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Pairing Vintage Marantz Receivers with TT & Speakers

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rcm3232

New Member
Hello Everyone.
I am finally ready to build my ultimate music listening equipment system. As a newbie to this site/forum, I am seeking what is the best pairing components of vintage early 1970's Marantz receivers 2230 & 2245.
Seeking your best suggestions of TT & speakers. I have been following this site for awhile now and I look forward to your suggestions and comments on what would be your best advice on matching/pairing of TT & speakers. I have been considering Dual, Marantz, Denon turntables and Dynaco, Advent, KLH, & of course, JBL speakers.
I welcome your experienced suggestions, in advance, Thank you for your input/recommendations.

RC Martin
 
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Budget info would be nice to know to help guide you, but at the end of the day there are so many different combinations it will be tough to achieve any consensus. I’ve personally landed on well cared for Denon turntables as my preference (I have a DP 45 & 47). I’m also partial to Pioneer HPM 100s, but I have some Heresys that sound good, as well as some older Jensen Model 5s that sound great to me.

IIRC, the 2230 is cap-coupled and the 2245 is direct-coupled, so there may be a sonic difference.

The speakers that I prefer to run with my Marantz 28 are either my Wharfedale W45s or my Jensen Model 5s. They just seem more ‘natural’ pairings, but that’s to my ears, with my gear and listening space.
 
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Why not keep it all Marantz! Marantz Imperial 6 speakers would sound nice with the 2230 or 2245.
I've used my 1060 with them, basicly the 2230 without the tuner. I've used a lot of various SS and tube equipment with them and they play well with all of them. I have a small 17wpc tube amp and tube preamp connected to them right now, its a nice combo. At around 93db efficiency, my 30wpc 1060 drives them pretty loud. They are non fatiguing to listen to and sound good with decent low end even at low volumes with EQ set to flat.
 

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Yes! The big HD-880's are awesome! I've got a Sansui FR-4060 sitting next to my Marantz, they both look great clad in silver and wood.
 
I have paired my - traded in for other gear last year - 2230 and 2240 with my now blown tweeters pair of Marantz LS-16A's. And I must say, it was with still working tweeters a good match.
TT? the match you are looking for is cart choise and stylus. Soundwise any good grounded no hum no rumble TT entry level or high end witl when proper set up (decent tone arm with lateral an vertical tracking) will sound with the same cardridge exacly the same! However a nice vintage 6200 6250 6300 etc era Marantz TT is look cosmetic wise the obvious choise!
Stay away from earlyer imperials like the 4 5 and 7. Most but not everybody Marantz minded who got them with there new Marantz set or seperatly bought them back ih the days new and or used vintage more recently, do not like them. But if you do like how these sound. They are simple to repair, take a lot of abuse, and lots of dead cheap offerings (online) and parts!
Other then that I can't add anything course I sold all my Marantz except for my blown LS-16A's and my sweet Marantz CD-400B CD-4 demodulator!
 
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My turntable advice: I believe you can get a very good turntable for not a ton of money. If you want to go all Marantz, resist the flash of the high demand 6300 and go for the manual 6100 with auto return. It is a great turntable, and much less expensive than the 6300. If you want to save even more, go for a Dual 1219 or 1229. They are great turntables when operating properly, and won't cost an arm and a leg. Spend some money on a good cartridge to go with whatever you buy. I have a 6100 that I have had for a few years, and a Dual 1229 that I bought in 1972 when I bought a 2245. It still sounds and looks great to me.
 
Steven Tate said:
My turntable advice: I believe you can get a very good turntable for not a ton of money. If you want to go all Marantz, resist the flash of the high demand 6300 and go for the manual 6100 with auto return. It is a great turntable, and much less expensive than the 6300. If you want to save even more, go for a Dual 1219 or 1229. They are great turntables when operating properly, and won't cost an arm and a leg. Spend some money on a good cartridge to go with whatever you buy. I have a 6100 that I have had for a few years, and a Dual 1229 that I bought in 1972 when I bought a 2245. It still sounds and looks great to me.
Click to expand...
The LAB-300 is basically the same as the 6100 and even cheaper and has a walnut veneer base. The better Realistic TT's were made by CEC just like the Marantz TT's. The LAB-400, 440, 450, etc are decent. I set my son up with a 1060 integrated amplifier used as a preamp for a 140 power amp just like the setup I have. I also gave him a Marantz 120 scoped tuner. Not long ago I bought a LAB-400 to replace the Dual TT he had that started acting up. The 400 was a nice match.
 
