, GE 6CG7s serve as phase-splitters, and GE JAN 6BH6 perform input duty. The rectifiers are Sovtek GZ34s.

30 watts per channel of Marantz power isn't much in relative terms, but it's more than enough to drive a pair of Crites-modified Klipsch Heresy I speakers. They have updated crossover capacitors, CT-120 tweeters, and new rubber gaskets in the midrange horns. The CT-120s tamed the oft mentioned Klipsch "shoutiness" quite effectively. Home-made 14 gauge speaker cables connect amps to speakers. I used standard automotive connectors, heat shrink tubing, and roll of copper wire intended for low-voltage home lighting to make the cables.

The preamp is a Dynaco PAS 3X with newly-built, stock design line and phono stages, and an updated power supply. Tubes4HiFi supplied the kits I used to build these respective boards. It works as it should, and offers plenty of room for improvement through modification. Sovtek 12AX7 LPS fill the line and phono boards.

The vast majority of tracks I play in a given day come from a Late 2014 Mac Mini runninng OSX Sierra, and a current version of iTunes. Apple Lossless CD-rips stream wirelessly to an Apple TV 3 that's optically connected to a Schiit Modi 2 Uber DAC. An iPad 4 makes a great remote for this setup, and makes it a cinch to play online content. The Schiit works, and effectively bridges the gap between 20th and 21st Century technologies.

A Thorens TD-145 with a Shure M97xe cartridge meets my 33.3 and 45 needs. Again, plenty of room for improvement exists, but it's more than enough to please.

The DVD player is a run-of-the mill Panasonic, and the TV is a relatively ordinary Samsung. Movies sound great, though. :smoke:
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Very, Very Cool Hi-Fi System! Great Job Brother! I really dig it!
 
Nice!
I have little exposure to Marantz tube gear. I just heard an 8b recently.
I'm not sure how you handled the oil leak clean up.
Please be aware the oil could possibly (let's say likely contained pcbs)
I hope you used care and cleaned it up well.
 
Nice!
I have little exposure to Marantz tube gear. I just heard an 8b recently.
I'm not sure how you handled the oil leak clean up.
Please be aware the oil could possibly (let's say likely contained pcbs)
I hope you used care and cleaned it up well.

There is a thread on the Tube Audio forum regarding the oil leak, and the aftermath. The oil was handled as though it did contain PCBs, and has been safely discarded. The short version is that the cans were drilled, drained, and plugged with set screws held in place with epoxy. I wore protective gear through the whole process, and cleaned the amps with an appropriate solvent. It was a pain, and I wouldn’t want to do it again, but it was worth the effort.
 
Some tube lineup changes have occurred. Tung Sol Reissue 12AX7s now inhabit the PAS line stage, with Sovtek LPS in the phono stage. Tung Sol Reissue EL34Bs have replaced the Electro-Harmonix 6CA7s. I hear subtle details in familiar recordings that were not apparent before, and it's akin to tightening the focus on a pair of binoculars that were already focused fairly well. As an added bonus, the Sovtek tubes produce less background noise in the phono stage than the Tung Sols.

The Electro-Harmonix 6CA7s had to go due to an apparent manufacturing defect. :thumbsdown: Misalignment issues in all four tubes caused distinct ~1mm glowing spots on their respective grids. The spots could only be seen through the holes in the plate structures, from the right angles, and were not immediately apparent. From now on, I'll check every power tube I use for this issue.
 
Another member of the Marantz tube group here, being reminded its time to put the 8 back into service after being sidelined for other interesting options.
The front end in this system is a Pass Labs diy B-1, replacing a passive box I've used for few decades. Sources are either an Elite multimode DV-45A or phono.
Speakers remain the Advent 2 Econowaveguides.
 
Another member of the Marantz tube group here, being reminded its time to put the 8 back into service after being sidelined for other interesting options.
The front end in this system is a Pass Labs diy B-1, replacing a passive box I've used for few decades. Sources are either an Elite multimode DV-45A or phono.
Speakers remain the Advent 2 Econowaveguides.

Returning your 8 to active duty is a moral imperative. If it has lasted this long, it deserves to be used. Do it!
 
You have a very nice system and listening space. I enjoyed perusing your thread.

Now time to post your bicycle up here! :biggrin:
 
Sure don’t see a lot of 5s in action! I once had a pair of 2s ... and a few 7c preamps along the way - all just spectacular.

Enjoy!!
Right, the 8/8B series was the real cash cow seller during the early years, a bit over 20,000 produced.
Sid really overbuilt the model 2, the model 5 was a somewhat more market realistic competitive offering that translated nicely into the stereophonic monoblock model 8.
 
Don't see much of that stuff anymore. Thanks for going down the rabbit hole to keep it up and running. Great gear deserves to be revived.
 
A quick query note re origin of the opts.
I've seen definite statements citing Acro as the OEM, also Magnetic Windings for the Sid Smith OPTs for the 8B and 9, which were supposedly wound in-house at Marantz. So who did what when?
 
I made some changes behind the scenes to better support the gear I am using. Due to their age and respective designs, the amplifiers and preamp are more susceptible to main circuit noise and RF interference. Until yesterday, my audio gear shared the same circuit as a window-unit air conditioner, several LED lights, and a few switching power supplies. Suffice it to say that I heard too many "pops" through the speakers when various electrical items changed state.

Drastic action was required, but the effort proved worthwhile in the end. My speakers no longer "pop" when compressors energize, light switches are flipped, or laundry machines cycle. To solve the problem, I spent a few hours threading Romex through my walls and attic to add a dedicated 20 amp audio circuit, complete with a high-magnetic breaker. :smoke: Behold Circuit 17:

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