Hi-Fi World – September 2019

OLDE WORLDE

50 HI-FI WORLD SEPTEMBER 2019 http://www.hi-fiworld.co.uk

M

arantz (named after

its founder Saul B.

Marantz) started life

in early 1950s New

York, and in the first

thirty years or so of

its existence the firm’s golden-hued

products had a distinctive style and

sound. Tuners and the receivers

(tuner-amplifiers) it was noted for

sported a feature known as ‘gyro-

touch’ tuning, a horizontal weighted

edge-wheel for selecting radio sta-

tions. Some of its wooden-cased

higher-end products even included

a miniature oscilloscope that could

be switched to visually-represent FM

signal strength/multipath distortion,

audio levels or channel separation.

And by the 1970s it had a receiver

(the iconic 2600) capable of chucking

out 300W or so per channel.

By this time, Marantz gear was

being manufactured in Japan...and

Belgium. The European connection

became even stronger in 1980,

when Philips took it over. Hardly

surprisingly, given the Dutch giant’s

involvement with

CD, Marantz was

one of the first hi-fi

manufacturers to

have players on the

market. Naturally,

these players made

considerable use

of Philips chipsets.

Across the 1980s

and 1990s, Marantz

was selling a wide

range of budget

and midrange gear

• a far cry from the
  ‘Consolette’ pre-amp
  that was its founder’s
  first product.

In 1997 – the year that Saul

Marantz died – the £400 PM66-SE Ki

integrated amplifier was introduced.

This is a ‘tweaked’ version of the

PM66-SE that was a competent

Signature

amplifier

Martin Pipe looks at the ‘KI’-tweaked version of Marantz's PM66-SE amplifier from 1997.

The PM66-SE Ki’s moving-magnet phono

stage was based on a NJM2068 dual op-

amp, giving an introduction to the joys of

vinyl.