Marantz prices?

[Artie]

I hope this is allowed, and this is the proper place to ask. If not, admins, please delete.

I have a Marantz 2275, with original wood case. I was just "Googling" them, and the asking prices are in the stratosphere. Are people really getting $2000+ for these things? Granted, it's cool and sounds sweet . . . but $2000!!!

 

[kotofei]

Better to set up a forum "dollars and NONsense" devoted to insane audio gear prices and move it there. It probably will be big and popular forum...

 

[Mingo]

Check eBay sold prices which can be very different from asking. Prices of big, silver receivers have increased significantly the past few years.

 

[donprice]

Also huge difference between "fully restored" and "works". Untouched is probably worth more than poorly restored.

 

[Andyman]

Check eBay sold prices which can be very different from asking. Prices of big, silver receivers have increased significantly the past few years.

My buddy has what may be a Marantz 6300 TT so I suggested he's sell it as they are selling for crazy money these days. He rarely plays it, so he'd be just as well served by any of a bazillion Technics of other universal Japanese turntables.

I thought $1,000 was nuts, but a search of closed, SOLD Ebay sales reveals $1,500 and up is common, and that's sans shipping fees.

 

[w1jim]

"Marantz Tax", it's a real thing.

 

[dfunghi]

sales reveals $1,500 and up is common, and that's sans shipping fees.

Sorry and not meant as a knock on Marantz but it seems to me $1500 could buy an awful lot of great TT. TT that are likely in a whole other class than the 6300. When I had a choice between a PL570 and a 6300 I went with the 570 despite being slightly more money and required shipping. Sorry I ever sold that TT but I had valid reasons and the buyer sent me several notes for many months afterward telling me how happy they were.

I had a 2245 engraved face extremely low serial number that I sold on BT for $450 I think? I kept my 2230b however. It is in the waiting room with my Sansui 771, Onkyo 2500II and SX750.

FWIW I like the Marantz sound and enjoyed the 2245 for many years, it was displaced by a MAC 1900 (a Bill redo). But now I run Fisher tube (400 and 500b).

Without casting aspersions on buyers, anyone that pays $1500 for a 6300 without a deeply sentimental reason likely overpaid based on the TT functions and build. Yes, they look great but so do the LAB 420 for a lot less money. I practically gave one of those away last year in a multi TT sale to a local AKer.

 

[Andyman]

Without casting aspersions on buyers, anyone that pays $1500 for a 6300 without a deeply sentimental reason likely overpaid based on the TT functions and build. Yes, they look great but so do the LAB 420 for a lot less money.

Exactly, which is why I'll continue encouraging my friend to sell it, as there are dozens of turntables out there that will suit him well for 1/10th the cost, and both he and the overpaying buyer will be happy.

BTW out of 17 sold 6300s, 10 went for $1000+ w/shipping and 4 for $1500+. Parts tables went for $560, $725 and $767.

 

[dfunghi]

Exactly, which is why I'll continue encouraging my friend to sell it, as there are dozens of turntables out there that will suit him well for 1/10th the cost, and both he and the overpaying buyer will be happy.

BTW out of 17 sold 6300s, 10 went for $1000+ w/shipping and 4 for $1500+. Parts tables went for $560, $725 and $767.

I sold one 2-3 years ago for $1400.00 on Ebay it was in nice shape and had the original box and packing.



Regards Snow

Any notion as to why such high prices? Is there something about that TT I should know, regarding build or SQ? I wonder what my PL 570 would go for now....... but no need to answer since not D&S forum. Don’t want to be the guy that gets this moved or locked.

 

[Andyman]

My guess it's just folks overpaying on the Marantz name. Marantz has been very sought after for over a decade, but now it's really getting out of hand.

 

[Artie]

Thanks for all the good info folks. I knew about "Dollars and Sense", but somehow missed it when I was looking.

Both, my 2225 and 2275 are "untouched", with original wood cases.

 

[TheMarco]

I'd sell this stuff if I owned it if people are paying these insane prices.

I have trouble believing these units sound as good as what one could buy with the money earned from selling them.

You can probably get gear that sounds just as good or better while still pocketing a bootload of cash.

This hype has seriously run out of hand.

 

[Justgotohm]

I have trouble believing these units sound as good as what one could buy with the money earned from selling them.

They don’t, I’d side by side a vintage Sansui with comparable wattage any day. To me they have a similar sound signature, the Sansui maybe even a bit smoother if that makes any sense.
It’s the look and the romance of owning what you lusted after as a kid. I’ve said before, exactly why late 60’s and early 70’s muscle cars can fetch up to a million dollars. Taking in regard build quality, drivability, and performance in there stock form, they are at best $60000 cars.
But hey I wish my dad had bought all the purple and green hemi barracudas he could get his hands on.

