Marantz T-1

[stigla]

Have any of you heard about the brand new Marantz T-1 amplifier?

Well, I read an article a couple of days ago. A truly insane product!

Featuring; - All tube, 50W class A MONO block
- Paralell Push-pull
- Tube linup;
4 x 845 Output tubes
4 x 300B driver tubes
(prob. in 2 stages)
1 x 5U4G rectifer (!)
- ONLY balanced input and ONLY 8 ohm output.
- Price for ONE MONO BLOCK;

~65000 USD

- Only around 10 amplifiers made...


I dont know what to say, just wanted to talk about it

A tube change alone will cost about ~15000 USD!!!!

What really is wierd is that this thing cost the same as a good house or car, and then they use a single 5U4G to supply the whole thing!!

My only thought is: They can't be really worth the money!!

I don't really have any pic's or data and it would have been fun if anyone had any more info

[stigla]

uhmmm, well, here is a low quality picture of it..... best i could find for now, maybe I can scan the pic's from the article I read or something later one day...

[Brett]

stigla,

It's not a new design. I've had the schematic for a couple of years now, and I'd heard about it before then. I don't have the schematic to hand, but I have posted it here before. Topology is, iirc, input trans->PP 300B ->IT -> PP 300B -> IT -> PP845.

I personally think it's a very interesting product, but geared to the very rich Japanese connesseur trading on the Marantz heritage and not neccessarily an ultra-fi product. The design is very Sakuma-san.

<b>A tube change alone will cost about ~15000 USD!!!!</b>

Why? A matched pair of WE 300Bs are around $US600 (street price), Cetron or NOS RCA 845s about $US600 ea (max) and 5U4Gs are not that expensive. From memory the 300Bs were not run that hard and even the 845s were conservatively biased.

The schem is still on my crashed HDD, and if I can recover it, or recall where I got it, I'll repost.

<b>My only thought is: They can't be really worth the money!! </b>

No.


Cheers

[gilid]

I saw a pair at an Audio Show back in 1996. They were not playing, but they looked awesome. Incredible build quality, massive size, they just oozed audio excess. Stuff dreams are made of!

[ultranalog]

What really is wierd is that this thing cost the same as a good house or car, and then they use a single 5U4G to supply the whole thing!!

No, that wouldn't even be possible, given 5u4 ratings. They use 845's as rectifiers. Apart from this total waste of a perfectly good tube, since an 845 has maximum 1200V and the PSU drops some voltage, the signal 845's are running at about 1000V. In my experience 845's are best at 1250V, so that's a double shame.

The schematics are on my site:
Marantz T1 schematic

My only thought is: They can't be really worth the money!!

You can build something better for less than 1/10th of the price.

Regards,
Remco