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Tuesday, 07 January 2025 15:24

Best Integrated Amplifier of 2024 - Marantz Model 30

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Marantz Model 30

 

Best Integrated Amplifier of 2024

Oh Chris...you broke our heart. We made the mistake of selling our demo Marantz Model 30 integrated amplifier to our client Chris a while ago and our office has never sounded the same. This piece sounded SO good and made many of our speakers evoke the songs of angels. Chris is now undoubtedly a happy man but we here at Aire Theater Designs are devastated. Let's talk about our choice for "Best Integrated Amplifier for 2024"...the Marantz Model 30.

 

Over the years we have noticed that certain electronics pair well with certain types of speakers. When we brought in Marantz's mid-line offering in the Model 30, we were looking for something that would add magic to one of our pairs of speakers, the KEF R3 Meta. We had read review after review raving about these speakers but we just weren't hearing the magic for ourselves. Our KEF reps said that most dealers that were demoing the R3 Metas had them hooked up to integrated amps or pre-amp/amp combos in the $5K-$8K range and he couldn't understand how we were underwhelmed. Before we decided to hit the KEFs with a hammer, we said to ourselves..."What the heck!" and brought in the Marantz integrated amplifier along with the matching Marantz CD 50n CD/network player to see if we could conjure the magic. Well, Peter Piper picked a pickled pepper we did just that. Let's talk specs and then we can let you know what we heard.

 

Model 30 Specifications and Details

 

- 100 watts X 2 @ 8 ohms and 200 watts X 2 @ 4 ohms

- BEEFY toroidal transformer

- Premium MM/MC phono stage

- Analog ONLY

- HDAM modules in driver stage

- Damping factor of 500 (for the uninitiated...that's good!)

- 32.6 pounds

- Retails for $2999

 

Model 30 Sound Quality

 

We tested this integrated amplifier with a number of speakers including the Martin Logan ESL-X electrostatic tower pair, the Martin Logan XTF100 tower speaker, the KEF Q950 tower speaker and the Martin Logan XTB100 marvelous bookshelf speaker. We'll get to that in a second. However, we were really looking forward to experiencing what would happen once we listened to the KEF R3 Meta. Long story short, we were blown away. The lifeless, soft sound characteristic that we previously heard out of the KEFs completely changed. We now heard a neutral tone out of the KEFs BUT with detail and imaging that was previously absent. These speakers now sounded amazing whereas beforehand, we thought we were in the fable "The Emperor's New Clothes" as everyone touted how great the KEF speakers were and we didn't hear it. The pairing of the Marantz Model 30, KEF R3 Meta speaker pair and the Marantz CD 50n network player is a fantastic match!

I then had to put everything I had planned for the weekend on the back burner as I listened to music all Saturday and Sunday through the Model 30 and our other speakers vs. being productive. Audio Nirvana!

We can't recommend this piece highly enough. NOTE: This is an analog-only integrated amplifier so if you want to hook up many of today's digital-only components such as Apple TVs, Roku units, Blu-Ray players, etc. you will need to hook up digital-to-analog or HDMI extractor kits to enjoy these sources.

 

Looking for the best stereo San Diego? Give us a call and let us enhance your life with music and audio from Marantz and others.

 

Read 295 times Last modified on Wednesday, 08 January 2025 15:24