Speaker Recommendations for my Vintage Marantz 2270 and Miracord 50H MK II

Check out the Vandersteen 1C!
http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/100815/Vandersteen-1Ci_Two-Way_Loudspeaker-Speakers

I had the identical system back in university ( about the time that General George Washington was hunkered down with the Colonial troops in Valley Forge😜)

points to ponder with your gear

The good option - hands on kit recommendation 

JBL L100 speakers ... JBL,s very large studio monitors from the same era in the 70's. They were relatively efficient, easy to drive, had that signature California sound with heavy spike/ accents  at the bottom, mid, and top end cuz they were designed for the pop music of that era. Even though the frequency curve was nowhere near the linear graph if today's monitors, they were the cats ass of their day thst rocked the college dorms. They worked best IMO with your gear - full stop.


The bad - "vintage" speaker choices 

(1) L100s were never put forth as classical or light jazz fare performers . If you swing towards the latter genre, consider say the  BBC Rogers LS3/6 BBC monitors ... Totally different animals sonically. The JBLs were the very top (in their time) pop music icons but with an emphasis colouring as highlighted herein . Fun stuff , but choose your music genre wisely.

(2) The 2270 receiver speaker posts are the vary narrow gauge wire accepting types with the push-in spring-loaded  cheap tin contact points . They accept only about an 18 gauge speaker wire.
The limitations in that are intuitive and not insignificant ..

They were matched by similar ones on the L100s.

Unless the L100s  or the receiver have been rebuilt with new upgraded posts and caps (unlikely) you are limited to Home Depot narrow gauge speaker wire .... BUT ... i Still had fun with the rig  back then .

current era quality build speakers all have full binding posts ... Sticking in HD bargain basement gauge cheap speaker wire will killing their performance potential ... Like putting sandals with a tuxedo.

IMO don't waste your money pushing $2000 for the upstream gear - you will max out its performance in it a lot lower on the $$ tree.

The ugly (potential disappoint ) 

(1) This can be great fun  nostalgia gear.... But Nostalgia gear in a shoot-out / head to head bake-off against a quality build Euro integrated amp from today just won't measure up, so that price/performance quotient is still a big compromise and resulting point to ponder. Again, it's fun stuff but don't expect any insertion of $2k speakers into the mix will dramatically elevate the performance quotient and made its warts,

(2) 40 year old gear all fails ... Not if, but rather when. The costs to repair them properly fire even the basics ( caps, speaker surround refiam, limited grunt in the packed in power supply that will fail, ) will likely exceed its FMV without prejuduce to the fact that today's integrated amps will handily best  that receiver. It was good in its day and can still provide great enjoyment, but as a receiver - any receiver - is quite limited in its performance vis-a-bus its current era integrated . 

Your takeaway

I had this system. ...It was fun And Good for Its time ... But  ... To spend up to $2000 strata speakers with this nostalgia gear is IMO severe overkill and a poor spend. That $2k pricepoint  speaker won't overcome its warts and send you to that audio nirvana point .

 Sure... the rest of the nostalgia gear is fun kit but it plateaus out severely performance wise with speakers costing in the same price bracket as the receiver commands. The excess outlay will be a waste ... Full stop.

Enjoy the gear but IMO resist any temptation to think that $2k speakers are the silver bullet for you. This fun nostalgia gear attains its max performance level well down the speaker price pole and  you will have a fun kit maxed out anyway.

Happy hunting....

The 2270 was refurbished with all new caps etc. just recently. I contacted the shop who did the work and am going to have them change out the speaker posts to spades. $100.  At the price point I paid for this I would have had to pay 3-5 times it cost plus many don't have Phono pre built in.  It is a 100% analog rig. As for the jbl 100 I too looked at them 40 years ago and opted for a set of Avid 103. In my option they blew them away for a fraction of the price. I can honestly say this receiver blew away the 8'year old integrated I previously was using.  Love the look of it too. Looks brand new. Not a scratch. I too believe I don't really have to spend $2,000 but was using that as a limit. But thanks for the input.