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Marantz 19 the Best Piece of Audio Equipment Ever made

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I have both the 18 and 19. I'd be hard pressed to choose the "best" between them. A lot has to do with the speaker your going to be pairing it with.

I believe Saul,Syd and Dick (Sequerra) had their hands on the 18. That would give it quite a pedigree.

Best receiver? In a receiver, a tuner is one of the components. The 18 basically had the 20 tuner and the 19 the 20b, both top tier tuners. Their respective amp/pre was the 15/7t and 16/33 again nice stuff and quite a package when all 3 are combined.

Best component ever made? I'd vote for the 10b and in 2nd place, a tie between a 7c and the 8b, maybe the edge going to the 7c. It amazes me.
 
I have heard the 19, but never the 18. I would put the 19 in a top tier class of receivers, but not overall best by any means. Just my opinion of course!
Regards,
Jim
 
Best is so subjective. Best at sound, best looking, best design and its all defined by individual opinion. Its like rolling stones best guitarist, Jimi Hendrix, how can he be the best all time if he's dead. My 18 was 1/2 dead when it arrived, to most non audiophile that would define it as being a steaming piece of ****. To my wife its "another stereo" only it has a light bulb in it. To me its a work of art- see opinions differ.
 
Better at what? Are you sure? You might be surprised.


vinny55 said:
Marantz 18 cost $750 Marantz 19 $1500 Thats double the price The marantz 20 tuner was incorporated into the 19. which was the best tuner marantz ever made even better than 10b 150 and 2130
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JohnVF said:
This one always cracks me up: "It sounds just like tubes". Really? Then why not just get tubes. Because, you know....they still makes tubes. You can get tubes. Add to that the fact that of the dozen or so things I've owned that people on the 'net have said sounded like tubes- none of them actually have sounded like tubes. In fact, most of the time I'm left wondering, "have these people even heard tubes? I mean, its not that hard to hear real tubes. Because they're out there. In the shape of tubes. And when I hear those bottle shaped lights of goodness I think to myself "this sounds nice'. I don't think "this sounds like tubes!" Instead, I think "this sounds right."

But I guess with the logic above I could also think "this sounds just like a Marantz 19". But then, if that were the case, how would the Marantz 19 be the best sounding piece of audio equipment ever made? Because right then and there, you have walked into a logical fallacy. If something sounds just like something, it then can't be the best. It can only be, at best, equal to that thing that is sounds just like. So at the very least, then, the Marantz 19 would be the king of all audio, only if tubes did not exist. But they DO exist, because there have to be tubes out there for it to sound like them. I mean, how convincing would it be to say that it sounds just like transistors? Because, logically, it does. You can say that about the Marantz 19 and not be walking into a logical dead end. But logic and audio rarely share part of the same circle in the great Ven Diagram of audio. But apparently "tubes" and "Marantz 19" do. So, logically the Marantz 19 sounds just like transistors. Because that is factually true. Subjectively it sounds just like tubes. But that logically means it can't be the best thing ever.

(It could be that I'm trying to talk this thread to death because I smell a troll....shh....).

So if the Venn Diagram of "Marantz" and "tubes" meets at "Marantz 19", then what do we do about the fact that Marantz made tube gear? Does the Marantz 19 sound like any tubes? Or does it sound like Marantz tubes? Or does it sound like Dynaco? And if it sounds like Dynaco, do we then have to ask whether or not Dynaco or Marantz is the better audio gear? Because how can the Marantz 19 be the best audio gear of ALL TIME, if it sounds like tubes that aren't the best tubes of ALL TIME. I hope you're all following me here. This is all very important.
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Im not forcing you to beleive anything. get one for yourself and see what i mean. you must be smelling the troll in your closet or under your bed.
 
