Marantz Model 30 Review

[kib_reddy]

I purchased the Marataz Model 30 about 2 weeks back from HifiMart. I asked around and they gave me the best price by far. My system up until that point consisted of Golden Ear Triton 2+ speakers, Denon x3700h AVR and Chord 2Qute DAC. The Denon is a very component AVR (very clean and powerful) and good enough for even critical 2 channel listening, but I planned to upgrade over time to a dedicated stereo amp.

I tried the Cayin A88 MkII tube amp for a while as a power amp. I loved the sound, very soulful, except for the bass, I cannot stand sloppy bass. I even had the Denon A110 at home briefly - purchased from ProFX for a small fortune only to find it was an open box item, which was promptly returned. A110 had a very clean DAC and a pure and smooth sound.

Build is excellent, love the modern look. The remote is a solid block of metal. But nothing, and I mean nothing, will ever come close to the look and build of the Denon A110 if you have very seen one in person.

As soon as I plugged in the Model 30, first think that stuck me was how THICK and meaty the sound was. This is a very solid sounding amp. All of the amps I have tried up until this point were thin sounding to various degrees. Its the thing I wanted to remedy the most in my system. The Cayin was the best in that regard, both the Denon, especially the receiver were thin, almost vapor like sounding. This was a pleasant surprise, mid range and vocal were super full bodied. I am not sure it is the monstrous power of this amp or the voicing by the Marantz HDAM modules tuning that is responsible for this. The Model 30 is measured to over 170w into 8 ohms, and over 300w peak power into 4ohms, way above its 100w/8ohm, 200w/4ohm specs. Even the beefy A110 had less power. I wanted a high power amp as I plan to own Magnepans at some point. This is a Class D amp that has been reviewed to work exceptionally well with power hungry Maggies. Highs are clean and a little rolled back, but not warm sounding like a lot of Marantz products. Bass is clean and full.

The other thing that stands out is the absolutely shocking imaging this amp is capable of. It produces an absolutely rock solid center image of the singer. The imaging with that thick sound makes vocal the highlight of its presentation, shockingly real. Of course you need a good clean DAC for this since the Model 30 is a pure analogue device with no built in DAC. My GoldenEars are imaging champs and the Model 30 is the perfect companion for them. Imaging is the most important thing I look for in an amp, its only when you visualize the singer standing in front of you that the experience get emotional. I believe this stellar performance is because the Model 30 is essentially a two-in-one, since it has a Class A pre-amp with its own toroidal power built in, as well a what is practically dual mono Class D power amp modules in one chassis. So three boxes of separates, shrunk into one chassis. Its 2L + asking price is good value if you think of it this way.

What the Model 30 lacks is depth to, and within the sound stage. My Denon AVR is excellent at portraying depth. The singer is behind the wall of the room, and the instruments can be even further behind that. The Marantz brings everything to the plain of the speakers, and instruments are closer together, so less of that 3D sound, but very good 2D. Its the only thing missing in this amp. It has only been 2 week and less than 50 hours of listening so maybe that will change with time. I will report back after a few months.

So far, very happy with my purchase. Also since this is a Marantz, service should not be an issue. Thanks to HiFi mart for excellent service. Cheers.

 

[Anurag]

the overall SQ might have been different form their house sound with the introduction of Class D, or they have tuned it to get close?

 

[kib_reddy]

They have a couple of guys called Marantz sound masters who's job it is to approve that every product has the house sound. This one was tuned by them. But this is not the laid back Marantz sound from their receivers. Much more neutral if you ask them. That's a good thing.

 

[firearm12]

I recently got a used marantz pm11s2 which i suppose is pretty warm sounding. I suppose people liked warm sound back in those days. Newer marantz seems to be more neutral as i read.

 

[kib_reddy]

I want to add an update to the review above. I never believed in cables, I have an engineers brain. Not wanting to spend serious money for questionable gains, I purchased a pair of 2nd hand well reviewed RCA cables from the famous Forum Member @Fiftyfifty. Initially I was taken aback by how much of a change it made to my system. I listen to music for a couple of hours everyday, I know its sound well. But still I was surprised I could clearly spot a definitive change a new cable made instantly. Unfortunately I didn't like the change it made. It was WAAY too warm, like the treble tone control knob was turned all the way down.

But after a few hours of listening I got used to the sound, a lot of the hard edge at the top end is gone and the mid range has even more body. By the 3rd day I know there is no going back to the old cheap cable (which I was actually considering on day 1!). Frankly, I cant believe one cable can make such a big change. The Model 30 was a little dry/analytical, now its more tuneful and warm/musical. I didn't know it at the time, it just what this system needed. I will never scoff at people who value cables again. It was stupid of me to buy an expensive system and connect the whole thing with garbage cables.

