Hi-Fi - Marantz
A well set-up hi-fi system can sound incredible and dramatically improve your enjoyment of music. We specialise in proper hi-fi separates and matching these to suitable hi-fi speakers and pride ourselves on offering expert advice by phone or e-mail and in our showroom. Our carefully selected range of hi-fi equipment includes many industry award winners and spans between great value products, exclusive Audio Affair hi-fi offers and some of the finest music systems available.
You can browse our range of Hi-fi Separates, which includes hi-fi amplifiers and music "source" components, like hi-fi streamers (for enjoying music over the internet and stored on your home network), DACs (for the best sound from your Mac or PC), media servers (for storing music including high res files) and CD players. We also sell a range of one-box hi-fi systems like the Naim Uniti range - just add speakers!
You can also browse our range of Turntables & Cartridges to view our range of turntables, phono cartridges and turntable phono stages (pre-amps) or select Vinyl & Accessories to browse our range of music LPs and turntable essentials and upgrades.
We pride ourselves on good service. If you need any further advice on a new hi-fi system or upgrade for your existing system, please call or e-mail us.
Marantz is a leading hi-fi separates and home cinema audio brand and was founded by Saul Marantz over 70 years ago. Their current range includes both fantastic value budget and high end hi-fi separates as well as home cinema amps and receivers.
Their first product was designed and built by Saul Marantz in New York in 1953. During the 1980s and 1990s - while owned by Philips, Marantz released some very well reviewed CD players including later in the 1990s the iconic CD63 range.
During the 1990s, Marantz also moved into higher end hi-fi separates. Several models were also developed with Ken Ishiwata - who later became the long standing brand ambassador, and some 'KI Signature' models were released that had been tweaked and improved, as well as the legendary PM-KI Ruby. Its true to say much of their experience in this period has carried through into the aspirational models available today.
In 2001 Marantz Japan acquired the brand, which later merged with Denon into D&M Holdings which was bought by Sound United, itself now part of Masimo. Marantz has always managed to cater to both the great value and high end parts of the market, allowing new hi-fi enthusiasts to own the brand, with somewhere for these same customers - and owners of other brand hi-fi separates, to upgrade to in future.
Marantz also introduced SACD players into their range and in 2002 they introduced the SC-7S1 pre amplifier and MA-9S1 power amplifier, with the now familiar M1 design with a porthole and blue star. More recently at the top end of the range, Marantz released the PM10 amplifier and SA10 SACD player, a new standard for their high end range.
Marantz has remained true to CD and as many still enjoy playing CDs, most of the current amplifiers feature a matching purist CD player model - although of course most amps also feature support for streaming and/or onboard phono stages for turntable use if you prefer vinyl.
Traditional hi-fi speakers (either bookshelf speakers or floorstanding speakers) are passive and require a separate hi-fi amplifier. The most popular type of amplifier is an integrated amplifier (a single box designed to be the heart of your hi-fi system, connecting to all of your music "source" components like hi-fi streamer, CD player etc and to your speakers).
Generally however, the most desireable and best sounding type of amplification though is to have a separate power amplifier (which connect to your speakers) and pre amplifier (which connects to your music "sources" and the power amplifier). By having these two boxes rather than one combined box (hence the word "integrated"), each box is designed specifically to perform that part of the amplification and by splitting these duties up, each section benefits from this dedicated design, separate power supplies, and sometimes better components, resulting in better sound quality through your speakers.
Whatever your choice and budget for amplifier and speakers, we have a range of equipment to suit. We also sell a range of valve amplifiers, which offer a warm, rich sound and a heritage of hi-fi listening that is as endearing to look at as it is to listen to. This valve amplifier range also includes in itself both "integrated" and "pre" / "power" valve amp models.
As mentioned, our range of music "sources" is also comprehensive. Hi-fi streaming has gradually taken over CD players (although we still offer CD players and dedicated CD transports which can be connected directly to a DAC). Streaming music didn't used to be taken very seriously in the hi-fi community back in the days of mp3s and highly compressed audio viles, but with the advent of better content available online, using a hi-fi streamer is now a serious option as a music source and can even sound better than a CD player if you play and collect high res audio files.
The popularity of turntables for playing vinyl has also massively increased in past years (beyond that of CD players) but please note that your hi-fi amplifier must have a "Turntable" (or sometimes labelled as a "Phono") input to be able to play vinyl on your turntable, as the output level from most turntables is lower than that of other music "sources". If your amplifier doesn't have this input (or even if it does), we recommend using a high quality turntable pre-amp, referred to in hi-fi circles as a phono stage. We also sell a full range of replacement phono cartridges and other turntable essentials to get the best sound from your vinyl.
If you would like further advice, please call or e-mail us or visit our Birmingham showroom and one of our hi-fi experts can assist you. Don't forget to browse our full range of speakers and our Audio Affair exclusive offers as well.