Sunday, January 18, 2009

My first Marantz Speakers


The woofers need refoaming. Beautiful redwood cabinets. More soon.
UPDATE:
The woofers have been refoamed. I hooked them up, and they sounded impressive on first listen. They are a 3 way sytem with a 10 inch woofer, midrange and dome tweeter. There is a port, but the speakers come with a foam plug to fill it with. So the driver compliment is equivalent to the Pioneer HPM-60s and JBL L36s that I've enjoyed so much. Unfortunately I don't think that these Marantz speakers are in that leaugue. The bass is altogether too full when the system is ported, properly in proportion when it's plugged. I suspect the tweeter is the weak link, being a bit brash. The overall sound is decent but veiled (driven by my Marantz 1150).
Cosmetically, they look really cool, with reticulated chocolate brown foam grills. I sanded the cabinets yesterday (brrr!) and they are going to look gorgeous. The drivers have trim rings with logos on them, serious branding! They will look great with a pretty Marantz receiver in a wood sleeve.
In conclusion, I don't think these speakers do proper justice to the company's wonderful electronics. They are kind of  cool.

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