Its sound is great (Marantz PM 6010)

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Product:	Marantz PM 6010
Date:	02/07/01 (202 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Loud

Disadvantages: Too loud

Boom, Boom, Boom, Dah, Boom. “Will you shut that racket up!”?

“Sorry, Aghhh, you little ***!”

Boom, Boom, Boom, Dah, BOOM. Bang, Bang. “Yes?”

“Look you loud neighbour, turn that music down.”

“I tried”, I plead. “Liar” is the retort from annoyed neighbour.

So I showed her. “Aghhh”, as I flew across the living room with a shock, having tried to turn the volume down.

Yes, modern amplifiers are an upset bunch all that power and never allowed to use it. Some of them rebel, to the detriment of your relations with other human beings.

OK I joke, but all that power that we are offered and never use, amplifiers are bound to feel a bit underused and unloved, so be careful of the odd shock!

So what is an amplifier?

This is the gadget that boosts the signals from your input device (CD player, mini disc, tape deck, turntable etc..) and then drives the speakers to produce that lovely sound. Without an amplifier there is no music, so it is an important component in any system in fact it is the beating heart of music listening.

The Marantz.

This Amp cost me £140, its retail price is £230, but I got a deal from Richer Sounds, for a couple of reasons (see Richer Sounds review). This is the Amp, I finally got after my previous midi (integrated) system went phut. I did not want to spend a fortune, but wanted something of decent quality.

Now with an amplifier, you should not look for lovely gimmicks and gadgets, it needs to do its very simple job well. If it has gadgets and lots of weird buttons, these will normally detract from its basic function. The Marantz has no gadgets, it is a simple and effective unit. The only gimmick it has (if you can call it that) is a source direct button. This means that when this is on, the audio signal is supplied directly to the volume control circuitry.
Why is that good? Well the music signal is directed through the minimum required circuit path to improve the quality of the sound. The quality is noticeably improved when this function is used. (Note, source direct cannot be used when recording.)

I have jumped ahead of myself, but will now answer the question the females want answered. What does it look like? Well it is a back box, it looks quite stylish, with a nice finish on the front. It has a minimalist front design, with few knobs, making it look quite swish. (Except when it is sulking, when it looks a bit broody!)

The Basics

This amp has 6 inputs for a turntable, tuner, tape deck, CD player, mini disc and auxiliary that can be used for a DVD, TV etc.

There are two outputs, for tape, minidisk/rewritable CD and the amp has a useful digital record function for when recording to a mini disc. (Quite important as what is the point of having a mini disc, if you cannot take advantage of its digital sound quality.)

The speaker connections are good quality (important for maintaining the sound), but they are not bi-wireable (Bi-wireable amps, with the correct cabling have the ability to split the bass and treble signals, which makes the sound quality from the speakers sharper.)

Oh and girls it has a remote control, so you can turn the volume up and down without moving. Yippee!

Now, this is why modern amps sulk, This Marantz amp’s power is 50 watts per channel. This is quite loud and powerful and I can guarantee even with some good speakers connected, you will never have the volume control more than one-third of the way round. So why are these amps so powerful? (There are amps manufactured for domestic use more powerful than this one.) Well, simply because the more power the amp has the better its sound definition is at low volumes.

Now to the knobs, well simple, it has a volume control, a balance control (to direct more or less power t
o one speaker over the other) and an input selection knob, so you can choose what to play through the amp.

Oh yes and boys it has a headphone socket, so you can get away from nagging by putting your headphones on an becoming deaf. (Ohh what a sexist review!)

What is it like?

Well the sound is so sharp, I am not using amazing speakers with it (well they are better than any midi systems, but to be honest they could do with a bit of an upgrade to meet this amp. (I am using Celestion F1’s.) The reproduction is excellent (I am using good quality connectors and cable) and the first time I listened to it I was shocked by the quality, even at £230 this is good value as the sound quality is so good. (In fact it sulks if you do not use it too its potential and pulls its own plug out if you play Hearsay or Westlife on it.)

What Hi Fi gave it 5 stars “The mix of looks, facilities and sheer musicality give this amp real star quality”. I would agree, I am chuffed with this purchase. The only thing is this was a 1999 model and so may be out of date soon. But to be honest amplifiers have been performing the same function for years.

This was a great buy, with real definition in its sound, good looks for a piece of Hi Fi equipment and I think good value even at its retail price. Go on ditch that midi system and get separates, they are good value and good quality. But they do need some discipline at times!

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