There’s nothing technically interesting about this late-1980s, 150-watt-per-channel amplifier, but the elegance of its design is incontestable. Like many solid-state amps of yore, it has big power meters on the front, but the meter lights don’t come on until the amp has finished its warmup cycle. Note the Speakers A and B switches — de rigueur for the time — and the headphone jack, something I haven’t previously seen on a power amplifier.
There are so many great products from the past that either perform better, look better, or do both better than their current counterparts. You don't even have to even make subjective comparisons to arrive to this conclusion, either. The attention to detail many of the engineers had was outstanding.
The importance is that both modern designers and consumers should make comparisons between past and present to decide both how to design (what to focus) and what to buy (between 2nd hand in good condition or new).
The audio oscilloscope on the Marantz 2150 Tuner was for observing and correcting multipath in the FM Signal. By rotating your antenna (you did have a yagi antenna on a rotator, didn't you?) you would see the multipath change on the display. If you were in a metropollitan area with many high buildings, sometimes the best signal was a reflection off of a building. The scope gave you a visual indication of the strength of the multipath (noise) and allowed you an weasy way to minimize it. Also available in that time period was the Technics SH-3433, a standalone scope that provided FM Multipath viewing as well as 4 channel audio viewing.
Post a Comment
All submitted comments are subject to the license terms set forth in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
There are so many great products from the past that either perform better, look better, or do both better than their current counterparts. You don't even have to even make subjective comparisons to arrive to this conclusion, either. The attention to detail many of the engineers had was outstanding.
The importance is that both modern designers and consumers should make comparisons between past and present to decide both how to design (what to focus) and what to buy (between 2nd hand in good condition or new).
The audio oscilloscope on the Marantz 2150 Tuner was for observing and correcting multipath in the FM Signal. By rotating your antenna (you did have a yagi antenna on a rotator, didn't you?) you would see the multipath change on the display. If you were in a metropollitan area with many high buildings, sometimes the best signal was a reflection off of a building. The scope gave you a visual indication of the strength of the multipath (noise) and allowed you an weasy way to minimize it. Also available in that time period was the Technics SH-3433, a standalone scope that provided FM Multipath viewing as well as 4 channel audio viewing.