The Infamous Marantz Mini Stereo Boombox CH-53/CP-53

Your probably right, the units are branded UNIX so it would most likely match up when they were put on the market. Since UNIX seems to be mostly JDM, there's very little information on the build dates, a few fliers show up on Japanese Auctions once in a great while.

 

Hello WeberT, you and I might have cornered the market on these fine units. There is a service manual for these, I saw one on Ebay a few years ago but it sold before my search. The ribbon connectors are kind of finicky, make sure they look like they are in good condition and all of the wires are making contact.

One of my amps also wasn't turning on, after opening it and observing the on/off switch I did something (but I can't remember) to the switch. I might have cleaned the contact points, repaired broken solder, or sprayed DeOxit and that made it work, so I'd concentrate on that switch.

These units take a specific 13.5 volt, 1.1 amp wall wart, it's huge, hopefully you are using that to power the units, I'm not sure what variations in voltage you can use if you don't have the original "Marantz" Wall Wart.

The thread isn't too old, I still have a ton to add to it but work keeps me busy during the warm months. Post your units if you have a chance and if you have the CP-53 cassette player your a lucky person.

 

A little cleaning and some parts swapping and you should at least one nice system WeberT. I'd check the voltage on the wall wart and see if you get any response from the other parts. Hooking it up is fun, I think the power goes to the speakers first and they have a Y cable that goes to the main unit. Hopefully you have one good wiring harness and and two working set of ribbon cables.

 

Thanks for the great photos WeberT, it looks like you added some new photos, hopefully you'll get a full set working. Now it's time for the three sets shown together, on the left is the Marantz System, unfortunately my camera doesn't highlight the "Gold Standard" the system has more gold color than the other silver units. This is all four components, all with the same footprint as the personal tape deck. Only three units will fit into the carrying case and I've come to believe that the amp and tuner with speakers were sold together and the cassette player and EQ were sold individually. This is still odd since the EQ only seems to work with these components but it does have input/output jacks and 9v battery power option, so maybe they thought you could use it with the cassette player.

UNIX by Marantz is still a mystery but I believe it was Japan Domestic Market only since we don't see UNIX anywhere else. My UNIX Micro System is identical to the Marantz Version except for the printing on the front panels, it even has the full FM radio bandwidth and English Information Plates. Was there a UNIX Cassette Player to go with this? I think the PC-36 was the optional unit, I've seen three come up for sale world-wide in the last 10 years and they all go for big money, I don't follow the auction sites everyday so more might have been for sale but they are certainly rare.

My mystery system came up for sale a few years ago, I don't know if the seller was member here or over at BBX and he didn't have a lot of information to contribute on these little systems. The system on the right is what I think as an early prototype version. Either someone scrubbed the UNIX Logo off the system and replaced it with Marantz Metal Badges or it's a very early system before they went into full production. You can see the marantz Badges on the units even though they have the UNIX Colors. If it was changed, I would think Marantz would bring more resale value but we may never know unless the previous owner chimes in. The cassette player is a Marantz/UNIX PC-30, a step below the UNIX PC-36 or AKA Marantz CP-36, the seller claimed this was the correct unit for this system.

Hope you enjoy the system, I've included the BAM (big-ass-mic) and yes it's huge. I should have some more parts to fill in the gaps with this system and hopefully we'll keep these units from meeting a sad fate. My last quest is for a UNIX PC-36 but they are really going for silly money these days and have never been seen outside of Japan.

 

After years of searching I finally found another grail, not part of the Marantz Mini Component System but an actual brochure. My mule worked hard to bring me this treasure trove of Marantz Micro System Information, this is branded UNIX Mini Component Series. This is another S2G Exclusive, this may be the only copy in existence. The archivel packing for the brochure was very nice, unfortunately I need to get a translator to find out what all of this information says. For pricing I use a $50.00 USD to 5000 yen. There's no dates and the Buick/Oldsmobile looks like a mid-70's model. My scanner did cut about 3/4" from the bottom, there is more information down there I can post if someone requests it.

 

I love that the brochure lists multiple configurations and prices out the options. One of my systems was supposed to have the "rack" but the owner couldn't find it. I'm still wondering what the added space was for next to the left speaker, looks like a design error. Also check out the UNIX PC-88DB Personal Cassette Player is also feature with this unit.

More pages coming soon!

 

I've been known to appropriate some photos from the Shiz, but I like to give credit, the more people know about all of these wonderful websites, the better.

 

I wish I could read this it looks like they went into a lot of detail. The unit matched up with the PC-30 or PC-36 Portable Tape Players, the main difference i the players is the PC-30 cannot record. You can see the silver "hot shoe" on the PC-36, this is where the slide on stereo mic fits.

The PC-36 came with a protective case, hot shoe mic and headphones with boom mic, I'm not sure what came with the PC-30.

Check out the price, using the inflation calculator this comes out to $546.00 USD making this one of the most expensive portables at the time

 

The Buick or Oldsmobile is from the 70's so it's hard to date this brochure but portability was part of the package. I find the suitcase model boomboxes to be some of the most facinating, most of these are the top end models I imagine that were aimed at the travelling executive or musician that wanted the best music on the road. Marantz's Unit had an optional am/fm antenna that was very nicely made with weighted base and the back of the case held batteries for true portability. Check out the UNIX Branded Batteries! The case is metal-clad and will protect the stereo from abuse, the unit was sold without the case and these are seldom seen. It looks like the case retailed for over $100.00 USD back in the early 80's.

 

....and the last page, the top part is the case, and the components, the PC-30 and PC-36 are the tape players, now we know they are both part of the system. Add in a case or racking and your unit is portable, check out the headphones, I have to believe these are ultra-rare, mine aren't shown, they have a boom mic that came with the PC-36 Portable.

I hope you guys enjoy this look into one of the rarest systems available. They do pop up for sale once in a while, but the tape decks are very hard to find and the EQ's are very close. There used to be a few members that had these systems years ago, they gave me the motivation to find and keep looking for the entire system. It really is a beautiful small stereo that deserves a back-story, I can only imagine what the guys in engineering were telling the higher-ups to get this approved. If you bought the entire system you were looking at $1600.00 USD (today's dollars). This was at Marantz's worse time, sales were down, they'd been sold and the new owner loved cheap all-in-one systems.

Hopefully there's more to the story, post your systems and add any information if you have it!

 

Found on the net, still no dates for this model, it looks mid-80s, but a pretty cool ad for the system, can anybody read Japanese?