Hey Gents, I'm really enjoying the community here reading the many posts. I now have a Marantz SC-11S1 Preamp, and what a fine piece of gear it is.
Having a look, it's first-rate all the way. Highly documented issue, how/why in the world did Marantz swap the XLR pins 2>3, with 3 being hot. I got this beast home, started testing - no magical sound - until I started reading. I modified my cables to accommodate pin-3 being hot, and sure enough magical sound..
It's a bit of a disappointment I have now a 'special' unit requiring special XLR interconnects.. It's not the end of the world, quick mod, but really not free to use any old cable.
And motivations behind it? Marantz to Marantz would work just fine, in phase, pin-3 to pin-3, but start hooking up non-Marantz or XLR>RCA cables, you're listening to inverted phase and it's not usually magical. What a way to throw off buyers. It's also kind of interesting their bi-amp capability, where they propose 2 preamps with 2 power amps, great way to move a lot of expensive boxes!
I am thinking of replacing the internal signal wire to silver, I've attached the service manual and wondering if anyone might have any comment. I've ordered some JST EH style connectors and my plan is to make the internal interconnects as a quick replace / swap - no solder, etc. I'm zoning in on J102, and Tone J601 / J602 - Thinking of leaving the phono alone, as I can't foresee any phono use. What do you guys think? see anything I'm missing, or opinions?
Having a look, it's first-rate all the way. Highly documented issue, how/why in the world did Marantz swap the XLR pins 2>3, with 3 being hot. I got this beast home, started testing - no magical sound - until I started reading. I modified my cables to accommodate pin-3 being hot, and sure enough magical sound..
It's a bit of a disappointment I have now a 'special' unit requiring special XLR interconnects.. It's not the end of the world, quick mod, but really not free to use any old cable.
And motivations behind it? Marantz to Marantz would work just fine, in phase, pin-3 to pin-3, but start hooking up non-Marantz or XLR>RCA cables, you're listening to inverted phase and it's not usually magical. What a way to throw off buyers. It's also kind of interesting their bi-amp capability, where they propose 2 preamps with 2 power amps, great way to move a lot of expensive boxes!
I am thinking of replacing the internal signal wire to silver, I've attached the service manual and wondering if anyone might have any comment. I've ordered some JST EH style connectors and my plan is to make the internal interconnects as a quick replace / swap - no solder, etc. I'm zoning in on J102, and Tone J601 / J602 - Thinking of leaving the phono alone, as I can't foresee any phono use. What do you guys think? see anything I'm missing, or opinions?
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Nothing strange, Kenwood also made this on L1000C preamp, you can't use it with amps for biamp, if using one single ended output for one amp and one balanced output for second. On balanced output you have to change 2>3 and 3>2.
I checked mine with 2 ch scope and solve out of phase on one amp.
I want to mention that for someone else who is interested in this.
I checked mine with 2 ch scope and solve out of phase on one amp.
I want to mention that for someone else who is interested in this.