The Ultimate Marantz, Superscope, UNIX Boombox Thread

I've seen some of the Marantz EQs and have the same impression, very light weight, I'm not sure about the sonics but to me they're more for show with your other Marantz Equipment. The little EQ with the 53 Micro-Systems is actually kind of nice, it mirrors more of the boombox EQs that have a nice solid movement to them and can help with the environment.

To be fair I have both the Sansui SE-7 and Pioneer SG-9800, both beautiful units that look great. If I hook them up I usually end up just doing a line in for the light show, which isn't much on these units. I can rarely get an EQ to work where I feel it's really pushing the areas that sound bad. One of my favorites is the BSR EQ-3000, I can get some improvements but overall, it's still minimal.

I'm doing good, we're starting to open back up over here and I like to keep moving. Our big blizzard was kind of a bust yesterday, I was looking forward to some big snow. What happened to BBX, I just checked and your right, I don't go over there too much, I like to keep my material fresh and try not to copy previous threads (but even that is very hard).

 

I've spent about 20 years getting my collection, nothing is hi-end but that's ok, I've got a ton of stuff I love to play with and swap around, right now I hooked up a AIWA 22 to a Denon MD and have been blasting that while working. My Kenwood Stack is going back into storage. I was never a fan of the tuner, it was pretty lame.

I can tell that most of my stuff will need recapping soon, the bass is really disappearing. I just need to start with something easy and get my skills improved, time is also a big factor.

Marantz Boomboxes have such a strange history with all of the name changes, Superscope, Marantz, UNIX, and back to marantz. There's two or three entry level boxes by Superscope but the rest are pretty nice, even the models towards the end have a nice feel and look to them, the CRS-2800 I just got is still sitting on my desk, I really like the way it looks just sitting here. I found out about them from this forum when ARKAY used to talk about all of the big ones he'd find over in Hong Kong, he never posted a photo so you'd have to take his word for it.

 

After Superscope took over Marantz in the early 60's, they went over to Japan to find manufacturers. They found a few companies to build stuff for them including Standard Radio, whom they eventually took over, but they also found Sony and signed an exclusive distribution deal on the tape products destined for the USA. The deal expired in 1979, right before the Walkman was released. I talked with one of the old retired Marantz Product Managers and he didn't know about the Walkman, a product that might have saved Marantz from being sold off.

 

CDV, most brands had multiple suppliers, Japanese Products were notorious for it going by one of the greatest threads posted on The Vintage Knob. Unfortunately the thread is now found on The Wayback Machine.
https://web.archive.org/web/2014060...knob.org/tvk_talk/viewtopic.php?f=1477&t=2395

For the portable media world there's only a small group, I'd put Nagra with them but even they might have sourced out components.

 

Great units Reflex85, some of these units have very small differences like gold plated panels and silver button rings.

The older, larger PMD Model are really nice looking and still a relative bargain in the cassette world, even sitting on a shelf you can tell they were meant for business.

 

Some Marantz Goodies from 1985, a very late sighting, price is in Singapore Dollars.

 

Very nice Lowie Verwegen, the gray front seems different that most models. I'd love to know why they started putting on "by marantz" on the front of these units, either it was to boost sales or region licensing, who knows? I should add to this thread, I've aquired a few more gems from the line-up.