 

[cpu_]

...
But hey I wish my dad had bought all the purple and green hemi barracudas he could get his hands on.

We need a Plum Crazy time machine to go back and buy all those Hemi Cudas and ZL1 Camaros!

Why is Marantz revered? Was the greatness established in the 70s? Didn't Marantz become a name in the Saul/US-made era? Every Japanese made solid state piece inherits cachet from those original works.

Imagine that the going prices of their tube amps, audio consolettes, 10B tuners are more reasonable in context of their place in history, than the mid-era units!

 

[EastPoint]

My general rule of thumb is to avoid gear that's out of a stereo manufacturer's wheelhouse. Sansui receivers and amps are great, but not so much their speakers. Pioneer and Kenwood, same thing. KLH and Advent speakers are great, not so much their stereo gear. Obviously it's not garbage, but you know what I mean.

Marantz turntables are not garbage, again, but they're not great. For the price of a 6300 you should be getting either a full manual high-end table like a Thorens or a full-auto high-end table. The 6300 is semi-automatic. It is full of crap that breaks down--all those stupid microswitches are just the start. The motor has a board INSIDE the motor housing, and the caps and transistors on there should be replaced, or the table can have problems keeping speed. I sold a 6300, fully redone except for that stuff, and voila, six months later it's having speed issues, and I have to rip the whole thing apart to rebuild the motor board. There's more circuitry in the 6300 that can be recapped, but the motor board is something else.

Give me literally ANY turntable over the 6300, except for reselling, in which case I'll gladly take the 6300.

However, these are very expensive tables, despite the fact that they suck in a lot of ways. Why?

Well, people are suckers for Marantz gear. This we know. If you already have the high-end Marantz receiver, or an amp/preamp/tuner, then you may want a matching turntable, and the 6300 is the high-end one to get.

 

[markshan]

Sorry and not meant as a knock on Marantz but it seems to me $1500 could buy an awful lot of great TT.

Well of course. But people weren't lusting after those as kids. They didn't exist. So much of what sells has to do with what people wanted in their formative years but couldn't afford.

They aren't buying performance, they are buying nostalgia.

 

[SaturationPt]

marantz tax, no. Really the vintage tax, marantz is just one of many.

 

[E2]

My general rule of thumb is to avoid gear that's out of a stereo manufacturer's wheelhouse. Sansui receivers and amps are great, but not so much their speakers. Pioneer and Kenwood, same thing. KLH and Advent speakers are great, not so much their stereo gear. Obviously it's not garbage, but you know what I mean.

Marantz turntables are not garbage, again, but they're not great. For the price of a 6300 you should be getting either a full manual high-end table like a Thorens or a full-auto high-end table. The 6300 is semi-automatic. It is full of crap that breaks down--all those stupid microswitches are just the start. The motor has a board INSIDE the motor housing, and the caps and transistors on there should be replaced, or the table can have problems keeping speed. I sold a 6300, fully redone except for that stuff, and voila, six months later it's having speed issues, and I have to rip the whole thing apart to rebuild the motor board. There's more circuitry in the 6300 that can be recapped, but the motor board is something else.

Give me literally ANY turntable over the 6300, except for reselling, in which case I'll gladly take the 6300.

However, these are very expensive tables, despite the fact that they suck in a lot of ways. Why?

Well, people are suckers for Marantz gear. This we know. If you already have the high-end Marantz receiver, or an amp/preamp/tuner, then you may want a matching turntable, and the 6300 is the high-end one to get.

I don't know if folks are suckers as much as they get hyped up, and have the money to spend. Although I have never had the Marantz deck in question that is beyond a silly price.

Don't agree about fully auto. Many high end decks are fully manual. (I am using a fully auto deck because I found it for $20, dead)

Folks get on here, get wound up, and completely over look great modern gear. Even if it is 15 years old.
And amazingly many of them are not amateur's.

 

[markshan]

Folks get on here, get wound up, and completely over look great modern gear. Even if it is 15 years old.
And amazingly many of them are not amateur's.

Turntables in particular really benefit from the economy of volume. Lots of gears and cogs and little moving parts, like watches. I don't discount new builds, but I do recognize that it was possible to make a much more robust design for less money when you were producing them by the tens of thousands than it is when producing them by the hundreds. That's not a knock on modern gear though.

 

[markshan]

Taking it back to the OP, the Marantz table in question wasn't even made by Marantz. It was made by a company called CEC, which made lots of tables for lots of brands and even sometimes used common parts or slightly altered parts that were easily produced on the same equipment. Ultimate economy of scale. The Marantz is nice, but it's not that much nicer than significantly less coveted decks with the Sanyo or Fisher brand names on them (for example). That is the Marantz tax.