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Doesn't any one own Marantz tube gear?

twiiii

twiiii

Lunatic Member
Way back when it was always a contest between Mac, Marantz and some times Citation. Citation pre-amps were the most flexible, Mac was just steady on and Marantz had the superior feel of controls and switches and a little more flexibility than the Mac pre- amps. I loved the 7C though I was a bit suspicious as why it was a little more forward sounding than either the Citation or Mac pre-amps. Now the Marantz model 9 was a great power amp with a refined sound depending on which mode of power operation you chose that the others didn't give you the choice of having. But the model 8 didn't have a chance against the MC 240 and was a better match agains the MC 225. The *B still wasn't a match, but did have a sound all it own that was different from the 240. I was working for a Mac dealer at the time because a college student needed a job and there fore I became a MAc owner starting out with deals on used Mac I couldn't get from the Marantz dealer. But I craved that 7C Marantz. I owned Bozak speakers and when Marantz introduced their early SS models Bozak jumped from the Mcintosh wagon to Marantz, because Marantz were direct coupled amps which made Bozak speakers more life like than the Mac amps with autoformers. I didn't like autoformers back then and still don't though I guess they are better now days, But Marantz in the early days was a real leader in SS technology. I remember those days fondly.

You guys never seem to discuss Marantz tube gear, while the Mac owners are always talking about Mac. They even sell more hybrid tube pre-amps than they do SS pre-amps today. They even have hybrid amps with tubes for the HF's and SS for the LF's with built in electronic crossovers to use or by pass if you wish. It seems since Denon took over Marantz things have really changed. Thats a shame.
 
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I have a 7c that I really like. It was given to me several years ago. Unrestored, to best of my knowledge.
 
twiiii said:
Way back when it was always a contest between Mac, Marantz and some times Citation. Citation pre-amps were the most flexible, Mac was just steady on and Marantz had the superior feel of controls and switches and a little more flexibility than the Mac pre- amps. I loved the 7C though I was a bit suspicious as why it was a little more forward sounding than either the Citation or Mac pre-amps. Now the Marantz model 9 was a great power amp with a refined sound depending on which mode of power operation you chose that the others didn't give you the choice of having. But the model 8 didn't have a chance against the MC 240 and was a better match agains the MC 225. The *B still wasn't a match, but did have a sound all it own that was different from the 240. I was working for a Mac dealer at the time because a college student needed a job and there fore I became a MAc owner starting out with deals on used Mac I couldn't get from the Marantz dealer. But I craved that 7C Marantz. I owned Bozak speakers and when Marantz introduced their early SS models Bozak jumped from the Mcintosh wagon to Marantz, because Marantz were direct coupled amps which made Bozak speakers more life like than the Mac amps with autoformers. I didn't like autoformers back then and still don't though I guess they are better now days, But Marantz in the early days was a real leader in SS technology. I remember those days fondly.

You guys never seem to discuss Marantz tube gear, while the Mac owners are always talking about Mac. They even sell more hybrid tube pre-amps than they do SS pre-amps today. They even have hybrid amps with tubes for the HF's and SS for the LF's with built in electronic crossovers to use or by pass if you wish. It seems since Denon took over Marantz things have really changed. Thats a shame.
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I own tube gear from McIntosh (Mc225, MAC1500), Marantz (Model 8) and Harman Kardon (Citation I, III and V). The premium equipment tube era for both Marantz and HK was very short compared to that of McIntosh (still going) and I would infer that fact alone limits the available units for us to discuss. Solid State equipment from all of them, holds no interest for me either. My speakers, plans built EV Patrician IV, are very efficient and require very little power so I have no need for any amplifier with more than a few watts. My Marantz Model 8 and my Mc225 sound better than anything else I have ever had the pleasure of listening to and they seem to reside along side each other harmoniously as well.
As for there being (in the past) "a contest", those days ended when Marantz and HK went SS (in my opinion). There, I discussed Marantz gear....
 
I have to partly agree. The MC 225 and MC 3500 MK I were the best sounding tube amps I ever heard. That includes the 2301 with its SS stage and the MC 3500 MK II which can be just a little to sizzley for me.