Hello Everyone,
I do greatly appreciate you taking your time to respond to my inquiry. My budget is in a modest range of $2K - $2.5 K for Receiver/TT/Speakers, including quality pieces/parts that accent individual components at their peek/best performance. Such as Tone arm/cartridge, etc.. basically, 'best bang for the buck' mentality.
I'm leaning towards Dual's 1219, 1229, Denon DP47, Marantz 6100 for TT's for final consideration. Speakers I'm leaning on Advent floors/large, A4.
Again, Thanks for your responses. You've given me some new considerations w/the Lab 300/400 TT, HD-880's speaker suggestions. The great thing for me is that it's not, 'must do now', thing. I appreciate the 'ear sound' of the individual is the true test of satisfaction. Does my narrowing of choices, make any good sense?
 
rcm3232 said:
Hello Everyone,
I do greatly appreciate you taking your time to respond to my inquiry. My budget is in a modest range of $2K - $2.5 K for Receiver/TT/Speakers, including quality pieces/parts that accent individual components at their peek/best performance. Such as Tone arm/cartridge, etc.. basically, 'best bang for the buck' mentality.
I'm leaning towards Dual's 1219, 1229, Denon DP47, Marantz 6100 for TT's for final consideration. Speakers I'm leaning on Advent floors/large, A4.
Again, Thanks for your responses. You've given me some new considerations w/the Lab 300/400 TT, HD-880's speaker suggestions. The great thing for me is that it's not, 'must do now', thing. I appreciate the 'ear sound' of the individual is the true test of satisfaction. Does my narrowing of choices, make any good sense?
Click to expand...
My current setup is a Marantz 1060 with A4 New Large Advents as the primary speakers (Dynaco A25s as B). Sounds superb to my ears. Some may disagree but I don’t think you can go wrong with the larger Advents.
 
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Chris __R said:
My current setup is a Marantz 1060 with A4 New Large Advents as the primary speakers (Dynaco A25s as B). Sounds superb to my ears. Some may disagree but I don’t think you can go wrong with the larger Advents.
Click to expand...
I have a 1060 I restored and have used a lot of various speakers with it over the last few years. I also had a pair of Original Large Advents. The Advents sound great at higher volumes, but not so much at low volumes. Between the Advents and the Marantz Imperial 6's, I kept the 6's. They sounded much better at low volumes compared to the Advents to me. Dawson Hadley designed the 6's to take on the Advents and came very close. The Advents tweeter is a little better, but the ported cabinets on the 6's has a better bottom end, especially at low volumes without sounding boomy like the horrible Marantz 7's with that huge 80hz bump.
 
Lavane said:
Why not keep it all Marantz! Marantz Imperial 6 speakers would sound nice with the 2230 or 2245.
I've used my 1060 with them, basicly the 2230 without the tuner. I've used a lot of various SS and tube equipment with them and they play well with all of them. I have a small 17wpc tube amp and tube preamp connected to them right now, its a nice combo. At around 93db efficiency, my 30wpc 1060 drives them pretty loud. They are non fatiguing to listen to and sound good with decent low end even at low volumes with EQ set to flat.
Click to expand...

Marantz had a good tube and solid state sound, and there's no reason not to prefer them for that, but there are far better speakers, turntables, and tape players than theirs. Unless you want a visually appealing stack, there's no reason to use them outside of their preamps and amps.
 
Addendum to previous postulate: I view tuners, being as how they were built into receivers, to be a necessary thing to buy "of your brand" when you are making a separates stack. I have a 2130 to complete my 3650 and 300DC stack. I don't think the 2130 is the best tuner our there by far, but I think it is Marantz's best of that era.
 
I've seen a few post concerning what was the best Marantz tuner after the model 10B and 20. Depending on who you talk to its either the 150 or the 2130 with the 125 being close behind. I think the 2130 is the better looking one overall. I've had various Marantz tuners like the 115, 120, etc. The only one I have left is the small form 112. Its better than the other small tuners and better than some of the full size Marantz tuners.
 
Lavane said:
The better Realistic TT's were made by CEC just like the Marantz TT's. The LAB-400, 440, 450, etc are decent.
Click to expand...

The LAB-300 was made by CEC, the 400, 420, 440 were made by Toshiba. Toshiba made more Realistic turntables than CEC. This per the buyer in Japan, Hiroshi Tom.
 
Good to know! I have had several CEC tables over the years and all were pretty solid decks. From what saw inside the 400 I just figured it was a CEC.
For an inexpensive belt drive, the LAB-300 is a pretty good deck also.
I have several turntables including a Han Pin Texhnics 1200 clone. They seem to be the new CEC. :D
 
In one of my systems I’m using a 2270 with JBL L-100’s. Over at my sons, he’s using a 2245, Dual 1226 & JBL 4311’s (all hand me downs LOL). In both instances these vintage Marantz units sound very nice when coupled with JBL’s.
 
Marantz 1060 and Large Advents are a classic combination, hard to go wrong there. That's what I'm using in my bedroom system, with a Dual 1226 turntable. That turntable, (recently overhauled) is a real giant killer, impressively quiet for an idler drive, with great punch.
 
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