Marantz 1122DC Console Stereo Amplifier

61 watts of class AB, DC power. Need I say more? What a beautiful amplifier with it's classic Marantz symmetrical design, beautiful warm sound that can be expected from the 1xxx series of stereo console amplifiers and more than enough inputs for all of your devices, this is all you needed. This wonderful example was brought in by a client who had intermittent and then no sound coming from it at all.

Sony TA-1055 Integrated Stereo Amplifier

At a very under-rated 20 watts per channel, this DC integrated amplifier is a true gem. This is actually the second time I've had one of these and I'm still in love with it's design. A warm sounding amplifier, it really can deliver in the sound department.

Marantz Esotec series PM-4 Class A integrated amplifier

Well I thought I'd start with a classic. A Marantz Esotec series PM-4. This little beauty does 60 watts per channel in Class A+B, or hit the magic button and it does 15 watts per channel in pure Class A. It really doesn't sound like much, but when I crank this little beauty up a couple of notches you see people's faces light up. Then you tell them that it's only 15 watts and they just look dumfounded!

This amplifier is quite the statement. It had metal ribbed sides, from which the power amplifier transistors were directly connected to for convection cooling, steel mesh cover giving ample cooling. It still retained the champagne finish for the controls, and a wonderful symmetrical design.



I will admit, I did pay a bit too much for this little beauty. Especially for the state it was in. There was dust, rust and worst of all, leaking caps and corrosion. In fact when I first gave it a go, I was only getting sound in one channel and only if I tilted it to the right!

Now introducing..

Well all I can say is it's about time! Procrastination has always gotten the better of me but I've finally decided to journal my adventures in audio preservation and restoration. I've had a love for electronics for as long as I can remember but a few years ago I *stumbled* into the long and windy road of vintage restoration starting with a very humble Marantz 1090 that I had actually sold but was returned to me because the buyer wasn't happy with how scratchy it was.

If he had been happy with the item, I would have never started in vintage audio restoration...

So what are you going to see here? Well pretty much anything and everything I come across. You'll start to see a trend that shows I have a love for Marantz gear, but when it comes to restorations I don't discriminate by brand :) I pretty much fix up anything including amplifiers, receivers, turntables, cassette decks, reel to reel decks- you name it, I restore it!

It may sound like a bit of a smorgasbord, but I really do enjoy it. I find the most joy in working on something I haven't worked on before, the exploration of a new device or a different manufacturer. You start to see trends and patterns in the way things are designed, how they are constructed, and you can almost 'sense' the engineers ideas around how these machines were put together.

Especially with tube amplifiers/receivers and the solid state amplifiers/receivers from the 70's where the integrated circuit was still quite a primitive technology, the way these devices were designed was very unique. Each manufacturer had their own technique and their own style. Without the simplification of the integrated circuit and discrete technologies, each manufacturers designs were so individual that you can quite distinctively hear and appreciate the characteristics that they were striving for. Some reproducing the very warm sounds of tube era, some with the very clean and crisp (sometimes clinical) sounds, and some.. well some that are better left under the pile of junk in the basement where they came from... but that doesn't happen all too often :)

The restorations displayed on this blog are either from what I like to call my 'private collection', items that I am restoring to tell on a certain online auction site that everyone likes to bid on and (with permission) restorations I perform for clients.

Well I hope this introduction is not too long winded. I'll be posting a few previously done jobs so this blog is not too *bare*. I hope that the readers of this blog can enjoy my adventures as much as I love to write and talk about them. Feel free to comment and ask any questions, I promise to try and answer all of them as quick as I can.

Happy listening..

Alex