garymd Posted December 1, 2004 Share Posted December 1, 2004 Thanks Carl. Now that I think of it, it may have been a little cheaper. Very clean though. One thing Marantz did better than McIntosh was to preserve the lettering. One swipe of chrome cleaner and the Mac's lettering just disappears! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Landau Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 ---------------- On 12/1/2004 11:21:06 PM garymd wrote: One thing Marantz did better than McIntosh was to preserve the lettering ---------------- Another thing was making a better sounding equipment (IMO). Just bought my fourth model 5 monoblock, today. These amps sound so goooood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howismydriving Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 I have to chime in and say the 7t, once brought back to spec is one of the biggest bargans out there. Also, the reissue 8b's do not sound nearly as good as the real deal. They real deal is cheaper to boot, too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audiokid Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 Greetings! Been reading this thread for the past several days and had to comment. I've restored many vintage Marantz pieces here in upstate NY over the past 30 years, and own some too. The 7T is a great preamp; over the years I've owned 3 of them. Some sound better than others. Marantz used several manufacturers for the transistors, and just as the 'sound' of tubes differ, so does the sound of transistors. Many 7T's can sound VERY close to the 7C, but the 7C beats it in soundstage and depth, IMHO. As for the difference between McIntosh and Marantz amps, Marantz is biased class AB, while McIntosh is class B (a cathode winding in the output transformer helps keep distortion low). Thus McIntosh amps run cooler and stress the output tubes less. I've seen MC-60's which were in daily use for 25 years with the original output tubes, Marantz is less kind to it's EL-34's! Having worked for dealers who sold Klipsch, Marantz and McIntosh in the early 1970's thru the early 1990's, I've experienced many vintage pieces. In 1972 I had a discussion about tube amps with Paul Klipsch, who tended to favor the Marantz units. He told me he did comparisons between the MC-275 and Marantz 9's with Klipschorns, and most listeners favored the Marantz. Also during that time many Klipsch employees had Marantz 7C/8B's with Heresys. Happy Holidays! -DrDave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garymd Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 ---------------- On 12/2/2004 10:35:53 AM Audiokid wrote: Greetings! Been reading this thread for the past several days and had to comment. I've restored many vintage Marantz pieces here in upstate NY over the past 30 years, and own some too. The 7T is a great preamp; over the years I've owned 3 of them. Some sound better than others. Marantz used several manufacturers for the transistors, and just as the 'sound' of tubes differ, so does the sound of transistors. Many 7T's can sound VERY close to the 7C, but the 7C beats it in soundstage and depth, IMHO. As for the difference between McIntosh and Marantz amps, Marantz is biased class AB, while McIntosh is class B (a cathode winding in the output transformer helps keep distortion low). Thus McIntosh amps run cooler and stress the output tubes less. I've seen MC-60's which were in daily use for 25 years with the original output tubes, Marantz is less kind to it's EL-34's! Having worked for dealers who sold Klipsch, Marantz and McIntosh in the early 1970's thru the early 1990's, I've experienced many vintage pieces. In 1972 I had a discussion about tube amps with Paul Klipsch, who tended to favor the Marantz units. He told me he did comparisons between the MC-275 and Marantz 9's with Klipschorns, and most listeners favored the Marantz. Also during that time many Klipsch employees had Marantz 7C/8B's with Heresys. Happy Holidays! -DrDave ---------------- Welcome to the forum Audiokid. I've heard a lot about you from a mutual friend and know you could be a great resource here. Thanks for the post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZAKO Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 On the 7T ...I too have swapped transisters ,,,It seems transisters with higher beta ratings sounded sweeter. Since the unit had plug in base,s thes was easy to do. But the new VAC manufactured 7 and 8b & mod 9 are more identicle to the original than you think. I found the older units needed parts upgrade to sound as good as the VAC reissues. BUT if you want to hear some thing better you need to hear the new VAC CHI series. (if you can afford them) Speaking of afford....How many on this forum have 7,000 & up for preamps & $ 20,000 & up for amps. (not counting speakers & other equipment) Just asking...How many would be in this club???? Just asking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnysal Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 thank audiokid for the info...marantz 9 on heresy? wow! sounds like fun. maron, NOT ME, I cannot forecast spending that amount on preamps and amps, simply because I am enjoying too much spending much less on fun, great looking and sounding vintage stuff. Guys, please give me more specifics on the transistor swapping on the 7T I have not explored that. thanks, tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptnBob Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 Well, I'd like to be ... While we're on the subject of old Marantz. Another "sleeper" is the 33 preamp. It's kind of idiosyncratic - a separate level control for the headphones for instance - and the slider pots are a little hard to adjust precisely, but for around $100 or so, it's pretty good. Very close in sound to a 7-T, but not as pretty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjgeraci Posted December 2, 2004 Author Share Posted December 2, 2004 Yes, please more specifics on the transistor swapping on the 7T. Thanks for your post, Audiokid. Carl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audiokid Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 Actually they used the 8b on Heresy's, but I'll bet the 9 would sound wonderful. My favorite Marantz tube amp is the Model 2 (in triode), BTW. Re transistor swapping, I had 3 7T's in the late 1970's; one perfect, and of course, the ugly one sounded the best. I was unable to locate any (wiring) differences, except for the brand of transistors. I simply swapped them out (transistor sockets, thank you!), and the good