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Need opinion to buy Marantz 1090, 1120, 1122dc, 1150d, 1152dc, 1180dc

Blue Shadow said:
Your 1180 has the contour control that is used to compensate for low level listening by boosting the bass. It may also boost the highs some, too. So if you are comparing the amp sound, be sure that the Bass, Treble, Contour and Filters are all set to their center position (Bass, Mid and Treble) or off for the filters and contour.

Then you have the additional control of where the Bass and Treble 'turnover'. The lower bass number will be just deep bass and the higher bass number will include some mid-bass boost. Similarly with the treble control, the higher number will be just the highs and the lower number will include some upper midrange in the boost the control does. These are just adjustments of the audio that the Bass and Treble will do.

If you don't have the manuals, they are available on Hifiengine if you can register and log in. JaS has been keeping registrations less than easy since his site keeps getting bombarded by multiple registrations requests from the same person, bots and all sorts of other crap, probably trying to steal his info.

If you aren't a member and can't register and need the manuals, the Service Manual is on the akdatabase site and you could ask for the owners manual here on ak and maybe someone would email it to you.

Knowing what all the controls do will be helpful as you adjust the sound to what you like.
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Thank you for your suggestion, i do have the manual before i bought it, and yes from HiFiEngine.



Oerets said:
What are your speakers?
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Wharfedale 157 (100 series, floor standing that has 1 tweeter, 1 mid, 2 woofer)
I read somewhere that Wharfedale 9, 10, 100 considered as entry level? I read that before i buy the speaker, so sad though.

diamond-100-series-281414_14b.jpg

diamond-100-series-281414_15b.jpg
Maybe because my speaker has 2 woofer that make it boomy?
While pairing with pm750dc and pm44se not that boomy

triple20 said:
I started experiencing some distortion from 1 channel on mine,took it into my tech and he found a bad output transistor.
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Thats what im afraid of...

I will try to adjust again.
 
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Can't help on speakers sounding distorted with ear up to them. Then sounding clear a few feet away. Never experienced this so far.
The Diamond series are nice speakers.
On the Marantz having more bass. The increase in power it has will effect the bass. Like stated use the controls to adjust to your liking.
 
End up to this settings. Best to my ears.

IMG_20230723_143545.jpg

Contour off, eq on: lower in bass. Super!....

And compared to other Marantz like my PM-750dc and pm44se, i still love them.
Even though at that time PM-750dc released Marantz owned by Philips, but as far as i know, until now, they keep Saul Marantz philosophy: to get the listener as close to the music as possible.
And PM44SE (SE = Special Edition) has a touch of Ken Ishiwata.

Love them all...
 
Oerets said:
Also a great sweet spot model.
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I have one also. I agree with you.

Mine joins the rack with a few of it's Bros... an 18, 19, 2270. I bought the 52b mostly for it's looks but really like the sound. When it's time for it's turn in rotation, I keep thinking it will sound a little homogenized compared to the others but it still pleases me, and we are going on 15 yrs together.
 
I say yew. This is when Phillips bought out the Marantz name.
The PM may have good specs and sound good, but the build quality isn't as good. And why would you want all those sliders? Even the sliders on the 70's Marantz gear can be a pain. Drop outs, scratchy, staticy, etc.
They can be cleaned and lubed like a standard potentiometer, but if one fails, it's a big pain to find a replacement. It's much easier to find a modern rotory pot as a.replacemwnt if needed than a slider.
I had model 33, 3600 and 3200 preamps. I wasn't a fan of the sliders at all.
 
Jack_Destroy said:
How do you rate the 1180dc vs the PM750DC?

Are they the same line or does the PM/DC line show a definite lower quality?
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Since i did not have chance to listen more than 15 mnts, i still not know how it sound. The room where i fix things , i use Wharfedale speaker 2 way and very small. Actually it is surround speaker. After i found the disconnecting audio line between boards, then my power switch is broken. Too many trouble i get. So i make it temporary "always on". Then i put them back together, put all case, faceplate. Then i move to my main room (living room), just aview minutes, then again one of the channel is missing. Im just too tired to fix them right now, while im still waiting the power stwitch from AliExpress.

And also im busy with my new old toy Sansui AU-517, curious how Sansui sound, and still fixing bias current.

And PM750 is my main system right now, no recap yet, to my taste and to my ears its sound good. Better than the 90's. Again, its just my opinion.

Lavane said:
And why would you want all those sliders? Even the sliders on the 70's Marantz gear can be a pain. Drop outs, scratchy, staticy, etc.
They can be cleaned and lubed like a standard potentiometer, but if one fails, it's a big pain to find a replacement. It's much easier to find a modern rotory pot as a.replacemwnt if needed than a slider.
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Me too, I turn it off (defeat).
 
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