Now the old Paragons with the T-350's were pretty smooth and the bass was nice. Anything was better than that 30" piece of foam in a 800 Patrician. I think the lowly 800 Georgian was a better choice. But only having dealt with a few really big EV systems I can't say I know everything about them. I did like the EV-6 mid-range and tweeter sound. I didn't care much for the bass sound on that speaker either. I always had conflicts with EV especially with their pro speakers. I did think the big white horns were very good how ever. Did you know that EV engineers developed the Mantaray horns for Altec when they were both owned by Mark IV group. They were great for big PA pattern control but even the small MR-994 for the one inch Altec drivers were a flop. I never did like Altec consumer horns. The only Altec horns I really liked were the 311 X 90 large professional sectoral horn and the 203 B Altec 300 HZ 2 cell multi-cell horn. The 803B's and 1003B's sent out to many beams in the very high frequencies above 12,000 HZ or so.

Yes you are very correct in saying all you need for your Patricians is a very few watts. Aren't your speakers about 102 db efficient at 4 feet. Thats up there all right. I only use about 10 watts with my Concert Grands with 95 db efficiency. I liked Grands with the original 3500. But mine are tri amped to get better extended , cleaner , faster bass. I added super tweeters on their own amp to get a flat response to 18 Khz. I have always preferred line array of tweeters to get away from that honking horn sound that Altec, Klipsch, and JBL's had. EV had that mid woofer which was a better solution for me, too.

So enjoy your 225 with your Patricians. It's a great combo for sure.
 
I thought it was just me feeling like vintage Marantz tube amps don't get a lot of discussion.
Maybe not enough units originally sold plus the inevitable attrition of people chucking old gear. Wasn't the price of Marantz gear in the early '60s around what a good used car went for?
Anyway, I have a 7 and a 8b, both purchased around 14 years ago and really nice.
The 8b works beautifully. The 7 is on my "bench" for a volume control replacement project that I hope to wrap up this week. (I put bench in quotes since I'm no audio tech and just mean the spare bedroom, but I keep stuff alive with determination and help from this site.)
 
You may find some more folks in the tube forum that have Marantz tube gear. A 7C and a pair of model 9's would be really nice to have.
 
As I remember the price of a 7C was with in a few dollars of the $279 for a Mac C-22. The 8B was close to the MC 240, too. It was the Model 9 power amp where you needed two that was significanly higher as a pair than a MC 275 at $444.00. Weren't they around $259 or more each? Anyway all I remember is they were around $500.00 to $600 a pair. So Yes I guess you could say a Marantz system was the price of a good used car. The price of a new car if you bought that $1000.00 + 10B FM tuner that was hand built with the pre-amp and amps. . WAs the 18B receiver built by the original Marantz or after they went Japanese? I have forgotten.
 
I have a Marantz 8B power amplifier that I bought used a long time ago. I played it and one day it quit, and I smelled a puff of smoke. Power xfmr died, so I took it apart to discover that a previous owner had gooped on excessive power supply capacitance and that fried the xfmr and the rectifier (top-hat-shaped) diodes in voltage doubler configuration. I removed all the excess C and ordered a toroidal xfmr I had wound to my specification. The original xfmr was potted, so I put it into my kitchen oven at 400F and melted the potting material to remove the transformer and the potting tar. The bottom plate of the can is attached to the can with screws, so the can could be removed to expose the xfmr. I made a mounting bracket with 1/4" fiberglass pieces to hold the xfmr upright on the bottom plate, which had 4 bolts on its bottom to secure it to the chassis. Instead of two 6.3V windings with center-taps, as in the original, I had just one winding with no CT that could hunk all the current of both channels. The octal socket on the rear of the amp had been smashed in, and I was able to straighten the chassis around it. Since I did not intend to use the preamp powered by that socket, I cut a piece of sheet aluminum to cover the hole and used the two existing holes used to hold the original socket in place to mount the plate. In the middle of the plate went a 3/8" hole, and I mounted a 200-ohm 5 watt WW pot on it. The ends of the pot went across the 6.3V winding, and the slider was grounded. I could adjust the pot while listening to the amplifier with no signal applied and easily found a null in the hum at a particular setting of the pot. It works like a charm, and I get a couple of watts per channel more power out of the amp because that toroidal xfmr is really stiff and doesn't sag like the original one did when played loudly. I disconnected the two grey 'lytic cans on the top of the amp and kept them there to keep the original look. I made up a little subassembly under the chassis to hold a reasonable amount of electrolytic C. I cleaned up the amp in general and kept all circuitry original with exception of the signal coupling caps. One had a crack in its casing, so I replaced all of them with same value PPN Sprague Orange Drop (TM) caps. It sings now. That amp is very polite, so I have tea and scones while listening to it and don't desecrate it with rock music & similar.
 