 

[mbhangui]

I want to add an update to the review above. I never believed in cables, I have an engineers brain. Not wanting to spend serious money for questionable gains, I purchased a pair of 2nd hand well reviewed RCA cables from the famous Forum Member @Fiftyfifty. Initially I was taken aback by how much of a change it made to my system. I listen to music for a couple of hours everyday, I know its sound well. But still I was surprised I could clearly spot a definitive change a new cable made instantly. Unfortunately I didn't like the change it made. It was WAAY too warm, like the treble tone control knob was turned all the way down.

Measure the capacitance of the cable. What is it? If you have a LCR meter measure it. I use a Sigma LCR meter and have made my own cable tester using atmega 328. A readymade kit is also available

There is no magic here though the audio industry wants you to believd otherwise in exotic materials, super conductivity, copper getting oxidized and turning into diodes, rare elements that go into constructoin of the cable and hold your breath, a directional cable where electrons love to flow in one particular direction. Once upon a time you even had cable cookers to cook a new cable and audiofools would swear by it. A capacitor has a variable impedance depending on the surface area, the distance between the plates, the dielectric constant and the frequency. A cable having high capacitiance screws up the high frequency. Even the RCA connector will have around 5 - 10 pF capacitance. A bad cable will have > 80 pf per meter capacitance. It will screw up your high frequency and also the imaging.

e.g.
A cable having 100 pF / meter will show an impendance of 100k for 15kHz (you can calulcate here). If you have a pre-amp with high impedance, around 50% of 15kHz will reach the preamp causing high frequency roll off.

How do you reduce capacitance.
1. Don't use long cables.
2. Use good dielectric. Costly cables use that but don't tell you that.

If you don't want to spend money on costly cables you can do the following

1. Make your own audio cables using twisterd pair of cat5, cat5e, cat6 cables. Even the coaxial cables used for connecting your D2h dishes to your set top boxes have low capacitance. The cat5 cables give < 10 pF per meter capacitance. The dielectric is so good that these cables can be used even at 100 MHz and greater without attenuation. That's the reason these cables can go to gigabits per second.
2. Use shorter cables.

This is what I do. I have discarded all my mogamis, van del huls and what nots. The only problem that these unshileded twisted paris might have is the 50Hz noise and picking up of the whine from nearby SMPS that are on. But these get drowned by the music and far better than high frequency roll offs that occur with most cables. If one is very particular about shielding, then the coaxial cables used for satellite dishes would be a good option at the cost of cable flexibility. You can also see a pair of cannibalized eichmann bullet plugs that was once a part of a glorious > Rs 7k mogami cable.

 

[amrutmhatre90]

How do you reduce capacitance.
1. Don't use long cables.
2. Use good dielectric. Costly cables use that but don't tell you that.

If you don't want to spend money on costly cables you can do the following

1. Make your own audio cables using twisterd pair of cat5, cat5e, cat6 cables. Even the coaxial cables used for connecting your D2h dishes to your set top boxes have low capacitance. The cat5 cables give < 10 pF per meter capacitance. The dielectric is so good that these cables can be used even at 100 MHz and greater without attenuation. That's the reason these cables can go to gigabits per second.
2. Use shorter cables.

Guess what, I just made my CAT5 interconnect cable today!!
Had lots of Cat5 and Cat5e cables laying around at home but I did not use any. Some are seal packed!

I can certainly tell there is a difference. But my reference Pre amp is out for service so can't comment is it a good or okish change.
I also have a Cat5e cable laying around, Cat5 vs Cat5e will it make much difference?

 

[mbhangui]

I also have a Cat5e cable laying around, Cat5 vs Cat5e will it make much difference?

It will hardly make a difference. The capacitance is low enough. I get 20pF per meter with the worst possible cable. That gives me 500k ohms for 15000 Hz frequency. Better cables will give lower capacitance which will give you more than 500k ohms impedance. Assuming that this is fed to your amp/pre amp with a 10 k pot, a 500 k additional impedance (in parallel with 10 k pot) for 15 KHz will hardly cause any high frequency roll off.

One of my so called costly warm cables gives a capacitance in nano farads instead of pico farads. No wonder it sounds warm . A good cable should be totally neutral. But that is impossible because the moment you bring two conductors near each other, it becomes a capacitor. Now that is science, physics. But the worst thing is when cable manufacturers want you to believe that they have some secret sauce that they have and worst than that is our brain believing in these snake oils.

Our sense of hearing, taste and smell is highly compromized and is totally dependendent on what our brains tells us. No wonder people hear a difference in sound by changing power cables.

The audio industry is not very different than the wine tasting industry and people who hear the difference do actually hear a difference. But not because there is a difference but because their brain telling them so. No amount of objective data will convince them and the reason why they will bash forums like ASR.