I assembled a stereo system out of components starting in the fall of 18 and was fully running in 2019. Marantz 2385 pushing a pair of Klipsch Cornwalls with a couple turntables, CD, cassette, 8 track, and a bluetooth receiver in. I played it on my living room floor for a while and upscaled the design of a commercial rack to fit my heavier, bigger stuff, and finished that rack earlier this year.
Decided I would branch into quad stuff, so I started looking for a Marantz 4000, which is surround preamp (as opposed to their quad amp receivers or 4+2 or 2+2....Marantz made a lot of different quad stuff), to work with the 2385 and some amp for the rear channels of similar wpc. Found a Marantz 300DC for the rear channels and some Heresy's for the back channels to keep the Klipsch sound thing going on. Got the system up and running, and, although I need to adjust the levelling pots in the back of the 4000 (lets you adjust feed to the back channels so you can have some semblance of matching front volume to back volume on what could be wildly different amps) I did get it dialed in well enough that I had a good evening with a Pink Floyd album simply going from stereo into sometimes the Vari-Matrix synthesing, or sometimes just 2 channel out both systems.
The 4000 unit appears to be in great shape, and the 300DC has a couple minor issues that don't affect the sound. Future plans involve a SQ decoder module in the mail, getting a turntable setup for CD4 with the CD400 unit I have, and acquiring some other quad sources and media. So, maybe halfway there. I'll need sources, better component cable for the new sources and speakers, and to expand the rack to hold it all as the new stuff is on the floor at the moment.
I'll attach some pictures; it's not a completely sorted system yet, but you'll get the idea.
Pre-quad system.
4000 Preamp and CD400
300DC.
Decided I would branch into quad stuff, so I started looking for a Marantz 4000, which is surround preamp (as opposed to their quad amp receivers or 4+2 or 2+2....Marantz made a lot of different quad stuff), to work with the 2385 and some amp for the rear channels of similar wpc. Found a Marantz 300DC for the rear channels and some Heresy's for the back channels to keep the Klipsch sound thing going on. Got the system up and running, and, although I need to adjust the levelling pots in the back of the 4000 (lets you adjust feed to the back channels so you can have some semblance of matching front volume to back volume on what could be wildly different amps) I did get it dialed in well enough that I had a good evening with a Pink Floyd album simply going from stereo into sometimes the Vari-Matrix synthesing, or sometimes just 2 channel out both systems.
The 4000 unit appears to be in great shape, and the 300DC has a couple minor issues that don't affect the sound. Future plans involve a SQ decoder module in the mail, getting a turntable setup for CD4 with the CD400 unit I have, and acquiring some other quad sources and media. So, maybe halfway there. I'll need sources, better component cable for the new sources and speakers, and to expand the rack to hold it all as the new stuff is on the floor at the moment.
I'll attach some pictures; it's not a completely sorted system yet, but you'll get the idea.
Pre-quad system.
4000 Preamp and CD400
300DC.
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