Old Meets New

Black And White Photography, Joseph, Photography

Most of you that know me personally already know I’m a gear head and an audiophile. I always have been fascinated by knowing how things work. Over the winter I tend to hibernate inside my home and purchase vintage audio components to refurbish them. Most times I resell the finished products but this time is a little different.

When I was 18 years old I purchased my first piece of quality audio gear and that was a Marantz 2220B receiver. Years after the 2220B I moved on to bigger and more powerful refined gear but I always had a soft spot for that original 2220B receiver. To my ears (and apparently many other peoples) the meager 20 watts per channel that the little Marantz 2220B put out were very sweet sounding watts. So about two months ago I found a Marantz 2220B in decent condition for sale and I grabbed it. I cleaned her up and went through the circuitry to make sure all of the 50 year old parts were within specs and the finished product is shown above. I actually bought this piece to collect and keep.

The last photo is showing my every day listening rigs which are two thoroughly modern Marantz pieces a Model 50 integrated amplifier and a Marantz CD 50n CD player – music streamer – digital to analog converter. I chose these pieces because of their refined sound and their classic industrial design that Saul Marantz made so famous in his 1950’s and 60’s designs including the porthole display on the Model 50 integrated amplifier.

Both photos were taken with an iPhone 15 ProMax.

To view these photos in color please click – here

For Marantz history and timeline click – here

8 thoughts on “Old Meets New”

    1. Joe's avatar

      Thank you my friend 😊 MP3s are the worst. I am finding some great quality music on Tidal and I think I will also give Qobuz a try. I never thought I would be into streaming high resolution music. I always listened via spinning vinyl and later CD’s. Unfortunately I sold all of my vinyl and turntable to someone in Canada about 30 years ago. I also ran out of room for storing CD’s in my home (according to Terry LOL). Who would have thought vinyl would make a comeback 🤷🏼‍♂️

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Charly Senall's avatar

        I never abandoned vinyl, and I still enjoy my 80s equipment. While high-definition audio isn’t bad at all, I still prefer the quality of old hi-fi, despite the occasional click. I recommend you try Apple Music, with a wide catalog and lossless music at a reasonable price. I like it, and the AirPlay connections are very good. Warm regards, my friend.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Joe's avatar

          I am sorry that I sold all my vinyl Charly. I did acquire a vintage Philips AF 877 turntable in one of my deals and it’s very clean so I might add a cartridge to that and keep it. For the past 30 or so years I have been listening to separate components made by a Canadian company called Bryston. They were amazing sounding components but it always bothered me that my wife would never listen to them because there were so many power switches to turn on in a certain sequence. So as my hearing stared to deteriorate when I reached 100 years old I decided to sell the seperate components and buy something less esoteric that Terry could enjoy listening to. I ended up with the Marantz Model 50 integrated amp and its partner the CD 50n which is a combination CD player – D/A converter and network streamer. Like you I prefer the “analog” type sound and I achieved it with the Bryston components but at an extremely high price point. With the current Marantz components I’m close to that analog sound at a more reasonable price point. Thanks for your suggestion and I will give Apple Music a try. I am happy with Tidal but as an audiophile I love to try different things like Qobuz and Deezer also. Thankfully all of these streaming services have free trials 😁 Keep on listening to great music my friend 🎧🎼

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