Oooooh, Be Still My Heart.... Marantz Onezeeez

[Gilbert]

LEND ME YOUR MONEY

[lwhaples]

Nice! Looks like ya better hurry.

Larry

[Gilbert]

Nice! Looks like ya better hurry.

Larry

I wish I could afford them, but alas [:'(], it's only a dream.

[Cut-Throat]

Nice! Looks like ya better hurry.

Larry

I wish I could afford them, but alas [:'(], it's only a dream.

They sure are pretty! - But if it is any consolation, they probably don't sound as good as a Trends Digitial amp for $130!

[Gilbert]

Nice! Looks like ya better hurry.

Larry

I wish I could afford them, but alas [:'(], it's only a dream.

They sure are pretty! - But if it is any consolation, they probably don't sound as good as a Trends Digitial amp for $130!

Oh, I'm just a sucker for vintage tube gear. And I'm pretty darn confident my Blueberry will walk all over them. I'm just hard headed, and would love to have a vintage Marantz tube system, regardless. One day my friend, one day. Give me another year or 2 max.

[scott0527]

LEND ME YOUR MONEY

That pair will only make a good mono preamp until he finds the other power supply!

[seti]

LEND ME YOUR MONEY

That pair will only make a good mono preamp until he finds the other power supply!

You mean like a pair of Marantz 9 monoblocks : )

[scott0527]

Seti,

Not exactly. I mean the external power supply to the preamps. He has only one of them. The peamp is just a sculpture without it. I suppose you could build one if you had the other to copy. Wouldn't be pretty though.

But those 9's would be the best power supply for your speakers! I have a pair at Audio Classic being repaired right now. A major hole in my Marantz tube gear collection will be filled. Still missing the 2's and those silly speaker crossover boxes.

[Allan Songer]

I sold my Marantz 9s in the early 1980's becasue I needed to put a new transmission in my truck and I didn't want to use my credit card.

DOH!

[CaptnBob]

You can run the preamp off a Marantz 8, if you have a mind to - they have the octal socket in the back. Note - it's one of the things Marantz dropped when they went to the 8B.

More to the point, although they look way cool, have incredibly smooth turning controls, and have the panache of being fifty years old, there are a lot of preamps that will sound loads better - Juicy Music's efforts come to mind - with a great deal of money left over for music.

Mine always sounded kind of dark, without the detail of the 7. It wasn't close. They had a definite personality, though.

[scott0527]

You can run the preamp off a Marantz 8, if you have a mind to - they have the octal socket in the back. Note - it's one of the things Marantz dropped when they went to the 8B.

More to the point, although they look way cool, have incredibly smooth turning controls, and have the panache of being fifty years old, there are a lot of preamps that will sound loads better - Juicy Music's efforts come to mind - with a great deal of money left over for music.

Mine always sounded kind of dark, without the detail of the 7. It wasn't close. They had a definite personality, though.

Ok, I can let one negative comment go by but not two![] If properly rebuilt these little beauties sound tremendous. I would doubt there is anything that sounds loads better than a pair of these in good operating condition. Different, maybe a little better, maybe a little worse, but I'll bet nothing is loads better. If they weren't so damn precious I'd take them to Indy so others could hear them. I agree you can find as good of sound for a lot less, my Blueberry for example, but that isn't what Gilbert's after here.

PS. You must not remember them that well, smooth turning controls they do not have. Kind of clunky actually.

[CaptnBob]

Actually, I do remember them quite well. The volume and balance controls on mine were silky and smooth as could be. Mine had the aluminum knobs, although they were a darker gold than the ones in the picture. The older units with bakelite knobs may have been different. The little side car had a stepped volume control, so you did have to "two hands" that once in a while.

Mine had never been rebuilt, but they were "only" twenty years old at the time. They were fine preamps. But to me, the 7 sounded better - more open, more detail, more "there" there, with a better top end. When the dismal day came that I had to sell something, and it came down to the 7 and the 1s, the 7 stayed.

Sure wish I'd kept them, though - and the four Marantz 2s I sold at the same time, and the two 8bs.

I think I'll go sit in a dark room now.

[scott0527]

Actually, I do remember them quite well. The volume and balance controls on mine were silky and smooth as could be. Mine had the aluminum knobs, although they were a darker gold than the ones in the picture. The older units with bakelite knobs may have been different. The little side car had a stepped volume control, so you did have to "two hands" that once in a while.

Mine had never been rebuilt, but they were "only" twenty years old at the time. They were fine preamps. But to me, the 7 sounded better - more open, more detail, more "there" there, with a better top end. When the dismal day came that I had to sell something, and it came down to the 7 and the 1s, the 7 stayed.

Sure wish I'd kept them, though - and the four Marantz 2s I sold at the same time, and the two 8bs.

I think I'll go sit in a dark room now.

Yep you do remember the knobs. The two handed turn of the sidecar the most notable. That's a lot of amplifiers. How did you ever wind up with that many?

[CaptnBob]

Well, first off, remember, it was the early seventies, and tube electronics were decidedly "un-hip," readily available, and really cheap. I got the first pair of 2s - the ones with the yellow meters - while visiting a friend in Boston. After his father introduced me to Shorthorns-powered by a Sherwood tubed integrated in a huge livingroom, he took me over to the Music Box in Wellesley. The Music box was one of those stores you don't see much of any more. The front had greeting cards. In the middle, records, and finally, in the back, Bill Bell held court surrounded by Klipschorns and McIntosh. It was an experience that warped me for life. Anyway, the back window had all the things Mr. Bell had taken in on trade. It was a rotating history lesson of Hi-Fi. On my first visit in the back were the 2s - $60 each. Remember, $60 was close to a week's wages for a college boy in 1972, but once my friend volunteered to drive them out when he came back to school in the fall, my last ounce of resistance fled. I started using them from the preamp outputs from my Nivico 5020 receiver - a marked improvement over the built in amp. The next year, a transfer student saw my amps and said, "I've got a pair of those." He'd been given them, along with a 7 preamp and a Scott 330-D tuner with a Marantz faceplate, as payment for building a Heathkit receiver, Since he wanted less to carry up the stairs, I traded him a McIntosh MX-110 and a Mc-225 I'd bought through the want ads. I still have the tuner and preamp. I got the 1s and 6 on a second trip to the Music Box. The other stuff I picked up here and there.

Sorry for the meandering trip down memory lane...

[Gilbert]

Oh you DOG!! I can't believe you had 4 Model 2's.

There's a guy that lives in Maryland, very close to Garymd (less than 40 miles), that has 4 Model 2's right now!! 2 older pairs (yellow meters) that score about 7.5/10 and another pair (later production) that are absolutely pristine museum quality.... looking anyway. But the crazy basturdd wants $9000 for the pristine pair, and $5000 for the not-so-good a condition pair. INSANE!

[CaptnBob]

Well, that's the combination I had. If one of the amber meters has a small crack by the pivot point, and the serial number begins with "2-," I might finally know what became of mine.

The bank did say I could get a second mortgage...