Have you moved on from vintage Marantz? If so to ?

Bogeydeuce

Bogeydeuce

Member
The day I've been dreading has arrived. I have a 2385 and a 2330B that have been completely restored in the last couple of years, but it's been a constant fight to keep the left channel from cutting out on both of them. 2385 acted up and went out of the rotation this winter, and now I've turned on the 2330B and no left channel. I've got jumpers from pre out to main in on both amps, and now working the controls and cleaning the dubbing jacks, and working all controls and switches no longer does the trick.

What I'd like to ask is what have those of you who have moved on from using vintage Marantz as your main driver gone to?

My main speakers are 4 ohm AR 90s in a large 18 x 30 room. The AR 90s never sounded better than when I gave them the 2385s 185 wpc. I have a switchbox that selects various smaller speakers throughout the house. I listen to classic rock, folk, country, bluegrass, jazz, and classical on cds and vinyl. I do not stream. I do not have a separate phono preamp. I listen to FM, but mainly as background music. I have an old tuner that needs some work, but as I don't do any serious FM listening, just about anything in the tuner department would work.

No high end shops for 100s of miles where I could demo something new.

Budget of $4000 would be tough, but doable.

If something new would last half as long as the Marantz stuff, it will be all I'll ever need.
 
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I love the sound of my Marantz 2230, but it has never lasted longer than a month or two in rotation because things keep breaking on it--the latest is a random, horrible distortion noise that just shows up and terrifies the whole family. This is not how I want to listen to music. I will try to fix it but I've had excellent luck with the Sherwood S-7100A (only 14 watts though--so if you need to fill a gym with sound maybe not for you), most NAD products (very good sound, very powerful, but terrible build quality)----the Sherwoods (I have two of them, LOL) are easy to work on and seem to provide deeper bass and overall punch than the Marantz. You might look into a Sherwood S-7300; I believe that's 40 old-school watts and should go loud enough to bring the police. My S-7100A has such a full sound at low to modest listening levels that I never feel the need to turn it up high.
 
Is the sound stuck in one of the pushbuttons? I lost one in there and dove in and found it. Fixed the issue and Dave is enjoying that 2285 to this day.
 
I’ve worked the buttons many times and also the pots with no results. I’m not a tech but I have gone inside and gotten results with deoxit previously. I shy away from going inside if at all possible as no matter how hard I try to be careful I tend to be somewhat of a clutz.
 
When you are using your AR 90 speakers,are you using any other speakers along with them?
 
Researching new amplification is terribly frustrating and confusing for me. All I need to find is a high current, analog amplifier or intergrated, around 200 wpc, awesome sound, durable, and reasonably priced. Is that too much to ask?:) I'm leaning towards an integrated to simplify things. I would only need to add a phono preamp.
 
Have you considered tubes? Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum III might be worth a look, it's the best integrated I've heard, and 100 WPC. Comes in under budget and has a well regarded MM/MC phono pre onboard.

If I ever downsize from my current rig, I'd get one. My speakers are much more sensitive though.
 
I have thought many times about a tube amp, I just don’t know if one could do justice to my speakers. I love the AR 90s and would like to continue with them, but they make finding amplification a challenge. 100 wpc from the Rogue has potential if I’d behave myself,though.
 
Bogeydeuce said:
The day I've been dreading has arrived. I have a 2385 and a 2330B that have been completely restored in the last couple of years, but it's been a constant fight to keep the left channel from cutting out on both of them. 2385 acted up and went out of the rotation this winter, and now I've turned on the 2330B and no left channel. I've got jumpers from pre out to main in on both amps, and now working the controls and cleaning the dubbing jacks, and working all controls and switches no longer does the trick.

What I'd like to ask is what have those of you who have moved on from using vintage Marantz as your main driver gone to?

