Marantz 1060 vs Pioneer SA 9900

[Kazadelic]

Hi, I’m considering buying one of these two amps to power a set of Klipsch Fortes. Would love to hear any opinions on the two that anyone cares to share.

I’m mostly interested in how their sounds differ from one another, so long as the Marantz is powerful enough for the Fortes.

I will mostly be playing records, but sometimes just streaming music that would be going through my DJ mixer before going to one of the two amps. So maybe that could help boost my signal in case the Marantz isn’t powerful enough as is.

I’ve heard the Marantz described as warm, but would the Pioneer be very clean in comparison and possibly less bassy?


Side bar, I would eventually love to add a center speaker to use this system to watch movies as well, but I’m not really sure if that is something that could be done using either of these amps, or whether I just need to add a DAC to the mix as well to make it work, but I’d really appreciate any advice on that as well if anyone has experience using their hifi system for home theater.

Thanks in advance for any responses!

 

[Lavane]

The Fortes are pretty sensitive, either will drive them just fine. The big difference between the two is the 1060 is capacitor coupled, the 990 is direct coupled.
The 1060 will need some restoration to be all it can be. I've restored two replacing all electrolytic caps, the two transistors on the line stage board that are known to develop noise, etc. Once restored, they are nice sounding little amps. Being cap coupled they do tend to have a warmer tone and the phono section is pretty good also. But at high volumes the caps can't keep up and the bass can start to sound loose and flabby. Upping some of the cap values does help quite a bit though. The 1060 is one of my favorite intigrated amps. It's very non fatiguing to listen to. It really just cones down to the difference in the house sound and what you prefer. The 990 is 110wpc, the 1060 is 30wpc. The Pioneer is a more advanced design with a balanced power supply. Even though I have a soft spot for the 1060, If I had to choose between the two I personally would choose the Pioneer.

 

[Lavane]

This thread may be of some help with the center channel, whether it's something worth trying.
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index...er-channel-speaker-to-an-old-receiver.700040/

 

[David_NC]

I have a 1060 and really like it, as an integrated amp and used as a preamp. Still, I'd probably take a SA-9900, but I can't image the prices are even close. If neither have been restored, the 1060 is really easy to work on and parts are relatively plentiful, when I've looked for them.

 

[Lavane]

I have a 1060 and really like it, as an integrated amp and used as a preamp. Still, I'd probably take a SA-9900, but I can't image the prices are even close. If neither have been restored, the 1060 is really easy to work on and parts are relatively plentiful, when I've looked for them.

I do use the 1060 as a preamp for a Marantz model 140 power amp sometimes.
Its worked well with other power amps as well like Sony, etc. The only downside to the Pioneer is the omission of pre-out and main-in jacks. But it does sport a 110wpc amplifier section.

 

[LesE]

Fact check: The SA-9900 definitely does have pre-out, main-in jacks.

What it doesn't have is a loudness control which may be an issue for some. It's also packed with troublesome transistors so a rebuild is normally recommended if it hasn't already been done and it's not easiest amp to work on. But it does have a very cool back lit volume control knob (see avatar) .

 

[Lavane]

Fact check: The SA-9900 definitely does have pre-out, main-in jacks.

What it doesn't have is a loudness control which may be an issue for some. It's also packed with troublesome transistors so a rebuild is normally recommended if it hasn't already been done and it's not easiest amp to work on. But it does have a very cool back lit volume control knob (see avatar) .

View attachment 2501692

I just looked up pictures of the amp. The picture I saw of the rear was the wrong amp then. The 1060 only has 2 to 4 signal transisters that should be replaced if noisy. But that's the thing with older equipment, most do need at leased a little resto work to keep working properly for years to come.

 

[Kazadelic]

Thank you all for the responses, this is super helpful!

Embarrassingly I realize I got confused looking at pioneer models and wrote SA-9900 when I meant the SA-8900. Which explains the major price differences between the two.

After your responses I’m definitely leaning towards Pioneer. I also realized the Pioneers have an A+B option on the selector which seems like it would be useful if I end up adding a center speaker as well that would only be used for home theater purposes.

Seems like there isn’t a major difference between the 9900 and the 8900 besides wattage, which I assume shouldn’t matter for me too much due to the sensitivity of the Forte’s.

While looking at the Pioneer’s more I found an SA-8500 II and a SA-8800 II that are both in the same price range as the original SA-8900 I was looking at. They all see to have very minor differences, but are there any pitfalls to any of these that I should be aware of or do any of them stand out from the rest? And would these models still best the Marantz in your opinion?

Thanks again for any advice I really appreciate it!