Beautiful Systems!

I hope to write a bit more later about why these systems work well together. The $475 system costs less than many BOSE ipod dock systems. Plug an ipod playing mp3s sampled at 320 kbps into the Marantz 1070 auxiliary input, feed the output to the Pioneer HPM-60s, and it's not even close to a fair contest. This package buries the BOSE. In fact, so will the $240 system!
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Update:
I forgot to shoot the Superscope R1240 receiver, but it is great with the Bostons, Altecs, and Energy ESMs.
I also have a sweet, silver 70 watt per channel Yamaha integrated amp (with moving coil preamp for those who can use it!) that I'll tell you about that kicks with the Pioneers.


The Sony is very musical, and is up to the challenge of a more revealing, more contemporary speaker. If you like Missions, you'll love the Energy ESM3s.


There isn't much to say about 1970s Marantz amplifiers that hasn't been said. The 1070 has all that great stuff, and drives the Boston A60s easily. The speakers, when placed properly (on the floor, away from other room boundries) has a very comfortable, transparent (an overused adjective in the audio world, but appropriate here) sound, and as I said when I got them, get out of the music's way.


I love the Harman /Kardan HK-340. It is very clean and quite powerful for it's size. If Mies van der Rohe had designed audio equipment, I think it would have looked like this: clean with beautiful detailing, and honest use of materials (no fake woodgrain here!). The Altec Ones, while not as sexy as JBLs, are excellent. They are well balanced and do everything well. They don't deliver the deepest bass, but also don't insult with cabinet resonance pretending to be bass. They are beautifully made, and the oak veneer is gorgeous.


The Altecs can sound even better with double the power, and the Kenwood KR-5600 delivers that in spades.


It has surprised me that the Pioneer HPM-60s are still living at my place. I see them as alternative JBL L36s at a much lower price. Ignore them at your peril. Designed by the legendary Bart Locanthi (creator of the L100) when he was vice president of product development at Pioneer, they are serious, high quality full range speakers. I can't think of any other Pioneer speakers available in North America (in contrast to what stayed in Japan and was never exported) I'd want. I had a pair of HPM-40s in house for about 30 minutes a couple of weeks ago, and they were great too. I hope to present the HPM-100 to you soon.
The Marantz 1070 or Yamaha A-500, or Kenwood KR-5600 all work well with them.