My main speakers are 4 ohm AR 90s in a large 18 x 30 room. The AR 90s never sounded better than when I gave them the 2385s 185 wpc. I have a switchbox that selects various smaller speakers throughout the house. I listen to classic rock, folk, country, bluegrass, jazz, and classical on cds and vinyl. I do not stream. I do not have a separate phono preamp. I listen to FM, but mainly as background music. I have an old tuner that needs some work, but as I don't do any serious FM listening, just about anything in the tuner department would work.

No high end shops for 100s of miles where I could demo something new.

Budget of $4000 would be tough, but doable.

If something new would last half as long as the Marantz stuff, it will be all I'll ever need.
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Fix the 2385 and be done with it otherwise you will regret it:)
 
Jailtime, I’ve heard your setup. If I could get results like that with my speakers and a tube amp, without having to sell the farm, I’d be a happy camper.
 
Bogeydeuce said:
Oh how I wish I could fix it myself! I just don’t have the know how. I’ve gone into it a couple of times with less than stellar results. Bob (wlhd1610) knows my results.
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I hear ya. You open it up and look at it and think, "OK, now what? Could it be that big round thing over here? Or one of those little hot-dog shaped stripey thingies?" That's how I felt when I first opened up a case. It's been a long haul but I've learned much from kind people here on AK and having many (mis)adventures with this gear IRL.

I think Marantz is a touch overrated--it's like that blond cheerleader in high school that everybody lusted after; meanwhile, there were a host of brunettes and redheads that were just as attractive and probably would have treated you better. You could sell that 2385 for some decent coin and be done with it. One member here was a Marantz man until he heard a Sansui; he sold his 2285 and never looked back. They are beautiful to look at and Marantz spent plenty of money back in the day advertising in glossy mags like Playboy.

To me, no matter how great something is supposed to be, if I can't keep it functioning and keep throwing time and money at it, it takes all the fun out of the hobby. There's a base level of reliability and sturdiness that has to be there (after taking care of the obvious things, of course: recap, pot/switch cleaning, amp adjustments, etc.). Your budget of $4000 would allow for an absolutely killer system; the system on my desk, which sounds as good as anything I've ever heard, cost less than $500, including shipping and recapping (my labor, of course). My living room system cost about $700 after the dust settled and also sounds fantastic.

You might try Barter Town here as the seller base will be a step up from that auction site and you can find things that have been restored.
 
Jailtime’s mention of the Cronus Magnum iii has got my attention. I’ve always dreamed of a tube amp but just never thought one would work with my speakers.

I’ve been doing a little research on the Rogue and it sounds like it could be a possibility. Reviews mention the high current and good headroom. I’m running with a Marantz 2285B now, and it does a nice job. I just can’t go overboard with the volume knob. I may be getting too old for that kind of behavior anyway and should just play nice with my stereo.
 
Bogeydeuce said:
Oh how I wish I could fix it myself! I just don’t have the know how. I’ve gone into it a couple of times with less than stellar results. Bob (wlhd1610) knows my results.
Click to expand...

I had a 2385 once!It was perfect and yet I now have a Realistic STA-2300 I love much more:)
 
I am getting ready to retire in mid 2021 (if I live through the plague) so while I still have "excess" income I am moving on to Parasound separates in my three main listening areas: My office will get the 275 watt New Classics 2250 V2 amp & NC 200 pre amp that I've had for a little while - it sounds so much better than all of my tired old vintage equipment.

The "Family" area will have a 150 watt NC 2125 V2 amp (when it arrives - currently back ordered) with my existing NC 2100 preamp.

Finally, the living room is getting the best of all to power my old Infinity RS 4b's: the ginormous 70 lb, 300 watt Halo A21+ amp and Halo P6 preamp in Silver ! (both of these are currently at the mercy of UPS somewhere between Chicago and Denver on their way to ABQ).

My Marantz 2275 is going in the master bedroom (it is just too pretty to give up with its African Paduak case and black face plate), while my Onkyo TX-4500 MKII receiver is going to the garage for tunes when I'm tinkering on the cars.
 
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