this video is on two new components from marantz the model 30
integrated amp and an sacd 30 n network player
if you follow the history of hi-fi over the decades you probably know that saul
marantz is a legend the audio gear he designed
in the 50s and 60s are now worth far more than the original price and are
coveted by audiophiles all over the world
as a matter of fact my very first integrated amp was a marantz 1060 i
bought back in 1972. as time passed the engineers of marantz
in japan carried on the tradition of having a
great deal of care for pure sound they take it to such an extreme
that they train a couple of listeners to be experts in identifying
that pure marantz signature sound they are after
these engineers then have a full-time job of simply
listening to new designs and prototypes to make sure they meet the standards
they even have a name they're called marantz sound masters
over the years marantz has introduced special models to pay homage to their
great history of sound recently they introduced a new reference
integrated amp and sacd player that are made in japan
fine-tuned by the marantz sound master and sell for eight thousand and seven
thousand each if you look back in the history of the
timeline of marantz models their very first integrated amp was
introduced in 1970 and was called the model 30. we love the
fact that the two new marantz pieces celebrating the 50-year anniversary of
this classic component bear its same model designation the
early styling of those first marantz amps was quite different from anything
else out there and marantz is doing the same thing with
these two new products unlike most of their previous products designed to pay
tribute to their classic heritage these are not in the stratosphere price
wise making them available to a much wider range of music lovers
let's take a look at the design philosophy behind this new series
then we'll get into the two models to explain their features
marantz wanted these two new components to embody modern musical luxury
while maintaining all of the classic marantz characteristics
the model 30 and sacd 30n are certainly striking to the eye with their smaller
faceplate floating on top of a larger textured box
that almost looks like carbon fiber this is certainly a modern look but they kept
the marantz logo large and on top along with a classic symmetry of all
their early marantz amplifiers were known for where each side of the unit
had an identical layout of switches and knobs
we also love the small portal on the integrated amp that harkens back to
their 1960 model 9 tube power amp in fact it almost looks
identical we'll get into a lot of the technology
that makes these two units extremely musical
as we go over each one but these units were tuned by the marantz sound master
to have that rich warm classic marantz sound
should you be lucky enough to own one of these new models you'll surely have that
feeling of luxury as you operate it for us the look just makes us want to
reach out and touch the unit it looks like an incredibly well made
musical instrument does another thing that really impressed us
is the fact that these two units are made in their shurikawa audio works
plant in japan with all final assembly being done by
hand these could become heirlooms you want
to pass down to the next generation just like those early marantz pieces did
if you know much about audio you probably realize an integrated amplifier
is a combination of a stereo preamp and stereo power amp all rolled into one box
where they usually share a common power supply the model 30 is technically an
integrated amplifier as well but the way marantz put the unit
together inside the box you could basically pull it apart and create
two separate components from the pieces yes
there's actually a totally separate power supply for the preamp which sits
in the middle and another for the power amp section
the entire internal layout was designed to allow the unit to have the
performance benefits of separate components
the critical preamp board is on the far right side with the separate phono
preamp board underneath it a large toroidal power transformer in
the center of the unit is totally dedicated to the preamp boards
you'll find the power supply for the amplifier on the far
left with the actual amp section directly connected to the speaker
terminals in the center rear as audio geeks we are we love the look
of the insides of this new integrated amp which
totally strove for the shortest signal paths possible in each section
if you know audio you're also probably aware that the ideal power amp would
double its power every time the load was cut in half of
course nothing can do that all the way down to 1 ohm
but the model 30 with its fully discrete amp section
actually doubles its power from 100 watts per channel
to 200 watts per channel when you go from 8 ohms to 4 ohms
that is impressive input wise the model 30 is all about analog
there are no digital circuits inside to keep things simple and pure
marantz spent a lot of time fine-tuning the phono preamp that even got its own
separate circuit board this is not an afterthought add-on phono
preamp but a very serious one with the option for either a moving magnet
or moving coil cartridge with lots of settings you can adjust to fine tune it
to your cartridge the phono input and one input labeled cd
get some very serious chassis mount brass machine gold plated
connectors the four remaining inputs are labeled
tuner line one line two and recorder you may not be aware but reel to reel
and cassette decks are making a nostalgic comeback
and we love the fact marantz added a recorder out that sends the selected
input out to a tape recorder there's also a preamp out and a power
amp in in the center of the rear panel you'll
see the signature marantz copper speaker connections which are quite solid
we would have liked to have seen two pairs to make bi-wiring easier
should you wish to fine-tune your sound a bit marantz kept their classic bass
treble and balance controls that have been a hallmark on their gear
for decades for headphone use there's a dedicated
high quality headphone amp with circuitry to shut down the power
amp section when you plug in headphones that's pretty cool
so what about digital sources and/or a cd player and streamer
well that's where the model 30n comes in
this is one super cool piece of gear with everything you need for
both the old and new digital world as a matter of fact
if you only cared about digital it can even act as a full
function preamp so all you need is a power amp for a complete digital system
marantz use their own cd sacd mechanism for the drive
when the drive is not in use every part of the power supply related to the drive
shuts down for a cleaner digital stage for the other inputs
digital inputs cover two toslink one coax
a usb for computer audio and an ethernet or wireless connection for streaming
voice control from all the majors is included as is airplay 2.
bluetooth is also present so your friends can come over and stream music
from their smartphones for your favorite streaming sources or
music on your network the heos app takes over we have mixed
feelings on this and really wish marantz had made the unit more compatible with
roon than just airplay heos does offer a
pretty decent interface and in our testing works fine
as long as you do not try to group multiple units together
heos will get you spotify pandora tidal amazon apple music
deezer tune in soundcloud and siriusxm finishing out the rear you'll have
another usb input for an attached usb music drive and there are both toslink
and coax digital outs but the cool part is the fact that
it has both fixed and variable analog outputs this
allows it to be used as a fully functioning digital preamp
or in a fixed mode and connected to the companion model 30 amp
or any amp or preamp you already own the dac section of the sacd 30n comes from a
patented technology marantz develop for their more expensive ruby series
it's actually pretty interesting what they do with their musical mastering hd
processing audiophiles know if you can up sample
digital files you'll get better sound but one side effect to this can be
sample rate conversion errors marantz first converts pcm signals to
256 dsd then a system looks at the signal and
decides how to up convert it based upon the rate of the incoming
signal this process requires two precision clocks but marantz claims
it eliminates any chance of sample rate conversion
the premium DACs then convert this signal to analog before it passes into a
discrete analog preamp output board if you want to use headphones the sacd 30n
clearly has you covered the headphone section has three gain
sections for different headphone types and its own discrete volume control
finally like the model 30 integrated amp the 30n was tuned by the marantz sound
master overall this is a lot of technology and
a beautiful chassis for $2,499 while these units are by no means
inexpensive for what they offer in terms of design
build quality and performance they're actually quite a bargain
we love the look and feel of these and expect them to find their way into the
homes of many music lovers some marantz products have gone on to
become classic audio pieces that are highly sought after
long after they're out of production we think these two new marantz models will
fall into that same category if you're looking for a sweet sounding
all-in-one integrated amp that can drive just about any speaker
the model 30 integrated surely should be on your list
the added bonus is how great it will look on your shelf
for those of you wanting to add everything digital or just put together
a complete digital front end the sacd 30n sure checks off a lot of
boxes for its price thanks for watching if you have any
questions on this or any other home audio or home theater gear
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or if you're in the raleigh or charlotte north carolina area drop into one of our
great showrooms we'll see you next time