My Hot Rodded Marantz 1060

I felt like this forum was an appropriate place for this. :)

I've always felt like the diminutive Marantz 1060 was a special amp in the lineup. The 30wpc is enough to power a good variety of speakers, and there is just something really "right" with the way is sounds.

The very first piece of gear I bought when I got into this hobby was a Marantz 1060. Being a designer by trade, I just saw a picture of one online somewhere, probably on some architectural interiors blog, and the perfectly symmetrical face just hooked me and I needed to get one. I purchased a nice example off of eBay back in about 2007. That's when I got hooked on audio.

I really liked the Marantz house sound for a while. I considered my self a "Marantz guy." I owned a 2230, a couple 2015's, a 250M/3600/120 stack, another 1060, some Marantz speakers, 6100 and 6300 turntables and probably some other pieces I'm forgetting, before venturing into the world of Kenwood, Pioneer and some others.

After sliding down the slippery slope that is hifi for quite some time I've kinda settle down... mostly in slightly higher-end, "high-value" modern pieces. But there was part of me that REALLY missed that little 1060 which I had sold off to fund the next thing. Well not too long ago I came across a fair deal on a really clean 1060 with the original box and packing, but with what the previous owner told me was a weak channel. I got the unit and it proceeded to sit in its box for over a year, until just recently.

Through some round-about conversations on AK, I decided that I wanted to have this amp FULLY restored. I had sold off two other 1060's and I decided that this one was going to stay, so I wasn't too worried about getting "upside down" in it by spending the cash to have it done up. I chose AKer and super-nice dude Bill Hirsch to do the work. Bill has been awesome and would 100% recommend him to anyone needing stuff worked on.

I got the amp back from Bill last week and today I finally hooked it up to my big Klipsch speakers and it sound AMAZING. This amp has one of the lowest, if not the lowest noise floor of any vintage pieces I've owned. Simple fantastic.

The reason I put this in the "Vintage Gear - Performance" forum is because of the restoration, and more importantly the mods.

Bill recapped the entire unit including replacing all of the electrolytic caps, replacing the main filter cap with a larger 6800mfd unit. He replaced all of the transistors in the preamp and tone control section with upgraded versions. The transistors in the phono section were replaced and he also changed the loading resistors from 100k to 47k which is more appropriate for current MM carts. He said the 100k was a late model change Marantz did because of some quad carts that were in-vogue at the time. The power supply diodes were replaced with ultrafast soft recovery diodes to reduce the noise floor. All of the signal path ceramic caps were replaced and all the signal path resistors were as well. He de-soldered and re-soldered all the joints on the amp and preamp sections as well as giving the amp a thorough cleaning, dexoit bath, 20+ hr burn in and fully adjusted it back to spec per the Marantz service manual. Whoo. That's a lot.

At it's rated output of 30wpc he said the distortion numbers are immeasurable, and at it's rated distortion this baby is cranking out 41wpc. Not to shabby!

The last of the mods that have been done are that I had swapped the cover with a black cover off of a Marantz 110 tuner I had for a more modern look, and Bill replaced the crappy factory binding spring clips with some 5-way posts I provided. He then removed the stock power cord and installed a new IEC connector. He also added some softer rubber feet which add just a bit of height and I'm totally sure they isolate the unit in a vastly superior way than the factory feet — but mostly cause my factory feet were missing. :)

These mods are awesome cause it makes this amp more like a modern integrated in the sense of how fast swapping it in and out of a system can be by using the power cord and banana speaker cables that are already right there in place.

Okay... I've rambled on enough. Here's the pics... I know that's all you guys clicked on the thread for anyway.

- Woody

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Beautiful piece of Marantz history. I hate to ask and feel free not to answer, but what was the expenditure for the service work and upgrades? I really like the new speaker jacks, the old ones on my Marantz 2238B receiver just don't connect as securely as I'd would like. Cool post!
 
I always read about this 1060 having a warm sound, "the closest to tube sound from an SS amp". May I know, what is the tube sound? I only own SS amps (Marantz 1060, and MC2205), so I don't really know.
 
what is the tube sound?

Lots of ways to describe it so I'll just touch on a difference one might here.
Tube sound is a fuller sound, not a crisp and sharp as the cleanest transistor sounds. Since tube distortion is even order harmonics compared to the odd order harmonics of ss sound (a generalization) the tube sound can be smoother especially when driven hard in the amp stage. The better modern tube gear has been moving to the clean, clear sound for years. This makes some older tube units highly desirable.
 
I always read about this 1060 having a warm sound, "the closest to tube sound from an SS amp". May I know, what is the tube sound? I only own SS amps (Marantz 1060, and MC2205), so I don't really know.

Maybe an unrestored 1060 sounds warm and wooly like old tube amps. But I don’t consider mine sounding that way. It just sounds damn good.

If you made me pick a vintage solid state piece that sounds more like a vintage tube amp, I would say the Harmon Kardon 330, 430, 730 series are maybe more appropriate.

- Woody
 
Hi sorry if i jump in ... i just need some confirmation about the very good sound of the 1060 as a preamp I am only interested about the line stage. Thanks a lot, gino
I had been using my 1060 as a preamp for a Marantz model 140 power amp. It's a nice sounding combo. I have used a Sony 3200F, a Sony ES series 125wpc, a Marantz model 16 and a few others. They all sounded good with the 1060.
I will say there is a bit less warmth using a DC power amp with it, but not much.
I like the phono stage also. I use the 1060 in my main system along with tube gear now.
 

