I've had this amp for about two years now, and it is simply beautiful. It produces a rich warm sound. Great phonograph stage. The only drawback is the power. It is fine for bookshelf or very efficient speakers. I recently got a pair of floor standing Vienna Acoustic Mozarts, and the power was a bit lacking. I added a pair of marantz ma500 mono blocks and use the 1060 as a preamplifier only. I'm in musical heaven now.

I found this Marantz 1060 Amp to be a very remarkable amp. I use it mostly for my home recording studio. I am by no means anything to brag about, But this amp lets me hear everything. If you have something this nice, you NEED nice speakers. I use it also as a stereo amp when I'm not recording. Any thing musically you put threw this amp, makes it sound good. Many different components went threw this amp, and made every one sound awesome. The only problem that i had in the 12 years I've owned one, is that my on/off switch crapped out on me. I can use it, but it doesn't like to stay on. So i finally got it to stick. Now it stays on all the time. Every thing I have ever used this for, by far has been the very best in every way possible way.

I thought it was time to write a review. Excellent product. I've had Marantz 7C, Counterpoint 5.1, MFA Magus and VTL 2.5. Well this Marantz keeps up with those and then some, especially for the value (one can be had for about $150 or so), maybe more for mint condition, etc.

Anyway, this has a killer phono section. I'm using with my Thorens, ESL, Shure combination. Sound is heavenly. Now I know why some people consider CDs unlistenable. I just recently saw Swan Lake and the orchestra was amazing. My wife said, there is no way your sound system will ever sound like that! I had to agree but listening to my vinyl rig through the Marantz 1060 was very good indeed. No listener fatique, no shrilly highs, instruments are more natural sounding. The linestage was also good. It did not add anything to the sound, although changing out the volume control to a goldpoint or TKD stepped attenuator would probably work wonders. Actually I'm considering that. I have a TKD pot right now and it sounds (or doesn't sound) really good.

High frequecies
Mid range frequencies
Very tight and musical bass

At more the 30 years old the variable pots (volume, balance etc) may need some cleaning to produce linearity. Mine have a small 'volume hickup' at about the 1:00 master volume possition. I just live around it.

Mine came with new capacitors (the 1060 is capacitor coupled). I have never seen any others offered with new capacitors. If capacitors work, they generally do not go bad if they are warmed up and used once ever decade or so.

As for the Marantz 1060, just get one. But first I have a Story Here.

At age 60 I've been an audiophile since BEFORE the peak in mid 1980' when vinyl half speed master recordings from the original studio tapes were readily available. Introduction of low sampling rate CDs in that era produced anarchy, mostly because any junk producer could release the worst reproduction on these (perfect digital media) and get away with it. The audiophile world, IMHO, only recovered in the last ten years.

The big news is the CD begot SACD (note the Sony NS90V in the photo). These recordings are almost universally created from the original tapes, just like the half speed master people did 25 years ago. If you buy a SACD you can be confident it will not be an accoustic dissapointment. M. Jacksons 'Thriller' is just, well, thrilling.

However, decades ago I put my money into speakers, not amps. My 30+ year old KEF 104's cost about $2,000 in 2007 money. Each. So I decided to experment with used amps. This included one Marantz 1060, and one NAD 310 for about the same cheap price. The 1060 made the NAD sound like a cheap pocket transistor radio from my youth. Litterally, not figuratively.

The 1060 now drives four KEF 104's including a recent EBAY 104ab (accoustic butterworth filter) version. The 1060 is simply astonishing in this set up. My suppostion is the 100 Speaker Damping Factor of of the 1060 simply enslaves these speakers, that are themselves "reference" models.

For less then $150 use, how can you go wrong?

Customer Service

For a product 35 years out of production, I doubt there is any. However, the market has plenty of restoration/repair enterprises that are more readily available then service for more mundain products of more recent vintage.

Similar Products Used:

Forget the NAD 310. The 1060 is probably an irreplaceable classic. However, I am going to recommend AccoustcSounds solicit for a reproduction version. A number of the expensive tube amps they sell emulate pre-solid state tube amps from McIntosh and Marantz.