Marantz

Marantz
legal form	Corporation
founding	1951/1953
Seat	Kawasaki , Japan
Branch	Consumer electronics
Website	www.marantz.com

Marantz is an American-Japanese manufacturer of hi-fi and home theater equipment .

Company history

The beginnings

The American Saul Bernard Marantz (1911–1997), who was an ad designer and initially operated audio as a hobby, began developing amplifiers and manufacturing them by hand in 1951 in Kew Gardens ( New York , borough of Queens ) . The trigger was Marantz's dissatisfaction with the quality of the devices offered at the time. The Audio Consolette Model 1 , a tube- equipped mono preamplifier, dates from this time . In 1953 the Marantz Company was founded in Long Island City , New York (44-15 Vernon Blvd.). The following year electrical engineer Sidney Stockton Smith joined the company and developed the Model 2 in 1956 . The company's headquarters were now at 25-14 Broadway, Long Island City, New York. As a result, the stereo preamplifier Model 7 (1958), the stereo power amplifier Model 8 and the mono power amplifier Model 9 (1961) were created.

1960-1979

Around 1960, Marantz was only available to a small, exclusive group of customers, mainly in the USA, with its high-quality tube sets. In 1961 Richard Sequerra became chief engineer . With the FM tuner Model 10 he introduced the oscilloscope as a tuning display, see also the picture under the Technologies section. As part of the Apollo space program , NASA decided to use a modified version of the Model 9 power amplifier under the designation 9120 as an antenna amplifier .

Since the manufacture of the oscilloscope tuner 10 and 10B was not profitable, Marantz got into financial difficulties with his success in 1964; in the same year Saul Marantz sold his company to the California Superscope Company . A year later the company headquarters was relocated to Chatsworth, California . When developing new devices, Marantz turned increasingly to transistor technology . In the mid-1960s, Superscope outsourced much of the production to Japan and worked with Standard Radio Corporation . The devices of Japanese origin can be recognized by the type plates with the note “Designed in USA, built in Japan”. Only the high-quality products were still manufactured in the USA. In 1968 Saul Marantz retired from management.

Integrated amplifier Marantz 1122 (around 1978)

In 1972 Saul Marantz helped found the loudspeaker manufacturer Dahlquist and worked together with Sidney S. Smith as a manufacturing consultant. In 1972, Superscope founded Marantz Far East in Japan . Just three years later, Superscope again sold 50% to the Japanese Standard Radio Corporation , which changed the name to Marantz Japan . Under the increasing cost pressure z. B. replaced the lavishly engraved labels on the front panels with a not very durable screen printing . Production in America was gradually stopped. In addition to amplifiers and tuners , the product range also included turntables and loudspeaker boxes .

In Europe , especially in Germany , Italy and Switzerland , Marantz made a breakthrough from 1972 with affordable devices. Great Britain had a market covered by its own producers, so that the still high-priced devices could hardly gain ground compared to companies such as Quad , Leak and Radford. Mid-1970s, Marantz also offered quadraphonic Receivers with a Quadro adapter.

In 1976 loudspeaker developer Edmund (Ed) May moved from JBL to Marantz. With his death in 1980, the loudspeaker sector was no longer pursued.

In 1979 Marantz presented the high-quality Esotec series. In the same year, the Japanese engineer Ken Ishiwata came to Marantz. Ishiwata became known when he improved serial devices, often by equipping sound-relevant assemblies with higher-quality parts. These devices were later marketed under the name KI Signature .

1980-1999

In 1980, Superscope sold due to its own financial difficulties Marantz up to the subsidiary responsible for the USA and Canada to Philips . In the 1980s, Marantz, working closely with Philips, was also involved in digital technology . The first CD player came on the market in 1983 , the device was identical to the Philips CD-100 , but bore the Marantz logo. Around 1986 Saul Marantz made a successful comeback together with his partner John Curl under the name Lineage . The first production was sold out immediately at CES . However, Saul Marantz then withdrew for health reasons. Marantz entered video technology with the CDV-780 laser disc player .

1990 Philips also took over the North American Marantz branch, which had been sold by Superscope to Dynascan in 1987. The nineties were marked by the merging of audio and video technology . At the IFA 1991, the CDR-1 CD recorder was presented, which made it possible to make professional digital recordings at home. The first THX -certified amplifier, the SM-80 , came onto the market in 1992, followed about four years later by the also THX-certified receiver SR-96 . The Video Projector VP8770 and the plasma television PD4280 completed the offer.

Since 1996, Ken Ishiwata has also worked as a brand ambassador.

Saul Bernard Marantz died on January 16, 1997 at the age of 85.

In the late 1990s, Marantz resumed production of the Model 7, 8 and 9 tube amplifiers . The devices were handcrafted at the Valve Amplification Company in Durham , North Carolina . At the end of 1999, Marantz introduced the first super audio CD player, the SA-1 .

2000 until today

In May 2001, Marantz Japan Inc. took over the trademark rights and sales for Europe and the USA from Philips . The company established branches in Germany, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands and the USA. In 2002 Marantz merged with competitor Denon to form D&M Holdings Inc. , which was later renamed the D + M Group. In addition, the companies McIntosh , Boston, Snell, Escient, Denon DJ, Calrec, D&M Professional (since 2004) and D&M Premium Sound Solutions belong to this holding company (the product lines of the individual manufacturers were continued independently.). In 2008 Philips ended its 28-year collaboration with Marantz.

In 2013, Marantz presented the particularly high-quality network player NA-11S1 .

On March 1st, 2017 Sound United LLC - parent company of the brands Polk Audio, Definitive Technology and Polk BOOM - took over the D + M Group. Sound United is part of DEI Holdings, a group of companies belonging to the Boston-based private equity firm Charlesbank Capital Partners, LLC.

Ken Ishiwata left Marantz in May 2019.

Technologies

Tuner 150 with oscilloscope and tuning wheel typical of Marantz (1975–1978)

In 1962, an oscilloscope was first used as a tuning indicator for tuners. It was used in high-quality tuners and receivers until the 1970s.

In 1963 Marantz developed the first turntable with a tangential tonearm , the SLT-12. However, the mechanics proved to be problematic.

In the seventies, the system called Marantz Auto Azimuth Control (MAAC) was created , which solved azimuth problems when playing compact cassettes with its piezo-controlled tape head tracking . However, the SD930 cassette deck suffered from fragile processing. It was only when Nakamichi bought parts of the MAAC patents and built a revised version with an electric motor instead of the faster piezo control in his model Dragon that the system, now called NAAC (Nakamichi Auto Azimuth Control) , was able to prove itself in this upper price class device.