Ok let me rephrase all you 19 current owners. Do you believe the Marantz 19 to be the best sounding audio equipment ever made?
 
vinny55 said:
Marantz 18 cost $750 Marantz 19 $1500 Thats double the price The marantz 20 tuner was incorporated into the 19. which was the best tuner marantz ever made even better than 10b 150 and 2130
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Stop it now. 20 is better than 10B? In what alternate universe? I am all for taking sides with your favorite gear and partaking in entertaining discourse, but the occassional dose of reality is a must. Saul made great gear. And the 10B is the greatest of all his accomplishments. Period.
 
I think the op was asking if the 19 was the best receiver of receivers and did not mean to be so broad as to include separates or integrateds and tuners or tuner/preamps and power amps.

I never would class either the 18 or 19 as tube sounding or tube-like in signature. Maybe as they have aged they have retuned in that direction but, it will mean they are out of spec components. The 19 did sound very close to the Marantz SS separates that did not sound like their earlier tube equivalents. It did have much less harsh strident SS sound than most of the counterparts of that time such as the Pioneer and better detail and balance than say the Sansui and Kenwoods. Sony that went after Superscope with a vengence due to their relationship was the only real competition other than McIntosh with its hybrid and then all SS receivers that were voiced to the Mc tube signature and walked to a different drummer.
 
I have a 19, and a 2600, and an SX-1980, and a Mc 1700 and a 4300V. The 2600 and 1980 have received the full Echowars treatment (there are threads here somewhere), and one of these days, so will the 19, 1700 and 4300V, if Glenn's willing.

The two EW'd versions sound night and day better than the OEM units, largely because of age, but also because Glenn upgraded lots of things, using parts that weren't available back in the day. Larger capacitors, more stable, etc, etc.

Currently, Mc makes an MA-6600 IntAmp, and you can add the TM-2 tuner module to make it into a 200wpc autoformer receiver. I spent some time with one of these, and IMHO, it blows away all of the above, but then, it's 30-40 years younger, and costs a fortune in comparison.

Separates? Over all those years? Can we include Levinson, Audio Research and Ayre? What about FM Acoustics, Burmester, Accuphase, Goldmund, Rockport? Are $30,000 mono amps comparable? What about a $250,000 turntable?

My point? The title of "Best Piece of Audio Equipment Ever Made" is somewhat of a joke... and this thread strikes me as somewhat of a troll event. Big Brother is now watching carefully.
 
Brian said:
I think the op was asking if the 19 was the best receiver of receivers and did not mean to be so broad as to include separates or integrateds and tuners or tuner/preamps and power amps.
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...Actually I believe that he was. And he continually poses the question to the group:

"Ok let me rephrase all you 19 current owners. Do you believe the Marantz 19 to be the best sounding audio equipment ever made?"
 
Marantz 20B search eBay
Although very similar to the Model Twenty, the 20B is even more rare today. Our contributor Tim "worked at a dealership that sold many different models of Marantz tuners. The favorite Marantz tuner of virtually everyone who worked for us was the 20B, and this choice encompassed the Marantz tuner range from the 10B up to the 2130. The 20B was not the most sensitive Marantz tuner we ever sold, but we thought it was the best-sounding tuner they made. Yes, we had sold 10Bs and always had one or two in for a 'tuneup' from one of our customers, but whenever we compared them, we always like the 20B better." Our contributor Brian H. adds, "The Marantz 20B is unbelieveable. The sound is almost identical to my Tandberg 3001A, in fact in some situations I prefer it over the 3001A. The 20B is most positively the best-sounding Marantz tuner, beating the 2130, 150, 125, [Esotec] ST-7 and ST-8, and even the 10B in the amount of bottom end."
 
