Marantz 6300 Turntable

One of the holy grail of Marantz turntable, the venerable 6300! It was sure a beauty to behold and wonderful to work on. Super easy to service as there's not a whole lot of moving parts.

The build quality was superb, it reminded me of the Yamaha YP-450, or at least I think it was the YP-450. The whole plinth was a solid or at least layered MDF they only cut out what was needed to fit the component. So, 90% of the plinth was solid. The exterior was a nice thick veneer and the motor was awesome. I've always loved large motors as they always generated more torque and had less variance to weight.

The tone arm was decent, I've seen this tone arm on several CEC labeled turntables and it's well made. The platter is of a good weight, similar weight to the platter on the Technics SL-1500mki.

It had a very interesting feature where you can either set it as a pure manual table or have it auto-lift, no return, at the end of the record and shuts the turntable off. The rest is of your typical turntable being it's a 2 speed with pitch control.

In short, it is a well made table, with a very good motor, decent arm and good specifications all wrapped up in a beautiful wood veneer. Not to mention, out is complete with original headshell, 45rpm adapter and those infamous feet!

This one was serviced with new RCA cables and comes with a Shure M95ED cartridge with original and NOS N95ED stylus. It sounds fantastic, I love Shure cartridges. They are always so clean and neutral.

Now, time for me to be a bit honest. It is a great table but, the name offers more than what the 6300 really is, a nice middle level turntable. I would put it as equal to the Technics SL-1500mki. And, that's all I am going to say...

Links!
http://www.thevintageknob.org/marantz-Model_6300.html
http://www.vinylengine.com/library/marantz/6300.shtml

Energy Encore 2 Speakers

My family were the original owners of these speakers. We actually had the entire Energy Encore 5.1 surround set, minus the integrated stands. Slowly, the rear speakers were sold. I kept the subwoofer to use with my sound bar, and the center channel broke. All that remained were these little guys sitting on the same shelving unit for the past 15ish years. I used them for a bit for my computer setup but, opted to use my Mirage Omni 350 instead. While these are considered "big box store" speakers, they are still great little speakers. These were made in Canada. Used their hyperdome aluminum tweeter that made Energy famous from the Pro22 days (thank you Burhoe!). A super nice black piano finish and sealed box, with a 4" long throw woofer. Some Specifications that I took from the web: System Type: Magnetically shielded acoustic suspension satellite Tweeter: 1" (28mm) Aluminum dome with cloth suspension Woofers: 4" (112mm) Multi-laminated aluminum polycarbonate c

Yamaha YP-66 Turntable

The rosewood vinyl wrapped twin sibling of the Yamaha YP-221, they are the exactly the same other than the colour of the plinth and instead of silver plastic bits on the YP-221 the YP-66 has black bits. This is your typical belt drive turntable of the mid to late 70s. It's a 2-speed with automatic return (semi-automatic). It's a nice entry level turntable with all the decent built quality that you find on majority of the Japanese made tables of that era. It has a good sized motor and a decent weight. Yamaha tables are like Sony tables, they always have decent quality components and they always look nice to the eyes. The slight smoked dustcover and the rosewood plinth makes it quite unique to look at. Sadly, the antiskate weight on our isn't original. It was missing when we got it. After a bit of research we found the appropriate weight and found an appropriate weight to retrofit into our table. We found a nice brass weight to fit with the design. And, as usual,

Dual CS-616Q Turntable

Finally doing a write up for a couple of turntables. So, let's start with the Dual CS-616Q. Made around the mid 80s when wood-grain design were no longer in fashion and the new sleek grey and black were in. This Dual is in really nice shape, and I mean real nice shape. While it's not from the 70s, it doesn't mean it's not quality. In comparison to other companies of the time that still made entry level turntables, this Dual is really well made. It has decent heft and it is German made so a lot of precision was still put into it. It is a direct drive, a true semi-automatic and quartz lock turntable. Why do I mean true semi-automatic? Well, before some of their earlier turntables had an auto-lift off at the end but the tonearm never returned to the rest post. So, having it returning is a nice feature to have! It also features Dual's ULM (ultra low mass) tonearm and their EDS motor. These tonearms are especially nice for higher compliant cartridges as

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