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Submitted by
musicgioni
a Audio EnthusiastDate Reviewed: June 15, 2011
Bottom Line: I have had the Audio bug since I was a teenager. Back in the seventies, as a teenager I would look at the fancy silver faces of the Mega Receivers like Sansuis, Pioneers and Marantz, drool and dream about having one. A few decades later and I am happy to have in my collection some of the best receivers of a bygone era. In my collection I have among other a Sansui 9090, a Pioneer 1280 and a Marantz 2325. In a nutshell, love them all. They all have their strengths and weeknesses. They do kick the butt of all Best Buy sold junk and so called digital Receivers I have heard. And from all three I mentioned the Marantz 2325 is my favorite. I have it connected to a pair of klipsch Heresy II speakers and a Sansui FR 1080 turntable and I just go back to my youth every time I use it. The sound is warm, inviting, nostalgic! There is plenty of power and the dynamics (micro and macro) are just right. The Sansui has gut wrenching power and also sounds warm and inviting. There is a certain magic with the Marantz that I can not quite describe.
All my receivers are of better that Very Good cosmetics and the Marantz is excellent. Not a scartch or other blemish to be found on the face plate. Being a carpenter hobbyist I resurfaced the wooden cabinet and it looks better than new. Overall the receiver is a pleasure to look at and magical to listen to.
If you are into vintage equipment you can not do much better in my opinion (and I have played with some really big vintage stuff like the Sansui G 9000 - although Inever cared for the side panel input and outputs though) than the Marantz 2325. Power, elegance, looks, warmth, grace! It has it all.
Howver, as good as these vintage receivers are they still can not really compete with modern high end equipment. They kick all the mid-fi junk's butt but when compared to high end equipment they just do not cut it. Modern speakers have demands that most older receivers just can not cope with. For example, my main audio rig is composed from the Musical Fidelity KW 500 Integrated Amplifier and the Eggleston works Adnra II speakers I bought used in Audiogon years ago. When I put each and every one of the vintage receivers to drive the Adnras, their magic was gone. The vintage receivers, no matter how powerful they are were not desinged to deal with complex speaker loads and high current demands. They do great with high efficiency easy load speakers but even at that serious odern gear ourperforms them. To those who think that they have hit audio nirvana buying vintage gear, enjoy your music as much as I do. Howver please do not for a moment think that technology picked 30 years ago and "they do not make them as they used to anymore". No the vintage stuff does NOT Blow Any Doors of any serious modern gear.
Anyway, the reason for the audio junk that passes for receivers today is US, the people, wanting CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP. In addition, any of the three receiver in my collection used to retail around 700 to 900 dollars 35 odd years ago! Not cheap in any way. If they were sold today they would be costing 3 to 4 thousand bucks and they would still be considered a bargain. Therefore, comparing them to the mid-fi junk is NOT really fair. They should be compared to more serious gear of today like Integrated amps from krell, Musical Fidelity, modern Luxman etc.
Please forgive my "essay" on old vs new stuff. I have them both and I love them all!. Each of these in its own way brings me all that much closer to the music or to a bygone era and my youth!
Cheers everybody!
Used product for: More than 1 year
Duration Product Used: Audio Enthusiast
Product model year: Pre 1995
Overall Rating: Value Rating:
Submitted by
bogart69
a Audio EnthusiastDate Reviewed: August 2, 2010
Bottom Line: Not much I can add to the other reviews that are posted except that I noticed not many people have compared these to amps (both integrated and seprate) from the BIG AUDIOPHILE names..Naim, Rega, Krell etc..Thsi thing really BLOWS the doors off of just about anything I have ever owned, Including the likes of Naim, Rega, Rogue, Krell< Cary, NAD etc..It simply spanks them. I am not sure if being an "AUDIOPHILE" means that you need an amp with no remote , no tone, seperate phono, seperate headphone etc in order to convince yourself it is a "High End Product"..LOL. I have Taken My 2325 into MANY High End Audio Salons when auditioning speakers only to have customers drooling over the sound, In fact I overheard one salesmen telling a customer that my amp was "Heavily Modified" which is why it sounded so good and in time the mega dollar amp which will remain namless but rhymes with Coulder will sound every bit as good...LOL My 2325 is plain old stock. If you can pick one up have a QUALITY tech give it a once over, It will bring you decades of Joy !!!
Used product for: More than 1 year
Duration Product Used: Audio Enthusiast
Product model year: Pre 1995
Overall Rating: Value Rating:
Submitted by
Doug
a Audio EnthusiastDate Reviewed: January 3, 2010
Bottom Line: I picked up alot of quality audio componentswhile in the U.S. Navy stationed in Okinawa in 1976. I still use most of those components and have continued to be especially pleased with my Marantz 2325. And no the Bose Wave doesn't even come close. Pleeease you gotta be jokin'
Used product for: More than 1 year
Duration Product Used: Audio Enthusiast
Product model year: Pre 1995
Overall Rating: Value Rating:
Submitted by
kapangan
a AudioPhileDate Reviewed: October 21, 2009
Bottom Line: hooked up to BIC speakers(upfiring tweeter and midrange,downfiring bass)with BIC 15" downfiring powered subwoofer....do you have any idea at all what clean music is all about?...got it from my uncle who was in the USN,stationed in TAIWAN in the '70's...whew...no matter what they say about VERY COSTLY SPEAKERS,yopu should hear the BIC i have,circa early 1980's...they're the best!!!!!!.....marantz 2325 amp...will see me through...in the last quarter....of my humble life!
Used product for: More than 1 year
Duration Product Used: AudioPhile
Product model year: Pre 1995
Overall Rating: Value Rating:
Submitted by
irezumi
a Audio EnthusiastDate Reviewed: January 2, 2009
Bottom Line: What can I say that hasn't been mentioned in earliers reviews. I'm the original owner of two Marantz 2325 receivers and 2 pairs of Bose 901 Series II speakers. Bought it back in the day for one reason they would go with me to my grave and why waste $$$ on inferior equipment when all I can say is my loss of hearing is due to my system and going to Winterland (3x/week) for until it closed.
Vinyl, reel-reel, 8 tracks, no cassettes, CD and now iPod just blows everyone's mind that this old school receiver can hang. Hey, everything has gone retro but nothing today comes close to reproducing the sound that Marantz and other during the '70s manufacutered.
Like Zeppelin said, "The Song Remains the Same".
Used product for: More than 1 year
Duration Product Used: Audio Enthusiast
Product model year: Pre 1995
Purchased At: Pacific Stereo in SF
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