I bought a 7 with an MC240 from the original owner in about 1995. Both were mint. He used them to drive AR3s. After using the 7 for about a year, I traded it to David Yo for an MC2500.

About a year later, my dad found a 7 and a pair of 2s at a yard sale for $300. We sold the set to Steve at Audio Classics. I never got to hear the amps ... and will likely never see another pair.

To date, the 7 remains my favorite vintage preamp. I especially like the TV input - clearly, way ahead of its time.
 
egellings said:
I have a Marantz 8B power amplifier that I bought used a long time ago. I played it and one day it quit, and I smelled a puff of smoke. Power xfmr died, so I took it apart to discover that a previous owner had gooped on excessive power supply capacitance and that fried the xfmr and the rectifier (top-hat-shaped) diodes in voltage doubler configuration. I removed all the excess C and ordered a toroidal xfmr I had wound to my specification. The original xfmr was potted, so I put it into my kitchen oven at 400F and melted the potting material to remove the transformer and the potting tar. The bottom plate of the can is attached to the can with screws, so the can could be removed to expose the xfmr. I made a mounting bracket with 1/4" fiberglass pieces to hold the xfmr upright on the bottom plate, which had 4 bolts on its bottom to secure it to the chassis. Instead of two 6.3V windings with center-taps, as in the original, I had just one winding with no CT that could hunk all the current of both channels. The octal socket on the rear of the amp had been smashed in, and I was able to straighten the chassis around it. Since I did not intend to use the preamp powered by that socket, I cut a piece of sheet aluminum to cover the hole and used the two existing holes used to hold the original socket in place to mount the plate. In the middle of the plate went a 3/8" hole, and I mounted a 200-ohm 5 watt WW pot on it. The ends of the pot went across the 6.3V winding, and the slider was grounded. I could adjust the pot while listening to the amplifier with no signal applied and easily found a null in the hum at a particular setting of the pot. It works like a charm, and I get a couple of watts per channel more power out of the amp because that toroidal xfmr is really stiff and doesn't sag like the original one did when played loudly. I disconnected the two grey 'lytic cans on the top of the amp and kept them there to keep the original look. I made up a little subassembly under the chassis to hold a reasonable amount of electrolytic C. I cleaned up the amp in general and kept all circuitry original with exception of the signal coupling caps. One had a crack in its casing, so I replaced all of them with same value PPN Sprague Orange Drop (TM) caps. It sings now. That amp is very polite, so I have tea and scones while listening to it and don't desecrate it with rock music & similar.
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Sorry, but my Model 8, driven by my rare Acrosound S1001, routinely assaults my ears with "rock music & similar". It's what I do.........
 
ramjet said:
Sorry, but my Model 8, driven by my rare Acrosound S1001, routinely assaults my ears with "rock music & similar". It's what I do.........
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What did the little tuxedo-wearing amplifier think of that? By 'polite', I meant that the low bass & upper treble are somewhat recessed, and the midrange seems a bit more forward, giving it a lush, polite sort of sound. It fits well in a social group that thinks that bulging muscles are unsightly.
 
egellings said:
What did the little tuxedo-wearing amplifier think of that? By 'polite', I meant that the low bass & upper treble are somewhat recessed, and the midrange seems a bit more forward, giving it a lush, polite sort of sound. It fits well in a social group that thinks that bulging muscles are unsightly.
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Your 8B may wear a tux because of the speakers you drive with it but my Model 8 works fine in bass, mid-range a treble with my 104db efficient Patrician IVs.
 
ramjet said:
Your 8B may wear a tux because of the speakers you drive with it but my Model 8 works fine in bass, mid-range a treble with my 104db efficient Patrician IVs.
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The 8B is driving a pair of ProAc Response 3.8 tower type speakers to good effect. A British looking amplifier driving English speakers, made in Northants, England. It's tea and scones all around, one by looks, the other by heredity.
 
I've seen a small pile of McIntosh Tube Amps at different places over the years, I have never seen any Marantz Tube Gear. If I had to guess I'd say they sold a fraction of what McIntosh did. Did McIntosh ever quit making tube amps, they do have them on their website.

Still kicking myself for not picking up a McIntosh Tube Amp at the local Value Village years ago, it sat on the front shelf for weeks but back then it was about 25% less then the going rate.
 
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