My Marantz Story

[Marantz2270]

Hello to all!
The story begins 15 years ago when I went to a tag sale in Woodbury NY and bought my 2270 and two ESS AMT 3's for 50.00.
The speakers had rotted surrounds but great condition Heil tweeters and cabinets/grills. These have 2 10" woofers each and a 6" mid bass driver.
Now, I was brought up sharing a small bedroom full of top of the line sansui gear from my stereo salesmen brother who taught me well, so I knew what a find this was.Remember those wood grill speakers and amp lighting very well! Lots of quiet quality in the dark.
My wife started a theater company ten years ago, and the marantz 2270 was first used for back of house sound with altec home vintage speakers.With the fronts running a crown and peavy pa, the marantz blew away the front system on sound quality with live singers, 300 people, a good limiter, and a very big hall.
It was on one of these gigs that the 2270 fell four feet onto concrete from a rolling speaker cart landing on its back.Amazingly, the used marantz worked perfectly! I took this as an omen and pulled it for years as a sub HT amp till my huge new svs subwoofer arrived last year.
After reading AK, I became motivated, with little repair exp, to refurbish it and the huge ess towers. I have relamped it (even soldered the bi pins!), centered the fm, re attached the am ant, and straightened up the bent back and metal cabinet. I snuck it past the waf, and viola! Instant obsession. I LISTEN to music now, instead of adjusting it all the time.SACD is jaw dropping with the ess speakers- no sub req'd! I am awaiting a matching 5220 deck to totally relive my youth. Thanks AK!

 

[Arkay]

WELCOME to AK! Yours is a "classic" AK story, and you'll fit right in here. Pull up a chair, put on some tunes , pour a cool one :beer: and... enjoy the company ! :yes:

The usual caveat that is given new posters here is about the "slippery slope" that leads to more and more gear.... but honestly, while you COULD pursue more gear for the fun of it (and it is fun!), you won't find too many (some, but not too many) set-ups that will compete with what you already have, let alone out-do it. As I'm sure you realize, you already have some of the best vintage gear out there!

[I'm listening to a 2275 as I write this, but through headphones, since it is late here (Hong Kong). During the day, I could use the ESS AMT 2bs, but I'm modifying them to add a midrange and make them more like your 3's! ]

 

[BossRadio4VR]

Welcome aboard! I'm a relative noob here myself! Two months ago, I got to thinking about those "old Marantz receivers from the 70's..." and took a look on eBay, just for fun. Two months later, I've got SIX of them! I fell down the aforementioned slippery slope FAST!!

Good to hear of someone else with an SVS sub. I've got two of them. They're awesome. A towering tube and a box the size (and weight) of a VW Beetle.

 

[Marantz2270]

Wow, I feel honoured and justified now.

BossRadio: Have you ever tried the svs sub with the marantz?- cool avatar.

ArKay: You justify and honour me.

My Wife still thinks I'm nuts- Then I remind her what I paid for a system that looks great and sounds like 20 grand to me.

 

[Tmac83]

Great story. It reminds me of a Marantz ad from the 70's that shows a receiver that went through a house fire. It has been posted before, and I was going to put it up but could not find it. Anyway, I hope that you enjoy it for years to come. Welcome to AK, you are sure to have a great time!

TC

 

[BossRadio4VR]

BossRadio: Have you ever tried the svs sub with the marantz?- cool avatar.

Nah. I can't bring myself to do it. My media room Proficient ceiling speakers and modern Yamaha 5.1 receiver need all the help they can get. So the SVS sub really shines in that room. I really only use subs when watching DVD's and home theater stuff.

But when I listen to music through my Marantz through the JBL L100's, I can't bring myself to add anything else. But now that you've mentioned it, I may drag the tube SVS sub in here and try it out. I really prefer tight, clean bass and don't like it overpowering everything else. My ears are telling me that I've found the right balance in my office, where I spend most of the time listening to the Marantz.

Still the thought of listening to Roadhouse Blues by the Doors or I Don't Wanna Stop by Ozzy Osbourne with an SVS sub and a 2325 Marantz powering the L100's is a pretty mind numbing proposition! Hmmmmmm!!

(about 20 minutes later...)

Dude, my wife is going to kill me when she gets back home from getting our daughter settled in her new apartment. You've opened up a real can of worms for me.

I'm sitting here listening to the bass lines in the aforementioned Ozzy song, U2's With Or Without You, which is currently playing and knocking the sheetrock nails out of the wall studs, and in a just a second... ah, here it is! Time by Pink Floyd.

HOLY SHIZNIT!!!!! Ha ha ha ha... I think I'm about to go insane... I swear that it feels like the bass notes are lifting me out of my chair!!!!

 

[Marantz2270]

BossRadio: Fantastic!

Love your theater. Here's some pictures of some of my stuff: I have a small analog to cd studio in the back of my HT.

 

[BossRadio4VR]

For the curious, here is a review of the SVS sub that I'm listening to with my Marantz.

http://www.thebigpicturedvd.com/bigequipment16.shtml

Hey Marantz2270, I take it back, my wife is going to kill YOU when she gets home, ha ha.

Aw man, I'm sitting here with this big stupid grin on my face, throwing out all my big bass heavy hitters and experiencing subharmonics I've only dreamed of until now.

Hang on, Cal Tech is calling and asked if I felt the earthquake whose epicenter was under my house. I told them to relax, it was just Michael McDonald's rendition of Distant Lover over my SVS SVS 20-39PCi. And this bad boy is a sissy wimp compared to the SVS PB2-ISD downstairs in the media room!

 

[Marantz2270]

Yes, I've wept also.