Marantz Model Twenty
The FM-only 20 and 20B look identical and, according to our contributor Charles K., the original nameplate is not always a reliable way to know which tuner you have. Here's his explanation of how to tell them apart: "The difference between the units is in the front end. The 20 used the same passive tuned RF/balanced mixer style design as in the 10. The 20B used a new active design with a tuned RF amp stage which got AGC feedback from the IF section. Problem is, the front end is in a stainless steel housing which is a bear to open up to try and tell the difference. You CAN tell by looking at the rectangular IF section enclosure which is the long, rectangular, stainless steel box mounted behind the black cover which houses the RF stage. This box has RCA connectors (with cable) at each end which is signal in and out. On the right-hand side of the box are two feedthrough posts which are + and - 12 volts for power to the IF section. If the tuner is a 20B, it has a single feedthrough post on the left-hand side for the AGC return. There is no post on the left hand side if the tuner is a Model 20. According to the spec sheet, the B version is slightly more sensitive. I've never had the luxury of having both versions side by side so I can't make any subjective comments, but I like the fact that the 20 mirrors the 10 design more closely." Our contributor David Rich confirms Charles's observations: "In the Marantz 18 and 20 no RF stage at all is used and the mixer is passive. That proved to make the sets unusable with indoor antennas, so they added on RF stage in the 19 and 20B (it is the only difference between the tuners)."

Our contributor Al compares the 20 and 20B to the 18 and 19 receivers: "The 20 is basically the tuner section of the 18. The 20B is virtually identical to the tuner section of the 19. The differences between the 20 and 20B appear to be only the inclusion of a dual gate MOSFET RF amp at the input of the 20B and replacing a bipolar first IF amp with an FET on the 20B. The 20/20B and 19 have antenna attenuators which the 18 lacks. Without the attenuators these all have mediocre strong signal handling. The 18, predecessor to the others, had some problems which seem to have been corrected in the others. A scope drive transistor tends to burn out on the 18. The MPX board on the 18 was made with an error requiring jumpers. This fix appeared even on late production 18s. The circuit boards in the 20/20B and 19 for the IF, limiter, MPX all look identical. The tuners have output buffers that the receivers obviously don't have. This could potentially be a source of a difference in sound, but I couldn't definitively detect any. The tuners, 20 and 20B, appear to have more sharply tuned IF sections than the receivers. I guess they had more tweaking on the setup bench. To my biased ears these pieces all sound wonderful." The 20 and 20B, like the 10B, have a high-blend setting on the Mode switch (stereo/high blend/mono) which blends the highs to mono to help with noise.
 
vinny55 said:
Marantz 20B search eBay
Although very similar to the Model Twenty, the 20B is even more rare today. Our contributor Tim "worked at a dealership that sold many different models of Marantz tuners. The favorite Marantz tuner of virtually everyone who worked for us was the 20B, and this choice encompassed the Marantz tuner range from the 10B up to the 2130. The 20B was not the most sensitive Marantz tuner we ever sold, but we thought it was the best-sounding tuner they made. Yes, we had sold 10Bs and always had one or two in for a 'tuneup' from one of our customers, but whenever we compared them, we always like the 20B better." Our contributor Brian H. adds, "The Marantz 20B is unbelieveable. The sound is almost identical to my Tandberg 3001A, in fact in some situations I prefer it over the 3001A. The 20B is most positively the best-sounding Marantz tuner, beating the 2130, 150, 125, [Esotec] ST-7 and ST-8, and even the 10B in the amount of bottom end."
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Exemplary job. You found one opinion in a stack of 5 million that says the 20B is better than the 10B. Must be true after all.
 
slial said:
Exemplary job. You found one opinion in a stack of 5 million that says the 20B is better than the 10B. Must be true after all.
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its more than one you forgot to read
"The favorite Marantz tuner of virtually everyone who worked for us was the 20B, and this choice encompassed the Marantz tuner range from the 10B up to the 2130"
 
vinny55 said:
its more than one you forgot to read
"The favorite Marantz tuner of virtually everyone who worked for us was the 20B, and this choice encompassed the Marantz tuner range from the 10B up to the 2130"
Click to expand...

You can't ignore the market. The one the most people want, is the one with the highest price. That is how a free market works, and you can't argue with economics.
 
Vinny, are you trying to prove a point here? You started a similar thread in another section of ak. Seems like you've proven your point that you think the 19 is better. OK, cool, it's the best, I'm going to go buy one and encase it in carbonite so I can enjoy it on my wall beside Han Solo.

I think this thread is done.
 
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