Marantz PM-90 Review (Vintage Amplifier)

[testp]

once upon a time i bought pm-80. that thing sounded too muted most of the time, some caps were probably too old.

 

[sarumbear]

Coming from Germany, I remember travelling to Ireland by ferry and bus in 1990.We made a three day stop in London and walked more or less the tourists‘ routes. I do not remember any dedicated HiFi-Shops, audio was sold together with vacuum cleaners and TV.

Dedicated Hi-Fi shops were and still not on the high street. London real estate was and still is very expensive for them. However, Edgeware Road just off Oxford street during 90s had a few Hi-Fi only shops.

 

[KEFCarver]

It is. I use 5 mv for MM and 0.5 mv for MC. The dashboard is showing the output, not input.

Thanks- Ater I made the post I thought about it some more and realized it was the output and I should not post so late at night

 

[Ron Texas]

Accounting for inflation $1500 in 1991 would be $3000 today.

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Thanks for the great review, what a beautiful piece of equipment, you do all this for free. I‘ll help you carry it down the stairs .

 

[Doodski]

Thanks for the great review, what a beautiful piece of equipment, you do all this for free. I‘ll help you carry it down the stairs .

That Marantz golden sort of finish and the Luxman champagne silver/golden sort of finish have stood the test of time very well and created a strong following of people that appreciate the style.

 

[dualazmak]

Excellent phono performance. What a great looking unit.
....
Back in the day you could buy one of these and a CD player or record player and have a complete stereo. I hate all the tiny looking crappy boxes modern hifi stuff comes in. Give me one nice looking box.

So, at present, how about Accuphase integrated amp series, especially the newest E-800 (Class-A) and E-480 (Class-AB)? You may find English catalog and English technical information in the linked pages. (I am using E-480 E-460.)

Yamaha's integrated amp series are also amazingly nice especially the newest A-S3200. (I am using A-S3000 and A-S301.)

As some people already referred, Luxman's integrated amplifiers are highly ranked and sound wonderfully nice, especially the newest L-509X. In the Luxman's integrated amp series, the yellow backlight VU meters represent pure class-A amplifiers.

All of the above are internationally available for AC 100 V, 120 V, 220-240 V countries, I believe; also with nice durability, amazing build, warranty, and maintenance and repair services, which push the prices though.

 

[testp]

So, at present, how about Accuphase integrated amp series, especially the newest E-800 (Class-A) and E-480 (Class-AB)? You may find English catalog and English technical information in the linked pages. (I am using E-480.)

Yamaha's integrated amp series are also amazingly nice especially the newest A-S3200. (I am using A-S3000 and A-S301.)

how is Yamaha AS3000 compared to Accuphase E480 or the other way around?

 

[dualazmak]

how is Yamaha AS3000 compared to Accuphase E480 or the other way around?

Sorry, but I am using E-460 and corrected in my post #87 above.

Both of E-460 and A-S3000 are really nice looking and sound great. The choices between them would totally depend on your preference and your SPs, I believe.

You would please visit my posts here to here for my intensive subjective evaluations and comparison at my actual listening environments with my SPs.

 

[GXAlan]

You would please visit my posts here to here for my intensive subjective evaluations and comparison at my actual listening environments with my SPs.

I think there is a strong belief that all amplifiers sound similar, with ABX testing being quite difficult. On the other hand, testing into a speaker load is very different than testing into a speaker and as you have pointed out, different drivers can be powered by different amplifiers with different characteristics.

I believe that everything can be measured, but not everything is measured. For years, people have talked about Class D amps not sounding as good yet by most measurements it’s pretty good. What I am understanding now is that looking at linearity of distortion by different frequencies at different powers, we can see a bigger difference than the classic comparison of THD at 1kHz from low to high power, or the THD from 20Hz to 20kHz at a single power level.

 

[respice finem]

...there is a strong belief that all amplifiers sound similar...

"Similar" is a question of definition. A valve amp can sound much "off", compared with the solid-state world. But if an amp is solid-state and not "broken by design", it at least should sound indistinguishably similar to any other "not broken" one. Any remaining difference will be orders of magnitude behind room and speaker related factors IMHO.
This is why, this day and age, as much as I like "good old Panzer Hi-Fi" and how nice it can be, if you prefer precise sound over pleasant, this kind of money is IMHO better spent on active speakers with proper waveguides and their own dedicated amps. Recording people use them for a reason (which is not because they're deaf). That said, to each their own, it's a hobby, not a trip to Mars.

 

[wwenze]

Class AB looks the same as A... could it be because this is one of those Marantz "Quarter A" amps that stay class A until a very high output voltage?

 

[respice finem]

But then, the switch wouldn't be necessary.

 

[GXAlan]

Class AB looks the same as A... could it be because this is one of those Marantz "Quarter A" amps that stay class A until a very high output voltage?

