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Marantz 10 B

I met and talked to Richard Sequerra on the introduction of his new tuner (Day Sequerra). When told I owned a 10B he told me NOT to buy the new tuner, as it was better in performance only above 15kHz and few FM stations had usable FR that high. This improvement was only due to digital filtering, as I recall.

The 10B in factory alignment, was as close to theoretically possible as you could get, he told me. Not bad for a component designed in the mid 60's (of course, it did drive Saul Marantz bankrupt).

Not components per se, but consider the demand for vintage output transformers. Many command very high prices and although there are reissues of the vintage designs, many still prefer the originals ( maybe because they are already broken in ). These include the vintage Marantz iron as well as the ALtec/Peerless iron (particularly the 20-20 series).

Modern manufacturer MFA used to cannibalize old Altec outputs as well as Citation outputs and Ampex outputs for their modern offerings until the supply ran dry. The original Carver Silver 7 250 watt tube power amp used Dyna A-440 output transformers but too few of them remained for them to use for their eventual production run. The general consensus was the newer remanufactured ones were not quite as good as the original Dyna units and Dyna was considered a second tier transformer manufacturer.

And then consider that there have been no really new tube design configurations for the past 25 years or so (maybe a lot longer, judging from what I see). Ultralinear amp designs have been around since, what, 1955 or thereabouts (IIRC, original patents were taken out in 1954)? Cathode follower designs were used on the Marantz 1 (1954) and probably earlier and still being used today.

One needs only to take a quick glance at Ebay to realize that vintage tubes command very high demand and prices. While newer production strives to emulate older designs (note the reissue Gold Lion, Tungsol, etc), the originals still command respect, high demand, and high prices. Try buying an NOS 300B, wholesaling for $18.50 in 1986.... Even in a modern amp, the original sounds much better to my ears (in various Cary amps, and a Wyetech as well as a Wright amp, all "modern" designs with modern parts).

of course YMMV

Still, if you take the best of the 60's and compare to the best of each of the following decades, the increase in performance is relatively small. Convenience factor increases a lot, though. A 60's state of the art system would be easy to live with even today ( probably a lot more reliable too)
Older technology had limitations, primarily materials availability ( no teflons, limited plastics, no really high tolerance resistors, etc.), but where they could apply their technology they certainly did and did so superbly. Transformers and tubes were superb even by todays standards.

I have restored and souped up some highly neglected Dyna units: PAS3s and ST-70s, and equipped with modern parts they can sound amazingly good, well maybe not as good as a five digit costing component, but more than holding its own against the typical middle audiophile market.

You have to be willing to make that investment however. It takes time, or money...



Edits: 09/03/14 09/03/14

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  • Marantz 10 B - unclestu 14:36:52 09/03/14 (0)

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