sound followed the transistors. If memory serves me, I believe the good ones were Fairchild, and the bad were Motorala, but I may be wrong. I also found this with McIntosh C24 and later C28. The 7C is very tube particular too. I used to set them up with Amperex Bugle Boys in V1/V2, and Telefunkens in the remaining 4 sockets. I had several options when I rebuilt them for customers, and could set them up to have incredible depth, at the expense of focus, or great focus with less front to back depth. Gary, I believe I know the 'mutual friend' you're referring to. Haven't seen him since we attended a Strawbs reunion concert last November. -DrDave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audiokid Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 sorry, double post ;-( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodger Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 Greetings Audiokid. Welcome to the Forum. I can and will state that any recommendations by the Audiokid will come from many years of experience and abilities that rival Genius. For years until he came into a Career that could fully utilize his talents, Audiokid was the ONLY person with whom I felt completely at ease with working on my Equipment. I am not a trusting person. Having Audiokid work on my equipment was like having only Designers of, and Supervisors for, the Companies that built the Pieces do the work. He has worked on every brand - Tubed to Solid State and also has come with repairs that Engineers in the Factories could not. We have talked since that concert, but both have been busy and heve not been able to hook up since around the time I was selling some equipment and then I started with more knee problems. As a Tech on a 1 - 10 scale, he rates at least a 15. dodger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garymd Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 ---------------- On 12/2/2004 12:15:11 PM Audiokid wrote: Actually they used the 8b on Heresy's, but I'll bet the 9 would sound wonderful. My favorite Marantz tube amp is the Model 2 (in triode), BTW. Re transistor swapping, I had 3 7T's in the late 1970's; one perfect, and of course, the ugly one sounded the best. I was unable to locate any (wiring) differences, except for the brand of transistors. I simply swapped them out (transistor sockets, thank you!), and the good sound followed the transistors. If memory serves me, I believe the good ones were Fairchild, and the bad were Motorala, but I may be wrong. I also found this with McIntosh C24 and later C28. The 7C is very tube particular too. I used to set them up with Amperex Bugle Boys in V1/V2, and Telefunkens in the remaining 4 sockets. I had several options when I rebuilt them for customers, and could set them up to have incredible depth, at the expense of focus, or great focus with less front to back depth. Gary, I believe I know the 'mutual friend' you're referring to. Haven't seen him since we attended a Strawbs reunion concert last November. -DrDave ---------------- Dave, When I got my 7C, it had telefunkens in all but the V2 slot. A bugle boy resided there. Looking back, it may not have been a random swap afterall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Songer Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 I once owned a pair of Marantz 9s--sold them about 25 years ago when strapped for cash and needed money to put a new transmission in my truck. Seemed like a good idea at the time . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptnBob Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 I used to have four Marantz 2s, a 10b, 2 8bs, 2 1s, and a 6. Sold them all. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I think I'll go lie down in a dark room now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Landau Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 ---------------- On 12/2/2004 2:44:30 PM CaptnBob wrote: I used to have four Marantz 2s, 2 8bs, 2 1s, and a 6. Sold them all. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I think I'll go lie down in a dark room now. ---------------- I've had 4 model 2s, 4 model 1s, 2-8Bs, a 10B and a reissue model 7. I miss the model 2s, the most. I now own 4 model 5's and luckily they sound quite close the model 2s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IB Slammin Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 ---------------- On 12/2/2004 2:44:30 PM CaptnBob wrote: I used to have four Marantz 2s, 2 8bs, 2 1s, and a 6. Sold them all. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I think I'll go lie down in a dark room now. ---------------- The 7T and mod 15 &14 were Sauls first transistors. The power amps were three 60w mono blocks. All the same. Two were bolted together behind a face plate. One had a long power cord and the other had a 6" cord that plugged into the other amp. The mod 14 was the center amp with no face plate. They were my first amps as a young man. Must have been around '68. Saul M. gave them to PWK to demo. After much agitation, (and bringing pretty girls to the factory) Mr. Klipsch sold me the set for $350.00. A lot of money for a collage kid. Powered two Khorns & a LaS. Living Large. Sold the 7T in the 80's. The 15's and 14 are in the garage. Bob, may I join you? Terry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjgeraci Posted December 2, 2004 Author Share Posted December 2, 2004 The history of the vintage gear along with various shared experiences relative to same are even more reasons why I'm glad I decided to incorporate some of the vintage stuff into my mix. My basement is now an interesting mix of new Klipsch speakers, pre/pros and amps along with some vintage versions. I like both the new and the old - much of which are different variations on some of the same concepts and designs. Thanks for everyone weighing in so far. Carl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptnBob Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 I suppose I should add I kept the 7-C, the better 10b, and the Scott 330-C with the Marantz style faceplate. Still ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZAKO Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 Theirs somthing about those 4 hex bolts on the four corners of the face plate that gave the mod 15,s that unique retro look. The mod 10 & 10b still cant be duplicated today. Although the Sequerra FM-1 surpasses in no compromize tuner design. I still like the look of the 10b . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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