Marantz Model 30 Integrated Amp & SACD 30N Streaming SACD Player Review & Comments

What I didn't appreciate from your article until I went online and looked it up is that these are £2,700 each so £5,400 the pair.
 
It always amazes me the shear cost of consumers electronics these days. I guess it will come a time when these will be heavely discounted. Looks better built than Naim products.
 
If you don't want to hide your hifi away these are as no go looks wise
 
Are they kidding? When I saw the review picture and the brand name and the fact that this was a Marantz and capable of SACD use, I figured it would cost around £1000-£1500 max.
Slightly shocked to see that it cost £2700 in the article, and fell of my chair to now realise that it is DOUBLE that for both pieces, if that is correct. And no speakers..
If the review suggests it needs a good pair of speakers to get the best from them, it is odd that some are not supplied for that price. Will be a very slow seller and I would guess heavily discounted if retailers want to shift these.
 
Are they kidding? When I saw the review picture and the brand name and the fact that this was a Marantz and capable of SACD use, I figured it would cost around £1000-£1500 max.
Slightly shocked to see that it cost £2700 in the article, and fell of my chair to now realise that it is DOUBLE that for both pieces, if that is correct. And no speakers..
If the review suggests it needs a good pair of speakers to get the best from them, it is odd that some are not supplied for that price. Will be a very slow seller and I would guess heavily discounted if retailers want to shift these.
I'd probably expect the exact opposite. These products are not targetted at the mass market consumer and aren't being churned out in vast numbers. They'll not be piled up taking up valuable shelf space in stock rooms so are unlikely to ever need large discounts in order clear space for new stock. It isn't as though Marantz will be replacing them each and every year from this point onward.

As to the speakers.isn't it normally the case that higher tier components work better with higher quality speakers? People don't usually partner such products with cheap entry level speakers anyway.
 
Last edited:
Are they kidding? When I saw the review picture and the brand name and the fact that this was a Marantz and capable of SACD use, I figured it would cost around £1000-£1500 max.
Slightly shocked to see that it cost £2700 in the article, and fell of my chair to now realise that it is DOUBLE that for both pieces, if that is correct. And no speakers..
If the review suggests it needs a good pair of speakers to get the best from them, it is odd that some are not supplied for that price. Will be a very slow seller and I would guess heavily discounted if retailers want to shift these.
They are hifi separates and not that unusual when it comes to Marantz to release players and amps that pair up together. They are far far away from the bundled player/amp/speaker combination sold by some manufacturers. The amp itself is capable of driving high quality speakers, certainly those north of £2000 price tag.
 
Are they kidding? When I saw the review picture and the brand name and the fact that this was a Marantz and capable of SACD use, I figured it would cost around £1000-£1500 max.
Slightly shocked to see that it cost £2700 in the article, and fell of my chair to now realise that it is DOUBLE that for both pieces, if that is correct. And no speakers..
If the review suggests it needs a good pair of speakers to get the best from them, it is odd that some are not supplied for that price. Will be a very slow seller and I would guess heavily discounted if retailers want to shift these.
Why would you expect Marantz to supply speakers it is all about separates as gibbsy stated?
 
Not the highest price Marantz separates by any stretch of the imagination.
I must admit I prefer the look of the PM10 than this series.

I would love to have this kind of cash to splash on the pair though.
I have not heard a Class D amp though
 
Not for me, but must say, that is a nice pair, Missus!
 
It does seem a bit misleading when the very first picture is of two units and directly underneath is the price for one.
 
It does seem a bit misleading when the very first picture is of two units and directly underneath is the price for one.
It's a drawback of our CMS system, that it can only display one product against a review and not two or more.
 
It's a drawback of our CMS system, that it can only display one product against a review and not two or more.

Thanks for replying Phil but the picture shows two products would £2700/£2700 not be more correct or £5400 or am I not understanding?
 
Thanks for replying Phil but the picture shows two products would £2700/£2700 not be more correct or £5400 or am I not understanding?
It can only show one product per review page, so only one product and one price, even if the review features two products.
 
Thanks for replying Phil but the picture shows two products would £2700/£2700 not be more correct or £5400 or am I not understanding?

The only way that can be done is to describe it as a 'system' which loses the scope to search for them separately. We did that with the big active system review I did but that's because we judged most people won't be searching for single components of that.
 
argues that these components have more of an effect on the sound signature of the product than the power amp itself
This is becoming a familiar refrain. PSAudio have used the exact same marketing for their 'class D with tube' amps.

These efforts are becoming quite commonplace now. Class D technology has become so dominant that manufacturers are struggling to differentiate themselves. Some just concentrate on providing a solid implementation at a fair price, and others go down the 'class D with an effects box' route. This is fair enough, as long as you're honest about what you're doing. The success of making things euphonic ultimately boils down to whether the customer shares the same taste in euphony as the designer, and people's tastes differ.
 
I’m in the don’t like the looks and too expensive for what they are camp. I know Ed makes the point about Marantz doing their own special sauce but these are basically cheap Class D modules with some tuning. Whether you like that tuning and would be willing to pay this much for it is of course subjective. For me, the answer is no. In the main because Ed points out that they’re too polite unless you partner them with specific speakers. For my taste I reckon that would make them still too polite. Not that I like shouty but it seems the Marantz house sound is just not for me.
 
Maybe I'm in the minority but I like the retro design and would love to hear these partnered with my Special Forties.
Sadly the price is a tad prohibitive - that and the fact I'd need to have my testicles reattached if the wife saw the DPD man walking up the drive with any more expensive boxes means it's a reluctant 'no' from me.
That said, the last expensive box was a new washing machine so she can't say I don't spoil her...
 
Maybe I'm a bit bias but I prefer the look of the M33. Bet they sure sound good though.
 
This is becoming a familiar refrain. PSAudio have used the exact same marketing for their 'class D with tube' amps.

These efforts are becoming quite commonplace now. Class D technology has become so dominant that manufacturers are struggling to differentiate themselves. Some just concentrate on providing a solid implementation at a fair price, and others go down the 'class D with an effects box' route. This is fair enough, as long as you're honest about what you're doing. The success of making things euphonic ultimately boils down to whether the customer shares the same taste in euphony as the designer, and people's tastes differ.

I agree that there is a move to show you aren't simply taking an off the shelf amp and putting it in your box but what's happening with the Model 30 is the diametric opposite of PSAudio. Marantz has used HDAM for nearly thirty years. They are adamant it measures better than op amps (I've been trapped in a room with a Marantz engineer, they really are quite keen on this) and that's why they're in pretty much everything they make. There's no attempt at induced euphoria, it is simply Marantz's application of the best measuring output they can make.

The argument here is that the Model 30's output implementation is both better than the supplied one and more in keeping with the behaviour of other Marantz amps rather than being there to make it sound different. Certainly, the measurement results I've seen for both units doesn't point to wilfully induced colouration.
 
Not wanting to rain in anyone's parade, but the HDAM concept is what we in the old days called a hybrid . Everybody in the professional business made them, Analog Devices, Burr Brown and they were modules ,built in a PCB and provided a function.. eg analogue Op Amp or DAC or ADC . Once completed and tested they were fully encapsulated in epoxy. Basically they allowed an analogue designer to mix and match and get the optimal performance, that a monolithic IC could not do. Eg you could match JFETs on an input, with Bipolar or MOSFET drives, real capacitors and maybe a physical inductor , rather than gyrators . Once upon a time, the OP Amp was a complete circuit configuration, not a chip...and had better characteristics. So it makes it a no brainer for a high end ,but volume manufacturer, to design an build and refine their own no compromise device.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom