Ok, so it's 8:00 or so and we pull up to a garage sale address, but it hasn't started yet. We walk up and the lady of the house comes out and opens the garage door. As it goes up I spot a Marantz 2325 sitting in the pile of stuff. I step in and pick it up. Well, tried to, it was HEAVY!!! "How much?" I ask. "Well", she say's, "you have to ask my husband, and he's out putting up signs for this sale." So I wait. And wait. And people start showing up. So I haul the 2325 off to the side and hide it between my legs. Some people notice - and I try to glare them away. And I wait. Finally the "husband" drives up and I get his attention. So, he comes over and I ask him "How much?". And I get a long story about how he loves the amp. and he's had it forever, etc. etc. "So, how much?" I ask for maybe the 12th time? "Oh", he says, "How about ten bucks?". I slap a twenty in his hand and blurt out "I'll be back for the change" and hike the monster as fast as I can out to my car.

Oh man. Hooked up to my Bic Venturis and wailin' the old vinyl, I just cry at the sound that come out.

Sometime life is good!

I bought my Marantz 2325 about two and a half years ago for $ 450 with the wood cabinet , before that I owned a 2252b I loved this receiver but when I found the 2325 on Craigslist I had to buy it and believe me I think I scored pretty good , it's probably one of the best purchases I have ever made . The 2252b was great but the 2325 with a 125 watts of amazing power is fantastic . Right now I have my Klipsch Cornwalls hooked up to it and they sound amazing .

Marantz 2325 - there is very little on the market today, at virtually any price, that will give the pure warm sound of the 2325. I have owned my 2325 since new in 1976 (37 years and counting) and have used nearly every single day. The FM tuner is nothing less than the very best - Marantz was serious here in putting together a near perfect tuner (check out the kudos given today for the even more vintage Model 10B tuner!) Most of the music I listen to is from analog vinyl via a Garard Signature 301 TT. No matter what type/style cart, this amp will deliver the most clear, black background, letting the music shine on through. I've driven very difficult planar speakers to easy to drive Wilson Audio speakers and honestly can say I have gotten out of these whatever they could offer. The headphone amp is very good and I have yet to find headphones the 2325 could not effectively drive. The only parts that have been replaced over the years are the dial and indicator lights. I've taken it out of its beautiful wood case only 5 times for light replacement and/or general cleaning. This thing has been in almost constant use and there is no sign of failure - not even in the various pots that can buildup corrosion/static. My Marantz 2325 has been the work house of my sound system for nearly 40 years - my closest and most trusted friend.

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!

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 !!!

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'

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!

The Marantz 2325 is still considered the "flagship" and started the post Saul Marantz era. Ten years after the incomparable 7, 8 and 10 valve predecessors, she still holds her own among the RMS receiver HP "wars" of the seventies. I believe Technics (National-Panasonic) dropped da "bomb" with the SA-1000 rated at 330 RMS per side, circa 1978. I wish the ranting and raving would not include that "four letter" speaker brand. Does anyone remember the "other" U.S. speaker brands other than Bose? Braun/ads, JBL, ESS, and Klipsch are a few worthy of mention here. I saved my high school allowance to buy this receiver in 1974. Had the Bose 901 Series II initially with their outboard EQ
connected via pre-out / main in and had all the MIDRANGE I could tolerate. But... there's more to sonic bliss than (18) 5 1/4" full range drivers trying to move air or produce a hint of nuance or detail on top.. Nuff said about these speakers people mistake from Idaho (Boise) and not Framingham, MA. Back to my 2325. I bought this relic new from a small specialty store in the mid-seventies at the full retail price of $800.00. To this day, the best audio investment I have made. The bottom "weight" is phenomenal. Vocal presence is uncanny and forward. Top end detail a tad subdued and laid back compared to my Krell KAV-300i integrated. The frequent complaint of display lamp(s) burning out and impedance loading below 4 omega still exists. Bottom line. Using medium to high sensitivity "quality"speakers,with the "blu-glo" seductive look, smell, (yes, smell) , and most important SOUND of this "flagship" receiver with the "Superscope" badge. It may be time to experience the best decade in Pop/Rock history on one of the finest pieces of solid state audio pieces ever made. Peace.

It gets even better on a good set of headphones. I still my Stanton and upgraded to Grados a few years ago. Marantz sounds even sweeter.

1st generation has their problems with the bulbs other than that who cares.
I never got a hold of the Quadraphonic option back then and looks like I'll never find one ever.

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".

Massive Warm Power
Beautiful Spacious Sound Stage
Thunderous Bottom End
Fm Stage is as good as Separates
Pleasing to the Eye
Nothing Like It on Todays Market

None I can think of

When I lost my Father in 2001 he left me his most prized possession .
His Marantz 2325. I stored it for a coupe of years as I just couldn't listen to it as it reminded me of my Dad . I can remember him cranking out Frank Zappa and the Mothers or Led Zeppelin all the time while my sister would wine about missing the Brady Bunch . He would laugh and turn it up louder. He once told me he took out a loan to purchase that Receiver along with some large Advents and a Dual tt and it took him a year to pay it off. He swore he would take it to his grave and he did 25 years later.I finally took it in for service in 2003. It had a couple of lights out and some static in some of the controls. I set it up in the rec room as a shrine to my Dad as he also left me his Advents. He is the reason I am a audiophile. There is nothing you can buy today that can match the signature sonics of this legendary receiver. Unbelievable workmanship , spacious sound stage and presence, massively powerful and warm. an Fm section to die for and as beautiful to look at as it is to listen too. It will stand the test of time as one of the greatest components ever manufactured and will be held in that regard forever Im sure . I listen to it almost daily and my kids will say to me Dad , were trying to watch Spongebob
I just laugh , and turn it up. Thanks Dad , you were right

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