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Vintage Asylum Classic gear from yesteryear; vintage audio standing the test of time. |
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Vintage Asylum Classic gear from yesteryear; vintage audio standing the test of time. |
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In Reply to: RE: Marantz 8B In Stereophile posted by Eli Duttman on February 13, 2012 at 09:00:13:
the original and the re-issue Marantz 9 on the dealer who happens to own both of them. As far as we are concerned, the original Marantz 9 sounded lush and velvety, as tube amp should with warm midbass, however, when we start comparing them to each other, things got a little clearer in a hurry. The re-issue was much better in terms of the overall balance of sound as it was very snappy coupled with an excellent leading edge transients response and it wasn't sluggish, or opaque on the top end as oppose to the original 9. In addition, we found that the original 9 was not as good in resolving the bottom end detail, as it tends to homogenized it.
Therefore, we concluded that the re-issue did properly address some of the shortcomings of the original 9. Perhaps, the re-issue's excellent sound was attributed to the better quality and tolerance of the parts that they were using that are available and were not available then when the original 9 came out.
Another decisive test, since the re-issue was much better sounding than the original, we decided to compare it to other tube amps that we had at hand at that time such as the Conrad Johnson, Sonic Frontiers and Audio Research. Well, definitely the re-issue more than hold its own as it beats the SF without trouble in term of refinement, however, compared to both CJ and ARC the re-issue sounded a little opaque and wooly, but ever so slightly.
So the proverbial question would be, would I buy one? Probably not!...as there are other tube amps out there that are just as good and possibly better for less than what they're asking for. But it does have that originality design looks to it such as the front cyclopean glass eye of which it was copied by many other manufacturers ever since.
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Follow Ups
- OT… BTW, I had the chanced to audition both.... - kootenay 12:38:00 02/13/12 (4)
- RE: OT - unclestu 13:30:44 02/13/12 (1)
- The Marantz 9 re-issue came in the store brand... - kootenay 14:47:46 02/13/12 (0)
- RE: OT… BTW, I had the chanced to audition both.... - rosendds@frontiernet.net 12:44:14 02/13/12 (1)
- Yes, it's the output transformers which make the difference - 1973shovel 14:03:10 02/13/12 (0)
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