Marantz prices?

[Scottfargo]

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 agree on the automatic TT's. I bought a Marantz 2220b and a Pioneer PL-12D TT for $300 10 years ago. That TT has worked flawlessly for all that time. When it comes to a vintage TT I'll take a manual one every time.

 

[Bone Yard]

We were seeing the high prices in the boombox world starting 6-8 years ago, guys asking 3-4x normal value on ebay BIN but most sat for a long time if they ever sold. A lot of these guys had retail stores, I think they used the internet price to show their customers. Now there's a ton more people doing it with all audio, who knows what it accomplishes but it's nice when you show your wife what your equipment is worth (nudge-nudge).

A lot of this eqiupment is getting shipped world-wide now, going to markets it hadn't been sold to before, demand is up and people love Marantz. Will the prices go down? Probably not, some equipment dropped in 2008 but after a few years it was more expensive than ever. Is Marantz the best sounding equipment? I don't know but the arguments sound exactly like the converstations my older brother had in the 70's with his friends, nobody would budge on who had the best system. I love it all and was lucky to grab Marantz's when I found them even the turntables. Personally I'd go to another TT for daily use but I like complete systems including TT, EQ and tape deck to finish the classic look.