On Tuesday, October 20, 1998 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, David Anderson wrote:   
   > Hi,   
   >    
   > I don't want to start a price-flame war, but I'm simply curious as to why   
   > Marantz 7 preamps command such high prices compared to other tube preamps   
   > of their era.   
   >    
   > I've looked at a schematic for the Marantz preamp, and it appears to me to   
   > be a well-implemented, but fairly conventional, design.  I have seen one   
   > opened up for service, before, though I've never heard one in operation,   
   > and the only unusual thing I noticed was the placement of the tubes.  In   
   > fact, it doesn't seem to differ too much in terms of circuit design from   
   > the McIntosh C22 preamp, which I've seen offered at somewhat lower prices.   
   >    
   > In fact, for $2-3K, it seems to me that you could build a really good   
   > preamp--one that had far fewer switches in the signal path than the   
   > Marantz 7 and one that had things like a stepped attenuator volume   
   > control.  For that matter, it wouldn't be hard to duplicate the Marantz   
   > design.  Power amps are harder to copy due to the output transformers, but   
   > preamps are generally built from commonly available parts.   
   >    
   > So, are the high prices just due to collectors value--the thrill one gets   
   > from owning something with a certain name and number on it--or is there   
   > something else that I'm missing?   
   >    
   > Regards,   
   > David Anderson   
   >    
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   hello, marantz curious   
   I use to wonder the same thing myself, a while back. Constantly watched the   
   prices rise, back when they were going for about 1k+ having various tube gear.   
   I just thought name brand valuation, even looked at a few that sounded awful.   
   but being a newbie at tube gear there was alot i didn't know.    
   So a year or 2 later becoming more familiar with them, seeing the price of the   
   marantz 7 tube more than double I bought one, everyone of them I auditioned   
   sounded bad. But now I knew all old tube gear sounds bad until you do minor   
   tweaks, bought cheaper    
   tube stuff to experiment with. Almost every piece after tweaking sounds better   
   than whats currently on the solid state market.   
   Anyway bought one figured i would sell it.   
   After repair/tweaks, I was blown away by the sound + many other nuances.   
   It was like a clear window, mind you I was using a Luxman cl-35 preamp already,   
   plus prodigy otl amps, bass is sharp not muddy, highs are crystal clear, mids   
   just right.    
   So ended up keeping it and selling luxman   
   If you hear it you would understand.   
      
   just my 2 bits ;)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)