Just bought this...

[AlainGr]

I have an old NAD 3020B that I would like to refurbish with new capacitors and have a cold solder repaired. I would certainly find a place to use it...

 

I still have my turntable. It was packed many years ago and I never touched it again. I still have to decide what to do with my records (not many - arount 450) and that turntable...

 

And though I bought new Sennheiser cans recently, I still have my old HD-430 that are in fair shape...

 

I seem to accumulate :-)

 

But that Marantz... It must be heavy :-)

 

[AudioDoctor]

All of my turntables are also from the 70s, which is now more than 30 years ago, I guess I am older than I realized...

 

I do like the newer stuff, but the older stuff just has some magic in it that I can't explain.

 

[AlainGr]

Maybe this is the reason why I have so much trouble thinking about getting rid of what I haven't used for so many years... At some point, it does not matter to me if my actual sound system is better than what I had, because it links me to my past... And I have spent so much time listening to music through these :-)

 

I have a cousin that has a Tandberg reel to reel tape. He moved recently and reinstalled his components. He asked a few friends if he should also put the Tandberg with the others even if he does not really intend to use it.

 

Of course, my answer was "Go for it" ! It is so cool to see those gears... And for the fun of it, I suggested that it would help in controlling vibrations by increasing the mass of the furniture :-)

 

I think he will install it with the rest of the components :-)

 

 

 

[crisnee]

I've been into tape and recording to tape much of my life--until digital finally took over. My favorite reel to reel among the various decks I owned was a Tandberg. I remember I was so proud to finally get one. So, Alain, definitely tell your friend to keep it.

 

Do you know how old it is?

 

-Chris

 

[AlainGr]

I would guess that is is from somewhere in the seventies...

 

I think he sent me a picture of it... I will try to find and upload it :-)

 

There are things that are so visually appealing... I always felt for a reel to reel tape :-)

 

And turntables also... But as for the Rice Krispies sound (or the "popcorn"), the hole not centered, the warped disc and all the back and forth I had to do to change the defective vinyl... The best way to put it is "I gave" :-)

 

I will be back tomorrow with a picture :-)

 

 

Edit: I found it !

 

 

[AudioDoctor]

is something I have never gotten into but that is an impressive looking machine!

 

[crisnee]

That's it Alain, so cool.

 

 

 

Thanks,

 

And I hear you about the records, and I still hear the pops, wow, rumble, and inner groove distortion too well, not to mention the times I missed the record altogether and heard the dreaded cacophony of stylus and edge of vinyl making friction and wreaking havoc.

 

I think I listened to tape as much or more than lps all told.

 

-Chris

 

[Brian A]

Oooooooh man! I never had a fancy Marantz integrated amp (I had a cheaper Kenwood one), but I DO remember the awesome feel of the heavy Marantz FM tuner wheel. Sensual.

 

In these days of throw-away-everything, there is a timelessness and immortality to stuff like your Marantz that makes it intrinsically charming. In my case, I find a great joy in my Dynaco Stereo 70 tube power amp BECAUSE it is 51 years old (although, truth-be-known, the tube circuitry has been modernized) (the big stuff, such as the output transformers, are original). It has a history and a back-story which, like your Marantz, means something about what it is and makes it special.

 

In my amp's case, I am the second owner. The first owner was a man named John Lishman who was an audiophile since the 1940s and built it from a Heathkit in 1961. At breaks at work, we talked often about his old days of audiophile; matching cartridges to pre-amps etc. He gave me the amp around 1987 or so when he phone out of the blue and said, “Brian, sorry to bother you at home; I got your home number from the phone book. My wife and I are retiring and moving to a condo. I found that Dynaco I mentioned so many times in our conversations. If you want it, come and get it.” Then he said something that moves me to this day, “Brian, I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed our conversations.” I lost touch with John after he retired, but by an odd turn, I had heard when he passed away a few years ago. That a 51 year old amp can be modernized is a wonderful thing. I wish I could invite John over to listen to it.

 

 

[AudioDoctor]

just make the items worth more than the sum of their parts. I hope you enjoy the Dynaco for many more years.

