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Marantz TT140 worth $25?


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20 hours ago, ajxd said:

I'll take Technics, Thorens or Linn over a Marantz turntable any day. Marantz receivers on the other hand...

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On 8/25/2017 at 11:39 AM, streetwaves said:

I'll take Technics, Thorens or Linn over a Marantz turntable any day. Marantz receivers on the other hand...

kind of a vague opinion--I am guessing you are basing these statements on vintage products.  Technics at the very least has put out some complete crap.  Their claim to fame is pretty much based on one model (1200).  Marantz receivers have run the spectrum over the years.

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On 26/08/2017 at 6:24 PM, Tardcore said:

kind of a vague opinion--I am guessing you are basing these statements on vintage products.  Technics at the very least has put out some complete crap.  Their claim to fame is pretty much based on one model (1200).  Marantz receivers have run the spectrum over the years.

A little harsh on Technics as they've produced at least 3 or 4 others that are worthy of admiration but yep pretty much spot on.

 

On 25/08/2017 at 5:39 PM, streetwaves said:

I'll take Technics, Thorens or Linn over a Marantz turntable any day. Marantz receivers on the other hand...

To say one brand produces great this or that is very wrong because without exception every big name manufacturer (and especially the far eastern ones just because of their prodigious output and life span) has produced complete and utter rubbish and absolute gems at some time in their lives.

 

Even the likes of Thorens and Linn are not immune to this. Thorens went through a long bad patch toward the very end of the TD160/166 where their later products were more than a little plastic and didn't really deserve a Thorens badge and Linn isn't a great example as they couldn't even manage to produce their own design of turntable until the Basik, the LP12 when originally sold was an Ariston RD11 with a Linn badge on it and has evolved from that with an ever unrealistic price tag ever since. Linn has also built some pretty woeful speakers and a lot of the electronics (amplification and CD players etc.) are average at their price point at best

 

I'm not a fan of Marantz turntables over any other but the current Clearaudio unit with a Marantz badge on it is pretty stunning for the money and a good few of the proper vintage output (before the wasteland of the B.P.C. years) are easily the equal of the direct competition at the time.

 

The only brands that haven't let at least one turkey out into the wild are those small obscure companies that don't just inhabit the very high end either made something great and didn't last long or made a few great products and didn't deviate from those.

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6 hours ago, allenh said:

A little harsh on Technics as they've produced at least 3 or 4 others that are worthy of admiration but yep pretty much spot on.

 

To say one brand produces great this or that is very wrong because without exception every big name manufacturer (and especially the far eastern ones just because of their prodigious output and life span) has produced complete and utter rubbish and absolute gems at some time in their lives.

 

Even the likes of Thorens and Linn are not immune to this. Thorens went through a long bad patch toward the very end of the TD160/166 where their later products were more than a little plastic and didn't really deserve a Thorens badge and Linn isn't a great example as they couldn't even manage to produce their own design of turntable until the Basik, the LP12 when originally sold was an Ariston RD11 with a Linn badge on it and has evolved from that with an ever unrealistic price tag ever since. Linn has also built some pretty woeful speakers and a lot of the electronics (amplification and CD players etc.) are average at their price point at best

 

I'm not a fan of Marantz turntables over any other but the current Clearaudio unit with a Marantz badge on it is pretty stunning for the money and a good few of the proper vintage output (before the wasteland of the B.P.C. years) are easily the equal of the direct competition at the time.

 

The only brands that haven't let at least one turkey out into the wild are those small obscure companies that don't just inhabit the very high end either made something great and didn't last long or made a few great products and didn't deviate from those.

TL;DR

 

"I'm a nerd."

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On 8/26/2017 at 1:24 PM, Tardcore said:

kind of a vague opinion--I am guessing you are basing these statements on vintage products.  Technics at the very least has put out some complete crap.  Their claim to fame is pretty much based on one model (1200).  Marantz receivers have run the spectrum over the years.

I only speak vintage.

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12 hours ago, allenh said:

A little harsh on Technics as they've produced at least 3 or 4 others that are worthy of admiration but yep pretty much spot on.

 

To say one brand produces great this or that is very wrong because without exception every big name manufacturer (and especially the far eastern ones just because of their prodigious output and life span) has produced complete and utter rubbish and absolute gems at some time in their lives.

