And what about the 7c?

[Rob]

A seller fairly local to me has an unmolested Marantz 7c, an early one I think. I always wanted one and missed my chance when they weren't so valuable.

Who uses one often and would you consider it a daily driver? I don't have much in the way of specs, what's the approx. gain from the phono and line sections? caveats to look for when buying one?

[kcin]

They are a nice piece with a lot of flexibly. They do have selenium rectifiers in the B+ and the heater supply. You need to check the voltages here as the output of the selenium diminishes with age. I find the heater rectifier is unusually sensitive to degradation in this piece. Despite what you read about Marantz parts quality at manufacture, the electrolytics are now 50 years old. I have had numerous models with high ESR sections that have had motor boating episodes or funky behaviour. You can re-stuff the cans- I wrote a tutorioal on how to do it here:

https://www.audioasylum.com/messages...tz-a-pictorial

Cosmetically you will probably find on the inside, powdery yellow residue. This is the dis- ingratiation of the foam damping for the wiring harness. It can be replaced by literally peeling the chassis apart and re affixing a new piece. Amazing that they were aware and concerned with this back then. I don't think we have learned much more since.

The 7 began the high performance vacuum tube preamplifier of which the audio research designs and many others copied. It is a classic. I hear Harry Weisfield uses one wide open( no loading no transformers) for MC cartridges and keeps it around.

For a collector you pay the price. If it lands in your lap for a good deal then you will almost never lose on it. Be aware that if you want to use it, it will need maintenance and that will theoretically affect value to collectors- but there are ways to do it in a reversible way and sympathetically.

For specs here:


http://www.hifilit.com/Marantz/marantz.htm


I haven't had the nerve to get rid of mine just yet.

[Rob]

great info, thanks

[MylesBAstor]

I understand the 7C's many inputs (how cool is that!) but TV? Did old TVs have an audio output? God it's so long I can't remember.

[Rob]

its was ahead of its time, the forerunner to the modern A/V processor

[Rust]

Yes, my family had a TV with an audio line out. It was a for the time enormous 19 incher that you had to get close enough to see that external amplification wasn't needed. Also gave you your daily x-ray dose at that close a distance.