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Marantz and AR

AFpay

AFpay

Active Member
I picked these up at my favorite vintage shop. They both work fine and have been well preserved. The Marantz has a Shure V15 cartridge and the AR also has a Shure. I did not realize how light the AR tonearm is but it still plays LP's well. Anybody here familiar with these tables? I just picked them up on a whim because they were so well kept.

AF
 

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The appearance is stimulating. Also, the Latin J tonearm is stimulating, too.

The Marantz device shown in the third picture does not appear practicably level.
 
A couple of apparently nicely preserved decks. Better that apparently. However, the AR is missing the badge and the cart shell. I can't comment on the Marantz, never having seen it before. Please, the model number?

There was an thread started a week or so ago that stirred some memories about the AR's

Nice.
 
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Actually, the headshell is there. They changed to a black one on the XB. Also, on the XB, they moved the AR logo from the base to the switchplate on the deck.

Lots of good AR info at vinylnirvana.com
 
Gah!

It's black! My monitor isn't showing that well. Thanks. I have checked vinylnirvana.com before in passing. :music:
 
4dryhme said:
A couple of apparently nicely preserved decks. Better that apparently. However, the AR is missing the badge and the cart shell. I can't comment on the Marantz, never having seen it before. Please, the model number?

There was an thread started a week or so ago that stirred some memories about the AR's

Nice.
Click to expand...

The Marantz is a 6370Q
 
I've never owned a Marantz turntable so I can't comment on that one other than to say that it's a fine looking table. I have owned a number of AR turntables and your AR XB is an absolutely beautiful example of the updated original AR turntable. The original AR turntable was very similar except that it didn't have a cueing lever and the base was wood veneer instead of vinyl. The switch on the old original was on the left and it was an older style slide switch. My old original AR XA has (had) 2 motors, one for kick starting the drive motor in the right direction and one for actually running the table (I removed the kick start motor on mine since I bump the platter by hand when I throw the switch anyway). Yours is a single motor drive, to change speeds from 33 to 45 you remove the outer platter and put the belt on the smaller step of the motor pulley. Then you must put the outer platter back on and start the motor - the belt will align itself. Don't try to run the table with the large platter removed - it needs that on there to operate properly.

That's a beauty, and I regret selling my XB which was in the same condition as yours. I now have an XA but I miss that cueing feature. BTW - the XA and XB use the same belt, readily available on fleabay for under $10.
 
Congrats! Two very nice TT`s and vastly different, the AR XB is a fine example of a suspended belt drive table. And a fine looking example you have there. The Marantz on the other hand is a great example of a direct drive, quartz locked Table with a very capable tone arm copied from the Sumiko MMT I believe with fluid damping and lots of adjuatability. Both are excellent TT`s. There is a lot of info on both here if you do a search as well as for the AR here: http://www.vinylnirvana.com/index.shtml
 
Both machines pictured are excellent turntables in nice working order. The AR XB was made in Massachusetts. Simple tonearm but very excellent performance. Only downsides to one is headshells are easily stripped and very expensive now (I remember when $7.50 bought you a new one). Does not accept Japanese standard headshells without modifications. The connector piece and wiring must be replaced to do this. The Marantz is most likely made by CEC in Japan and is an excellent turntable but different.
 
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