The Ultimate Marantz, Superscope, UNIX Boombox Thread

What a cool option, I'm surprised more boomboxes didn't have these. Superscope had protective covers for the PMD Line of recorders very similar to this.

 

The UNIX KZ-1000, it looks like a karaoke machine, there's something about the pressboard that doesn't inspire me, oh yea, it also takes 8-tracks!

Edit: I've looked at a few other units like this one, it seems to be a standard design for these early home karaoke machines. The 8-track cartridge holds the pre-recorded songs on it without a vocal track. While singing to the music you can record yourself on the cassette deck.




This does say Marantz Japan on the label, it's hard to see in these photos.

 

These might be the microphones that go with the UNIX KZ-1000. These are the UNIX CSA806

 

This is one of two UNIX Units I've seen come up for sale in North America the last 10 years, there might be more that I missed. The blue color is striking and it's matching handle really pulls off the appeal. I should have bought it but I had no idea of the quality and they wanted pretty good money for it, this was about two years ago.

 

I wonder if the Sansui Version had any other color beside black but even the black is nice with the high gloss sides and the flat black center section.

 

I thought the Superscope CRS-3504 was just a rebadged Marantz PMS-3500 but with four radio bands but there is a real difference, I'll post my Marantz PMS-3500 soon and we can see the changes.

Some of this is a little boggling since most historical information says Phillips bought Marantz in 1980. It's more like they bought the name from Superscope for certain markets but Superscope still survived primarily making high end portable recorders and still do today. Marantz Japan split into at least three entities, all still surviving today and it seems to be the manufacturing arm for the boxes and personal cassette players that were sold to both Phillips and Superscope in the 80's.

I added some more Marantz Japan Information on the first page, there's at least one more version of the company I'll add soon.

 

Get the Sansui AKA UNIX 3.5 while you can, they always went for decent money but now they're getting silly money for them. It's definitely on the list of market movers along with the AIWA Microcassette Unit.

 

Thanks for checking in Cassette2go! I was hoping to see your Marantz PH-32 after reading some old threads on the forum reader. Are you implying the Sears model is also the UNIX-3? That would be a really cool discovery and they do look alike, I just need to get my reading glasses on.

Your photos are great, thanks for adding them.

I'm checking out the Sears Vendor List over at Vintage Machinery and believe it or not Marantz is listed as a vendor, * 773, so there may some truth to this, do you have a full model number, not the numbers on the back? Usually the vendor number is the first followed by a period and a bunch of more numbers. Simpson-Sears is the Canadian Sears so they may have used a differnet numbering system but still fascinating.
http://vintagemachinery.org/Craftsman/manufacturers.aspx?sort=1


EDIT 2/19/19 I finally found a UNIX-3 and can confirm it's identical to the Sears, Cassette2go, thanks for the information! Do you know if there were other Sears Marantz Models and were they Canada only?

 

Most UNIX Branded Items seem to be portable units but they must have had a decent component line, here's a speaker, the blue is outstanding.

It was listed a few years ago on a Russian Site

• Sell a rare 4-band acoustics Unix KS300 - a professional version of the Marantz LS17
max 200W weight about 25kg, 100W / 8Ohm, max 200W
w / h horn, n / h 38cm - paper, s / h - paper
• Notable differences from Marantz LS17
The suspension is more rigid on the n / a dynamics, since the paper is impregnated, the lack of regulators, h / h, s / h
The cabinet is covered with eco-leather, carrying handle, at the corners protective metal corners
The sound is brighter, voluminous, dynamic and assertive, bass drum and accurate without milling
bright, transparent, volumetric middle, stunningly detailed high
Great sing from the lamp
Smart appearance, live look impressive
The condition is excellent, the speakers are ideal, the case without damage, almost did not work, bought for fun in Japan, mostly as an element of the interior, impressed the appearance, but later the sound, as it turned out sounded like they look, saturated, boldly

 

One of the rarest and most coveted Marantz UNIX Units, the UNIX CRS-2. This is a micro-cassette player that seems to have been made only for the Japanese Market even though it has a full FM band. I think they did this so they could include the TV band that takes up the upper frequency in Japan. This is a mythical unit and this might be the first time it's been posted on any forum or blog, I don't remember anybody posting about this model.

This is not mine but it is for sale....AO are you out there?



I borrowed this picture from that great site shizaudio.ru, thanks Mystic!

 

I've added a few dealer cut sheets to earlier posts if you missed them, some of it may be seeing the first light of day, at least on the internet. Instead of adding new posts I edited old posts to add them. I still have a bunch more information to add to hopefully keep this thread exciting.

 

Were those your Marantz Speakers Mystic? $1000, that's lot of cash for used speakers, I'm assuming they were a pretty decent line then. I've got older Made in USA Marantz HD-880's, huge monster speakers that were close to the best Marantz made over here, they've slowly gone up in value over the years in a nice way. A lot of Marantz's Speakers had cool looking fronts, some of the foam grills have squares that are in the shape of a "M", you have to look close to catch it, and my big ones have a beautiful front baffle when exposed and a really cool 3-D grill that's almost diamond shape. The big speakers have a concave dust cover, the only speakers I know of with it and a good way to tell if they've been replaced. I have to believe that those speakers have zero connection to mine, made at a different factory with different engineers.