BossRadio: Those are some great suggestions. I'm 46 and my kids have grown up and left. Last weekend I put on comfortably numb and my wife came home early in the convertable and said she heard it from five houses away. My L100s are not WAF compliant in my livingroom because "they look like speakers", Yet somehow the larger ESS towers are ok? Sadly, these have tighter bass yet are used to monitor my LP to CD transfers only.
Do you find that as good as your HT is, the marantz is just more musical also? Hey, I've even rediscovered that FM can sound great! People are blown away by the Denon/B+W/SVS HT, but when they come upstairs and hear the Marantz 2270/ESS AMT-3 Heils, they positively weep.

 

[BossRadio4VR]

I'm just a year older than you and desperate for my kids to leave. Ha ha. Actually, the 19-year-old has. Just stuck with the boys for the time being. Yes, I was stone cold blown away when I connected the Marantz to these L100's, because although I knew they were good speakers, I had no idea just how good they really were. I bought the speakers at an estate sale 15 years ago for twenty bucks and had a cheap receiver connected to them for most of that time. For the past three years, they were sitting in my garage, unused. Then when I bought my first Marantz, a 2245, I connected a set of JBL 4408's that again, I had sitting around and hadn't used in 15 years or more. They seemed to be a perfect fit. When the bug for MORE POWER took hold, I bought an amazingly cherry (like Time Machine quality) 2325 and quickly realized the 4408's weren't up to the task. So, I dragged the L100's up to my studio, bought and installed some proper speaker posts (aahh the purists are cursing me arleady) connected 'em, and sat there with my jaw in my lap for the next several days, only taking short breaks for coffee and peeing.

The Marantz receiver took me back to a time that I had forgotten in terms of musical quality. I don't know what got me to thinking about these things, after putting them out of my mind for 25 years... I just knew I always wanted one, couldn't afford one as a teenager in the 70's, and drooled over the 2270's and stuff my friend's parents had. I remember one friend in particular, whose blue collar father looked like he was on the top of the world when I commented about his Marantz one day, which he had prominently displayed on a bookcase about 5' away from their front door so nobody could miss it. I think that buying one of these things new back then was probably something very special, particularly coveted by those who had to give up a family vacation to Hawaii in order to afford one.

There is simply no comparison with modern receivers. I would much rather listen to music in my studio now than in the media room with all the speakers and fancy remotes and all that other crap. I also sent out my 2245 to be recapped and thoroughly gone over, which is what I'm listening to right now. Even my technology jaded teenagers and adult children walk in here, their eyes go wide and they and go "WHOA." I just had my 23-year-old son in here to take a listen with the sub. He was suitably impressed.

 

[Whaleman]

Cool stories and photos, just love the bass in the 2270. It sits on my night table. In front of the bed, 2 Cerwin Vegas E-712 and a pair of Bose 901 on top. The 2270 is probably my favorite Marantz. It makes a nice alarm clock.

 

[marantzfan]

Welcome to AK Marantz 2270, you are definately going to fit right in here. I can't beleive the score you made on the ESS/2270 combo. Thats friggin ridiculous! I thought I did well when I shelled out $125 for my 2270.

 

[BossRadio4VR]

I thought I did well when I shelled out $125 for my 2270.

Erm... you still DID!!

 

[Marantz2270]

I think 20 bucks for a pair of working L100s is the deal of the century. I can tell you that these marantz units were huge status symbols back in the day. My aunt had the same 2270/5220 that I have, proudly displayed. The meters were like hypnosis to a young me. The L100s really like the power, sounded like crap on my now sold tag sale Bang and Olufsen. My pb12nsd sub is not required with the jbls', but the ess could use a little 20hz info.
The 2325 is my dream machine, but where to put it? I have a system in every room already, but I keep asking myself what more power would sound like.
Here is something to tease you: take your two 2325s and Ill bring over my akai quad reel to reel and L100s so we have four of them, then I'll play my 4 channel Deep Purple Machine head tape recorded from vynil on a great table from 1980. 10x better than my sacd. This may make the angels come.

 

[BossRadio4VR]

I think I may have given myself some hearing damage last night. The 'ol ears are ringing a bit this morning. And that was "just" with a 2245.

As for the L100's, just looking at the cabinets was enough to tell me I was getting the deal of the century at $10 ea. The foams were long gone from the speaker covers, so they looked pretty scuzzy, but as soon as I pulled the cover off one and saw "JBL", that's all I needed to see. When I lifted one to take it out to the car, I knew that I had scored.

Now the funny thing is, I worked in a studio for many years using 4311's as monitors. I LOVED 'em. I only discovered recently that my L100's use the same drivers! It was only then that I really realized what I had. D'oh!! These L100's are in really great shape. Get this: Even the foam diffusers around the tweeters are still soft and intact! I don't know how this is even possible.

Regarding the power of the 2325, it really depends on the size of your your room and sustained volume levels. Sure, when you want to really crank it, it's nice having that power on tap, but 125 watts RMS will tax even the L100's and gets fatiguing REAL quick. I've found that my 2245's provide more than enough power -- without the sub I measured 110 dB SPL from 5' away with the volume control not quite halfway up. That's fricken' LOUD. So don't ever get the feeling that you're missing anything with your 2270. Heck, I was able to get my 4408's to sound as loud as I could stand them with my 2220B, which surprised the heck out of me!

From a practical standpoint, you'll rarely need the thundering power of a 2325, and even then, listening fatigue could very well become a factor depending on sustained volume, room size and proximity to the speakers. For hours on enjoyment, day after day, at typical listening levels and a set of good, efficient speakers, pretty much ANY Marantz in good nick will do QUITE nicely. At least, that's my take.

Tell you what though, I'm going to enjoy the addition of this sub whenever my wife is out of the house, but for regular listening, the L100s are working out great for me.