Marantz vs. Pioneer Receivers

Well I don't have comparative experience, but I have a dinged up Marantz 2250, with burnt out bulbs and somewhat scratchy volume and balance pots. But damn the thing sounds great. Musical, powerful, dynamic, warm, tuneful. Really good FM -- decent reception, excellent fidenltiy. Beats up on a couple of NAD untis I have, one intergrated and one rceiver. The wife really likes it alot -- it's the only audio purchase I've ever made (it was a steal at like $75CDN) about which she's never even bat an eyelash.

In teh 70's, for mid fi types, Marantz, above all others, was the dream name. With good reason.

Richard

Marantz and Pioneer both made good receivers, but I preferred Yamaha over either of them. In fact, I still have a Yamaha in my bedroom system.

For direct model comparison, you may wish to do a search in the Vintage Forum at Audio Asylum . Each brand has its fans; especially when it comes to the TOTL model offerings. I currently own/have owned lower powered models from each (Marantz 2240; 2216B; Pioneer 636) and feel that they had about equal tuner and amp sections, with the Marantz preamp being the better of the two brands. If you are considering a purchase, factor in that the receivers, to operate at their best, will need to be thoroughly gone over, and that will usually run at least $200 or so.

Regards, Rich

TOTL examples from ANY of these Manf., are hard to beat. Allowing for periodic cleaning and upgrading, even the new(er) TOTL gear would have trouble getting to the level of quality of the older offerings.

Memory lane. Back in the early '70 in Germany seened everyone in the barracks had a system in their room. I had a Pioneer SX 1090 (I think that was the model), anyway it was a big boy. Beautiful wooden cabinet. Cool tone knob with a graphic display. Loved it, hooked up to an Akai reel to reel, Gerrard TT, and Bose 501s. Had a complete wall empty except the Bose. Others had those sexy Marantz receivers or the separate components. Seems that those were a plush gold. Which sounded better, it was always constant argument but fun. I sold the system when I got discharged but in the late 80's bought the quadraphonic sister model to that pioneer along with two pioneer and two sanui speakers, both with the heavy wood cabinets and wooden grills. Wife hated it but hey. The receiver lasted about ten years sounded great although the pot would need occational cleaning tp rid the static. The stuff I replaced it with was junk, shoulda paid the $100 to fix it.