Marantz PM-11 S3 - thoughts?


Anyone here listened to the Marantz PM-11 S3 integrated amp? Impressions and opinions welcome.

Thanks.
classact
The Marantz Reference series integrateds are excellent solid state amps. I have auditioned the PM-11S3's little brother, the 15S2LE several times and finally broke down and recently purchased one. It is now happily driving my 4 Ohm Vienna Bach Grands to new heights. The 15S2LE has excellent build quality, more than enough power for my needs and most important of all - it is extremely musical! Needless to say I have not been so enamored with an amp in a very long time.

And this is the smaller of the two Marantz reference amps. I can only imagine how great the more powerful 11S3 would sound. You have not mentioned what speakers you plan on driving with it, but I can reasonably say that the 11S3 will handle anything you hook up to it. And make you very happy.
I auditioned the 11S2. Beautiful build quality. The upper end was lacking big time so that might have been an area of improvement with the S3. I ended up with the Hegel H200 because I liked the sound a lot more and didn't need all the features of the Marantz. If you like the Marantz sound, it's a no brainier. The build quality is as good as it gets. As far as I'm concerned it's heirloom quality. Make sure you judge with your ear and certainly do not buy it without auditioning it.