 

Even the likes of Thorens and Linn are not immune to this. Thorens went through a long bad patch toward the very end of the TD160/166 where their later products were more than a little plastic and didn't really deserve a Thorens badge and Linn isn't a great example as they couldn't even manage to produce their own design of turntable until the Basik, the LP12 when originally sold was an Ariston RD11 with a Linn badge on it and has evolved from that with an ever unrealistic price tag ever since. Linn has also built some pretty woeful speakers and a lot of the electronics (amplification and CD players etc.) are average at their price point at best

 

I'm not a fan of Marantz turntables over any other but the current Clearaudio unit with a Marantz badge on it is pretty stunning for the money and a good few of the proper vintage output (before the wasteland of the B.P.C. years) are easily the equal of the direct competition at the time.

 

The only brands that haven't let at least one turkey out into the wild are those small obscure companies that don't just inhabit the very high end either made something great and didn't last long or made a few great products and didn't deviate from those.

I think you can easily say that one brand produces great this or that. I'll name several great Marantz receivers but I can't name a single great Marantz turntable or speakers. Same goes for McIntosh and Pioneer. 

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11 hours ago, streetwaves said:

I think you can easily say that one brand produces great this or that. I'll name several great Marantz receivers but I can't name a single great Marantz turntable or speakers. Same goes for McIntosh and Pioneer. 

You can if you take a short snapshot in time but in reality you need to add the caveat that they have all also produced or still produce utter crap. If you are talking vintage then Marantz produced some very good tables in the 70's that were easily the equal of the intended competition but they also produced some not so great ones and the same is true of every other component they manufactured. Speakers from back then, well very few people managed really good speakers back then although there will always be the gems in most manufacturers output they are just harder to find and because they were so difficult to produce consistently well, so one pair of the same speaker could be very different from another. Speakers are one of the few things that have consistently improved in hifi terms over the years.

 

The problem is all these companies have been going a long time so personnel, ownership and markets change which very much has an effect on what they produce. All the big brand consumer electronics companies all produced some great gear in the 70's because HiFi was fashionable and there was a lot of money in it for them but as the money ran out this diluted down to ranges of quite a lot of complete crap in the late 80's / early 90's which some but sadly not all have steadily moved back upwards from since but as far as the big names go we are nowhere near the zenith of the mid to late 70's and there's a lot of once great names selling utter shit on the back of that once well respected name.

 

sadly in the 80's all these companies aimed at wider and wider parts of the market in an effort to stop the decline which meant they produced crap at the bottom and took away from the R&D at the top.

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I typically stop caring about people's opinions once they say anything about vintage audio in 2017. Audio has come leaps and bounds in the last 40 years, I would never want to purchase anything older than me again. Unless you're poor, then sure, buy a 30 year old table for $200 that was amazing for its time.

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10 hours ago, ajxd said:

I typically stop caring about people's opinions once they say anything about vintage audio in 2017. Audio has come leaps and bounds in the last 40 years, I would never want to purchase anything older than me again. Unless you're poor, then sure, buy a 30 year old table for $200 that was amazing for its time.

Sadly it hasn't, good has just got a little easier to get as has utter shit unfortunately

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7 hours ago, ajxd said:

We are printing tonearms. Maybe across the pond you are all stuck in a time warp? ;)

""""Long winded waffle warning, if you can't be arsed to read please skip past"""""

 

Each to their own and new doesn't always mean good nor does old but good engineering will always be good engineering regardless of it's age. What has happened is that manufacturing consistency for the middle ground has improved so it's cheaper for manufacturers to make good margins in this part of the market, but for a lot of equipment and especially turntables the majority of the tables bought today are very closely based on those designed and built in the 70's.

 

The good thing is that if you are in the market for usable low to mid end HiFi today then there is a lot of good stuff about but it's still very easy to beat that same equipment with well maintained kit from a long time ago for the same or less money if you do your research.

 

I fully understand why some prefer to take new over old and can see why if you have had bad experiences with vintage, are not happy to take the risk with something that's been around for 40 years plus still working as it should, are happy to pay the premium for new, just like new over old or take in what the advertising and paid for reviews tell you, that's fine but don't discount something just because it's not new. In that respect I'm lucky that I have a wide engineering background and am happy to restore things which also gives me an appreciation into the engineering that goes in to all HiFi old and new.

 

It can of course just be personal preference, I say it a lot but at the upper end of the market it stops being about better or worse and more about different, it just depends which different you prefer.

 

Getting a good sound isn't primarily about how much money you spend or having to have the newest thing out there, it's about getting the basics right and making sure all the bits you have work well with each other.

 

Like I say the only consistent really big improvement in hifi over the last 40 years has been in speakers which is mostly because really good speakers were very hard to get 40 years ago

 

"""Long winded waffle over please return to your earlier conversation""""

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