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I hadw been using my 1060 as a preamp for a Marantz model 140 power amp. It's a nice sounding combo. I have used a Sony 3200F, a Sony ES series 125wpc, a Marantz model 16 and a few others. They all sound ded good with the 1060. I will say there is a bit less warmth using a DC power amp with it, but not much. I like the phono stage also. I use the 1060 in my main system along with tube gear now.

Hi thanks a lot for your kind and very valuable reply. I have become interested in the 1060 as preamp after watching a video that i cannot find anymore on youtube. The sound was excellent and the system not cheap at all.
I have a rule. If a chain sounds good also the elements must be good. And the youtuber was using a 1060 as line stage (i am not into phono these days).
The preamp imho sets the tone of the system. I am convinced that among already decent units a change of line preamp could impact more the overall sound than a change of power amp. So the choice of the preamp becomes important.
I am also trying to understand what makes a preamp sound good. But it is not easy. I mean ... measurements seem to tell just one side of the story. I can only say that noise is bad ... the lower the better. For distortion ... i do not know.
There are tube preamps for instance with high distortion that people love.
 
Hi thanks a lot for your kind and very valuable reply. I have become interested in the 1060 as preamp after watching a video that i cannot find anymore on youtube. The sound was excellent and the system not cheap at all.
I have a rule. If a chain sounds good also the elements must be good. And the youtuber was using a 1060 as line stage (i am not into phono these days).
The preamp imho sets the tone of the system. I am convinced that among already decent units a change of line preamp could impact more the overall sound than a change of power amp. So the choice of the preamp becomes important.
I am also trying to understand what makes a preamp sound good. But it is not easy. I mean ... measurements seem to tell just one side of the story. I can only say that noise is bad ... the lower the better. For distortion ... i do not know.
There are tube preamps for instance with high distortion that people love.
Measurements aren't everything. Some distortion can acually be pleasing to the ear. Some like 1st and 3rd harmonic distortion, some like 2nd and 4th. Circuit design has a lot to do with how a line stage will sound also.
 
Measurements aren't everything. Some distortion can acually be pleasing to the ear. Some like 1st and 3rd harmonic distortion, some like 2nd and 4th.
Circuit design has a lot to do with how a line stage will sound also.
Hi thanks a lot for the valuable advice. I have noticed that single ended line preamps tend to sound more musical than preamps that have a push pull pair at the output that sounds flatter and harder. Tube ones are all single ended ... not so solid state ones. The 1060 lines stage is single ended ... and i think it sounds more similar to a tube line preamp ?
It seems to me that some single ended stage must be present in the chain ... even just a buffer.
The music is only push not pull ... the SPL does never go below zero i mean. Only from zero up ....
 
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Hi thanks a lot for the valuable advice. I have noticed that single ended line preamps tend to sound more musical than preamps that have a push pull pair at the output that sounds flatter and harder. Tube ones are all single ended ... not so solid state ones. The 1060 lines stage is single ended ... and i think it sounds more similar to a tube line preamp ?
It seems to me that some single ended stage must be present in the chain ... even just a buffer.
The music is only push not pull ... the SPL does never go below zero i mean. Only from zero up ....
I've built a couple single ended tube amps and have a couple single ended headphone amps. They do sound very nice. My tube preamp doesn't have a feedback circuit and is the clearest sounding preamp I've ever heard without sounding sterile or harsh.
 
I actually like the 1060's amp a lot and use it separately paired with a McIntosh C11 tube pre, driving a pair of Allison One speakers without any problem.
 
I actually like the 1060's amp a lot and use it separately paired with a McIntosh C11 tube pre, driving a pair of Allison One speakers without any problem.
To my ears the 1060 is one of the better cap coupled SS integrated amps I've had. I restored two. One I went as far as replacing all the carbon comp film resistors with tighter tolerance metal film resistors. Both had been recapped with film caps used in place of the small value electeolytics. I also upped the value on the main filter cap and coupling caps. I replaced the diodes in the power supply with low noise fast switching types and upped a couple cap values as well.
Both sound very good. I did an A/B test and the one with metal film resistors had a little more detail, but defenetly not enough of a change to warrant all the time it took to replace them. Adding a little more capacitance for the main filter, coupling and power supply caps did help keep the amp from running out of steam, and bass sounding flabby at higher volumes.
 
sure am glad that comment is here in this forum and not Marantz or General or Solid State as it would bring a slew of non-believers out to argue. Folks say they hear improvements with short ICs vs the plated crap metal of many jumpers. Audioquest makes a set but the went up 10 bucks a pair to 40 and well I can make a set for a lot less using very good quality cables and plugs.
 
Hi Woody, I have recently unpacked my original 1060 amp I bought as a youngster way back in the early 70's! I am currently looking at some really nice speakers to compliment this amp (mostly for my music from that era) and I see you mention that you hooked yours up to some Klipsch speakers - exactly what I'm looking at! I just need to know which model of speakers you are using - I have been warned that I cannot go too big (strong) as the 1060 delivers only 30RMS/channel? I was looking at the Reference 24's?

I tried my Klipsch Corner Horns on this 1050. Sounded fine.My 1050.jpg
 
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