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My six year old Marantz SA7 has started to play up - skipping, refusing to play certain discs etc. The official Marantz service firm is Sound Systems Technology near Heathrow; has anyone had dealings with them, or does anyone know of any reliable alternatives in or near London please?
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Thanks to Mike (man in blue shirt on the left), who used to be the distributor for Marantz in New Zealand, I first met Ken in 2001 when he visited and spoke to the local dealers...
In short, foremost thought, from my understanding of all I've studied of Ken's words about HiFi, is :
"Every single component, passive or active, has a character. In every product you're going to have hundreds of components so, again, balancing the circuit becomes essential. Many people have tried to copy what I do, to use certain capacitors or whatever. But the performance comes not just because I use a specific high quality capacitor ; it's in the overall balancing. I use different kinds of component in different circuits. It's not simple ; you've got to really listen, to understand music and its harmony. To love music is the important thing."
Thus, go for an assessment of what is at fault before replacing anything (and to know if the replacement is 'identical' [rather than an 'equivalent'] so as preserve the intent of the SA-7S1 sound).
Longer insight :
'I built my first mono amplifier when I was 10 years old. I used to play violin and I wanted to hear the old masters like David Oistrakh and Jascha Heifetz, but hi-fi was too expensive for me, so I built an amplifier myself.'
'When I was in high school. I had a friend whose father was an audiophile. I must have been 16 or 17 years old. One day I was visiting my friend when his father showed up and said, "Ken, you have to come and listen to my system." I had listened to his system before, but that day when he played an LP I knew from before, it sounded completely different ! It was a Julie London LP, Julie is Her Name. That day she was standing there ! I had never experienced anything like this with hi-fi. I was so shocked.'
Ken asked him what had been changed. His friend's father pointed to a product on the shelf, with a gold fascia and a row of toggles flanked by rotary controls. 'He told me it was a Marantz Model 7C pre-amplifier. I didn't know Marantz. I asked him how much this product cost. Of course, it was unaffordable for me but I really wanted this pre-amp because of the sound.'
'I asked him to lend me the product, and he kindly agreed. I took it home, opened the unit and started to copy the circuit. It took quite sometime to get all the parts but finally I managed it. I was so anxious to listen to the pre-amp when I finished it. I switched it on excitedly, expecting the same sound I'd experienced at my friend's home, but nothing came out.'
Ken checked everything and couldn't find what he had done wrong. 'The Marantz Model 7C used three-stage triode amplification with cathode-to-cathode negative feedback. What was happening was that the copy I made was oscillating. I later found out that the layout and wiring had to be assembled very carefully not to get oscillation. The Model 7C was a very tweaky design by Sidney Smith. It used 12AX7 triodes and if you were not careful, it was easy to make it oscillate.'
'Finally, I managed to make it work but the sound was not same at all as the genuine Model 7C. Then I started to swap parts : tubes, resistors. capacitors and so on. When I replaced one part, it sounded completely different. The root of the problem was the quality of the components. I learned that making good-sounding hi-fi is not a simple thing at all. But I learned so much from this experience, that tweaking products was not an accident. This helped me later on.'
http://www.sarte-audio.com/sites/default/files/marantz_ken_ishiwata.pdf (for the complete interview by Ken Kessler)
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Post by hiredfox November 3, 2013 (3 of 42)
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operamuso said:
My six year old Marantz SA7 has started to play up - skipping, refusing to play certain discs etc. The official Marantz service firm is Sound Systems Technology near Heathrow; has anyone had dealings with them, or does anyone know of any reliable alternatives in or near London please?
Really I would caution against searching around for cheaper alternatives. The SA7 has world-class SQ thanks to Ken Ishiwata's fine tuning, much of which depends upon his selection of superior grade closely toleranced components. The official service agent is probably the only possible source for matching scarce original components precisely where replacement parts are needed.
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Post by stvnharr November 3, 2013 (4 of 42)
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operamuso said:
My six year old Marantz SA7 has started to play up - skipping, refusing to play certain discs etc. The official Marantz service firm is Sound Systems Technology near Heathrow; has anyone had dealings with them, or does anyone know of any reliable alternatives in or near London please?
You have a transport issue, from what you have described. The SA7 uses a proprietary Marantz transport. Warranty repair or not, you will be dealing with Marantz one way or another.
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Thank you gentlemen - it looks as though a trip towards Heathrow is on the agenda...... When not misbehaving the SA7 still sounds quite superb - I really don't want to have to replace it.
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Post by hiredfox November 4, 2013 (6 of 42)
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operamuso said:
I really don't want to have to replace it.
I don't know that you could, it was a limited edition, production ended some years ago, few appear on the second-hand market no doubt some of which have been butchered by after market tweakers and we learn from our esteemed colleague 'friend of KI' on another thread that an S2 version is about as unlikely as icicles being found on the sun now that the NA11 has been launched. I had trusted that Marantz's 60th Anniversary celebratory launch product would be the long awaited S2 especially as in conversations at various hi fi shows Ken never ever denied that the S2 was a possibility
I'm in the same boat as you, my SA7 is of similar age to yours (guess all are). We'll have to keep these machines going at all cost. It's what people including me did with their CD12's in the 90's and naughties because we knew how good they were. Today this particular machine is very much sought after.
I have found no solace in the Puccini SACD player as a potential replacement having genuinely preferred the SA7/U-clock sound to the all Puccini sound in my system.
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hiredfox said:
I don't know that you could.....
I'm in the same boat as you, my SA7 is of similar age to yours (guess all are).....
I have found no solace in the Puccini SACD player as a potential replacement having genuinely preferred the SA7/U-clock sound to the all Puccini sound in my system.
I meant that I didn't want to have to replace it with a new, more recent machine. The Puccini might have been a candidate as I have the Puccini U-clock already, but I can't afford it. Interesting that you think the SA7 bests it.
What did you eventually decide about the SA-7 + U-clock versus the SA-11 S3 without it? As you don't mention the 11/3 I assume you decided to stick with the SA7......
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Post by hiredfox November 4, 2013 (8 of 42)
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operamuso said:
I meant that I didn't want to have to replace it with a new, more recent machine. The Puccini might have been a candidate as I have the Puccini U-clock already, but I can't afford it. Interesting that you think the SA7 bests it.
What did you eventually decide about the SA-7 + U-clock versus the SA-11 S3 without it? As you don't mention the 11/3 I assume you decided to stick with the SA7......
The SA11 is more suited to rock/pop than classical music. I sold it recently.
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Post by stvnharr November 4, 2013 (9 of 42)
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hiredfox said:
The SA11 is more suited to rock/pop than classical music.
This statement is preposterous. What's your rationale for stating this?
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Post by hiredfox November 5, 2013 (10 of 42)
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stvnharr said:
This statement is preposterous. What's your rationale for stating this?
Running them side by side for one year in my high end system...
How does that grab you?
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