Hello everyone, new member here, not an expert in this kind of stuff so sorry if I'll be asking stupid questions.
I got the infamous Marantz PM-80 amplifier recently. It works great, I like the sound, its in good condition and basically I'd like to keep it that way so here are my questions. Before getting it I used active speakers with Project Debut Carbon turntable, so I have a Project phono preamp.
Question is should I use this preamp with Marantz or not, because I red that most common problem with this Marantz is STK, and I also red somewhere that the STK module is used for preamp part of Marantz, so if I use other preamp will there be less chance of STK failure?
I live in a small apartment, I don't listen music too loud, I hear no big difference in sound.
One more question, about class A, should I turn the amp off before switching to it? I red somewhere that I should, but saw some videos where people don't do it.
I got the infamous Marantz PM-80 amplifier recently. It works great, I like the sound, its in good condition and basically I'd like to keep it that way so here are my questions. Before getting it I used active speakers with Project Debut Carbon turntable, so I have a Project phono preamp.
Question is should I use this preamp with Marantz or not, because I red that most common problem with this Marantz is STK, and I also red somewhere that the STK module is used for preamp part of Marantz, so if I use other preamp will there be less chance of STK failure?
I live in a small apartment, I don't listen music too loud, I hear no big difference in sound.
One more question, about class A, should I turn the amp off before switching to it? I red somewhere that I should, but saw some videos where people don't do it.
You can use any normally functioning preamp with it. There won't be any problems because of that.
Always turn off all the equipment when connecting or disconnecting. People do all sorts of stupid things.
Always turn off all the equipment when connecting or disconnecting. People do all sorts of stupid things.
Last edited:
It can depend on which ProJect phono amp you have and which Marantz amplifier version you have (there is more than one of them - with slight differences in schematics). If ProJect is from the cheaper end then Marantz internal phono stage can have better potential - provided that the MM/MC switch contacts are cleaned and the signal path output capacitors checked to be ok or replaced. There would be a couple of other things to check out too - Marantz has used different component values for the N-versions compared to some other versions.
You can download the user manual from hifiengine and read from there that "this switch must be pressed when the power is OFF".
Thanks all for answering. Phono preamp is MM btw. Basically I wanted to know if using preamp would lower the chance of damaging the amp, STK for example. Currently I'm not using the preamp as I plan on selling it, but if it would be better for the amp to use it I will keep it.