 

[AudioDoctor]

So, after listening to it for a while, I am hooked. it sounds fabulous and very similar to a modern tube based amp, with a bit more "beauty" or warmth to the sound, but not rolled off or slow at all. Very intoxicating. All inputs work, and the phono amp section specifically is quite amazing. I have a refurbed Denon DP-60 playing some great blues vinyl into the Marantz right now.

 

I used Monoprice cables nearly exclusively with it, they seem to be great value for money and I feel that I am losing nothing by using them. The one cable not sourced from Monoprice is the ground cable from the turntable to the ground lug on the back of the Marantz. That was sourced from The Needle Doctor.

 

Speakers are my old pair of Focal 1008be that did not sell.

 

I am getting quite a collection of audio equipment here, anyone need anything?

[schwenko]

Can anyone recommend a service located near NYC where I can get my 2230 fixed?

[mav52]

I've got a old 2270 that I kept from my college days and it is being refurbished, can't wait to get it back.

[tmtomh]

I bought a 2230 a couple of years ago for $20 off Craigslist, from a young couple in my area. It had been sitting in a basement for several years and had stopped working. Had belonged to the wife's late and much beloved grandfather.

 

I got it completely refurb'd by a great local guy, for about $265 if memory serves - replaced dead rectifier, replaced virtually every cap in every section except the tuner, biased, tuner realigned, full LED bulbs and vellum replacement, faceplate cleaned, all controls cleaned, the works.

 

It sounds lovely - there is absolutely nothing grating, shrill, or bothersome about the sound no matter the source.

 

Part of this very pleasant sound, though, is that famous "three martini" Marantz quality, meaning that it's very smooth but not the most highly resolving sound in the world. Great for a vintage system, a secondary system, and so on, but for me, not quite up to snuff for what I aspire to hear in my primary stereo system.

 

I'm never getting rid of that 2230, though - it always will have a place in my home!

[gmgraves]

a vintage Marantz 2230 receiver. I used to have one, was dumb and young and got rid of it. This will go into my office after being refurbished. So far it sounds pretty amazing!

Going to get this connected to a DAC here shortly, and plug one of my turntables into it as well. With some decent bookshelf speakers it will be a sweet little system!

 

Too bad most FM sounds so terrible these days. Marantz's always had nice tuners (of course the legendary Model 10B FM tuner designed by Dick Sequarra was in a class of it's own). I don't know whether Dick had anything to do with the later SS tuners or not. But still, Superscope (who owned the brand back then) was pretty conscious of it's FM performance reputation.

 

There was a time, when FM was about the best signal source (next to 1/2-track 15 ips magnetic tape) an audiophile could get. Unfortunately, two things happened to ruin FM as a high-fidelity medium: 1) the advent of the GE/Zenith system of stereo-casting which was chosen by the FCC as the US (and subsequently, the world's) system of stereo broadcasting and 2) the clamp-down by the FCC on over-modulating when the band got more crowded as FM started to become popular. The end of the FCC's casual attitude toward over-modulating plus the commercial FM stations competition to be the loudest station the dial, gave rise to two ruinous pieces of broadcast gear, the CBS Labs' Volumax and the Audimax. The Volumax was a limiter that chopped the top off of (clipped) any signal that exceeded 100% modulation (with disastrous results) and the Audimax was a heavy-handed compressor that reduced the dynamic range of what was broadcast so that the station could reduce their dynamic range to insure that the station always sounded loud to catch the attention of the dial twiddler! Both of these devices sounded terrible and were ubiquitous until Robert Orban of Orban Associates came out with the Optimod, which was both a limiter and a compressor. Orban optimized the compression and release times of the compressor part of the Optimod to be more consonant with music (to eliminate pumping) and his limiter used momentary peak compression to avoid over modulation without actually clipping. Unfortunately, the radio stations still had control over the amount of compression used and if used sparingly, the Optimod sounds OK for a necessary evil, but if pushed too far (for the FM loudness wars) it too made the FM station sound like crap!

[AudioDoctor]

All I listen to is MPR anyway, it works fine for me.

[sindey]

This is absolutely a great buy! Despite of the evolving technology, there are still things that are worth keeping and worth buying.