RE: Marantz 8B In Stereophile

Posted by dls123 (D) on February 14, 2012 at 23:24:41

In Reply to: RE: Marantz 8B In Stereophile posted by Lee of Omaha on February 13, 2012 at 10:08:29:

Interesting thread this...

I get stereophile because my daughter's school was selling mags as a fundraiser and I had to pick something. I don't have all that much use for a rag that reviews $50,000 gear and calls $10,000 gear cost effective. But I digress...

When I read Art Dudley's review I was tempted to write him and point out that unless he completely rebuilt the power supply it was a ridiculous comparison against a modern amp with all new parts in it. Also, the coupling caps in the modern amp are better. I don't know exactly what is in an 8b for caps, but the old Sprague bumblebees that are in old Citation gear are pretty mediocre compared to a decent modern cap. We are not talking about $40 boutique caps, just Matushitas or 716P or Illinois, or the odd K40 in places it counts. I know it would ruin the value of an 8b, but if you rebuild the PS and recapped it with modern signal caps, and replaced out of spec carbons with good carbon films, etc.. Not changing the circuit one bit except perhaps beefing up the PS capacitance it would probably stomp the living daylights out of most of the modern amps they review. I completely understand the point about every restored vintage piece being different than every other one, but a one-off review wouldn't hurt a thing except their advertisers. All those $2000 Chinese amps cannot hold a candle to say a properly restored Citation V power amp which costs less. I just did a little Fisher SA100 19 watt/ch EL84 amp with huge output trannies. With a new power supply, good caps and a good bias supply it sounded FAR better than the tired original. Same circuit and iron, just better PS and signal path parts. You do that to something like a Citation II or 8B or good Mac and it will stomp all over most of the stuff they review. Of course they wouldn't want you to know that..... and we probably don't want full page reviews proclaiming how good restored vintage gear is. Then we couldn't afford anything!

cheers,
Don

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - Marantz 8B In Stereophile - rosendds@frontiernet.net 08:24:34 02/13/12 (30)

umm.. that thing looks like a BOAT ANCHOR! - centaurus3200 14:05:51 08/29/12 (0)

Who on earth needs Stereophile????? - johnmil 06:36:24 02/18/12 (0)

Interesting review - Ross 20:33:52 02/17/12 (0)

Restoration vs collecability value - airtime 09:33:45 02/15/12 (3)

RE: Restoration vs collecability value - dls123 13:44:55 02/15/12 (2)

RE: Restoration vs collecability value - rosendds@frontiernet.net 13:59:26 02/15/12 (1)

RE: Restoration vs collecability value - Crazy Dave 08:56:08 02/17/12 (0)

RE: Marantz 8B In Stereophile - moffat 09:00:55 02/15/12 (0)

Great news!! - henrybasstardo 18:37:43 02/13/12 (0)

RE: Marantz 8B In Stereophile - Marantzguy 15:38:10 02/13/12 (2)

If I were you... - Crazy Dave 08:49:45 02/14/12 (0)

RE: Marantz 8B In Stereophile - rosendds@frontiernet.net 18:20:14 02/13/12 (0)

Ahh, the 8B (Caution, reminiscing ahead) - 1973shovel 14:51:37 02/13/12 (0)

RE: Marantz 8B In Stereophile - airtime 14:40:52 02/13/12 (0)

RE: Marantz 8B In Stereophile - Eli Duttman 09:00:13 02/13/12 (15)

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)

RE: Marantz 8B shows - unclestu 11:30:58 02/13/12 (1)

RE: Marantz 8B shows - Eli Duttman 11:54:19 02/13/12 (0)

RE: Marantz 8B In Stereophile - Crazy Dave 11:02:37 02/13/12 (0)

RE: Marantz 8B In Stereophile - Lee of Omaha 10:08:29 02/13/12 (6)

RE: Marantz 8B In Stereophile - dls123 23:24:41 02/14/12 (2)

FWIW, most of the signal caps were early polyesters with a few bumble bees for good measure (nt) - Steve O 19:32:54 02/16/12 (1)

RE: FWIW, most of the signal caps were early polyesters with a few bumble bees for good measure (nt) - dls123 07:19:53 02/17/12 (0)

RE: Marantz 8B In Stereophile - Steve O 13:16:23 02/13/12 (0)

RE: Marantz 8B In Stereophile - Eli Duttman 11:47:18 02/13/12 (0)

RE: Marantz 8B In Stereophile - rosendds@frontiernet.net 10:47:10 02/13/12 (0)

Follow Ups

RE: Marantz 8B In Stereophile - dls123 23:24:41 02/14/12 (2)

FWIW, most of the signal caps were early polyesters with a few bumble bees for good measure (nt) - Steve O 19:32:54 02/16/12 (1)

RE: FWIW, most of the signal caps were early polyesters with a few bumble bees for good measure (nt) - dls123 07:19:53 02/17/12 (0)

RE: Marantz 8B In Stereophile

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