The only difference is in the first 3W, which may actually be appropriate if dealing with high efficiency speakers. It’s not a QuarterA design. For the most part, it confirms that AB is the best mode to be in unless, again, you are dealing with high efficiency speakers.

But if an amp is solid-state and not "broken by design", it at least should sound indistinguishably similar to any other "not broken" one. Any remaining difference will be orders of magnitude behind room and speaker related factors IMHO.

Agree that speakers and room make the biggest differences, but that is true for all electronics. The standard of “not broken” is a potentially challenging one, with average SINAD of amplifiers tested here being 79 which isn’t truly transparent, amplifiers from the 1990s beating out amplifiers from the 2020s.

 

[Chromatischism]

So was this designed by American, Belgian, Dutch, or Japanese engineers?

Could have been U.S. until 1992 according to this, but who knows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marantz

 

[Chromatischism]

Considering the fluctuation in the voltage delivery in North America through the days and having monitored the mains voltage for a couple of years and noticing that it dipped down to ~105VAC and peaked at ~128VAC I think it would be safe to run the Marantz on the lower voltage but the higher voltage is questionable.

Really depends where you live. In the midwest I'm not seeing below 115v and it's typically 117-120v.

 

[GXAlan]

So was this designed by American, Belgian, Dutch, or Japanese engineers?

Could have been U.S. until 1992 according to this, but who knows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marantz

https://www.audiohistory.com/files/documents/marantzhistory.pdf

It’s tricky because Marantz in the US was a different company than Marantz in the EU and JP during this specific time. There is an interview that talks about how the Marantz name was split as well.

https://www.sarte-audio.com/sites/default/files/marantz_ken_ishiwata.pdf

This amplifier never made it outside of Japan and it’s made in Japan, so more likely than not it was the Japanese team. (Though JBL famously made Japanese only products that were designed in California and manufactured in California at one point).

 

[peng]

with average SINAD of amplifiers tested here being 79 which isn’t truly transparent, amplifiers from the 1990s beating out amplifiers from the 2020s.

I would agree 79 SINAD is not truly transparent, but then what is, 115-120 dB? I just noticed that by SINAD measured at the power amp output, this above average Marantz in the 90's ranks below a few AVRs, one receiver and at least one streaming device that are made in the 2020's. So on that basis, I am not sure if 1990s amps actually beat out those in the 2020s.

I do like vintage amps and I have a pair of Marantz in the 70's that measured about the same as the PM-90, but I wouldn't say those vintage amps are more transparent than even my AVRs either based on available specs and measurements. According to my ears, my vintage amps sound as transparent as my newer amps and AVRs too, but that's mostly my subjective impression, so surely others will have different experience .

 

[GXAlan]

I would agree 79 SINAD is not truly transparent, but then what is, 115-120 dB? I just noticed that by SINAD measured at the power amp output, this above average Marantz in the 90's ranks below a few AVRs, one receiver and at least one streaming device that are made in the 2020's. So on that basis, I am not sure if 1990s amps actually beat out those in the 2020s.

Well, it's a question of 5W SINAD at 1kHz versus overall performance. The AVR X3700H and PM-90 will probably be similar at 5W 1kHz, but look at what happens above 20W. There can be 5-10 dB differences depending on the frequency.

Not to mention CEA-2006/490A peaks of 242W vs. 324W. The streaming amp doesn't handle the higher powers either.

You would expect a computer from 2020 to outclass a computer from 1991, and indeed it does. Fastest desktop PC is 1991 was the 486 DX50 and the first teraflop supercomputer was in 1993. By 2017, we had a teraflop desktop CPU.

We'd expect the AHB2 to be the norm, not the exception.

 

[peng]

Well, it's a question of 5W SINAD at 1kHz versus overall performance. The AVR X3700H and PM-90 will probably be similar at 5W 1kHz, but look at what happens above 20W. There can be 5-10 dB differences depending on the frequency.

View attachment 154609
Not to mention CEA-2006/490A peaks of 242W vs. 324W. The streaming amp doesn't handle the higher powers either.

You would expect a computer from 2020 to outclass a computer from 1991, and indeed it does. Fastest desktop PC is 1991 was the 486 DX50 and the first teraflop supercomputer was in 1993. By 2017, we had a teraflop desktop CPU.

We'd expect the AHB2 to be the norm, not the exception.

I didn't mean to compare the Marantz amp to an AVR really, just making the point that even just on ASR's list there are quite a few modern amps that measured better than the semi vintage (semi because its made in the 90's). By the way, just a side note, the THD+N vs freq curves are great but I wouldn't worry about the curve for above 10 kHz because even the 2nd harmonics is at 20 kHz, human's limit already. Some may not mind the 2nd harmonics either.