This is a superb sounding integrated, which has received mixed reviews from the high-end audio press. I listened to quite a few other well thought of units, from companies such as Creek, Rotel and Nad, but found the Marantz pleased my ears the best for the buck spent. The Marantz has a wonderfully smooth quality in the upper midrange and highs, which to my ears sound very much like a good mid-fi tube amps in comparison. The low end is tight and defined, and the amp reproduces the original space and soundstage of whatever it's given with great accuracy and detail. Some reviews claimed it becomes a bit harsh when driven hard. I dont listen at painful sound levels, but when I do crank this amp up, it maintains it's smooth and open character just fine. I have a pair of Vandersteen 1C speakers, and really enjoy what this amp can do for them. This combo produces nice controlled bass, a slightly warm midrange, ( which I think takes the edge out of many poorly recorded cd's ), and silky open highs.
This amp is a high current design, with huge capacitors and a monster toridial transformer for a solid and stable low end and fast transient attack. The amp features a dual mono design, featuring seperate short signal paths for left and right sides, high quality parts, and huge heatsinks. All in all, a real bargain when compared to much of it's competition, and well rooted in solid engineering concepts, not in unproven eccentric designs which often prove unstable and thus unreliable down the road.
With a nod towards the purists, this amp has a round retro-look temp guage dead center in the face plate. This is to promote the long held idea that any electronic circuit sounds it's best when it reaches it's normal operating temp. I think it's somewhat a throw back to when all gear had tubes, but hey, it does look really cool and adds a touch of class to a already great looking design.
All controls operate with complete silence, and are smooth in operation. However, the small push-buttons for some functions are difficult to see, as far as determing their in or out status. The speaker connections on the back panel are HUGE! No problem accepting my 10 guage speaker wire at all. The phono and cd jacks are gold plated. This unit has a outstanding phono section, (hard to fine these days), that is very accurate, dynamic, and quiet. It can also accept moving coil cartridges. I have a Ortofon MB10 Super cartridge which has never sounded as good as it does through this phono section. My hats off to Marantz for such a well designed phono stage! It does weigh about 35 pounds, so plan on providing a solid surface for it. If your budget allows for a unit in this price range, give the Marantz PM-17 a try. It's without a doubt, one of the best audio purchases I have ever made!




Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 1000.00