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Marantz PM-12 Special Edition and Marantz SA-12 Special Edition

The new Special Edition models of the Marantz 12 series have been developed by Marantz sound masters and European sound engineers with remarkable attention to detail, Sound United LLC. promised at the presentation of the new Marantz PM-12 Special Edition stereo integrated amplifier and SACD player with integrated D/A converter Marantz SA-12 Special Edition.


For years, Sound United LLC. has been cultivating the tradition of making the finest hi-fi solutions even more exquisite with the Marantz brand and offering them from time to time in the form of special models. For tens of years this has been inseparably linked with the name Ken Ishiwata, whose last special models Marantz PM-KI Ruby and Marantz SA-KI Ruby are also of great importance for the latest solutions from Marantz, because, according to Sound United LLC, the company has drawn on the experience of these two outstanding solutions for the new Marantz PM-12 Special Edition and the Marantz SA-12 Special Edition, which is also new.

The classic stereo combination Marantz PM-12 and Marantz SA-12 was originally developed solely for the Japanese market, but the new Marantz PM-12 Special Edition and Marantz SA-12 Special Edition are now being launched on the international market. According to the manufacturer, the new Special Edition models of the Marantz 12 series were developed with remarkable attention to detail by Marantz sound masters and European sound engineers. As mentioned above, they also drew on the success of the celebrated Marantz KI Ruby series.

Interestingly, Sound United LLC. now refers to Marantz Soundmasters to describe the aegis to Marantz experts who are responsible for the development and, according to the company, have more than 65 years of experience in designing amplifiers. In addition, as already mentioned, there are a number of Japanese and European sound engineers who played a key role in coordinating the new solutions.

Marantz Soundmasters are discovering greater potential than expected in some products, according to Sound United LLC. about the approach taken in the development of these special models. They are refining these units to Special Edition models with extraordinary attention to detail by selecting components even more carefully and fine-tuning the sound in countless listening sessions. The Marantz PM-12 and Marantz SA-12 solutions have been the perfect choice for such optimisation…

The Marantz PM-12 Special Edition was designed with only one goal in mind: to extract maximum audio performance from the Marantz PM-12. To achieve this, a discrete design was chosen with separate power supplies for the preamplifier and power amplifier of the stereo integrated amplifier. A toroidal transformer serves as the power supply.

The design of the switching amplifier is based on that of the Marantz PM-10 and, of course, the Marantz PM-KI Ruby. The focus is once again on Marantz HDAM SA3 circuits, which are intended to guarantee a pure signal and excellent dynamics. A new current feedback design ensures wide frequency and dynamic ranges. The load-independent frequency response is particularly noteworthy, which guarantees the use of any loudspeaker system. After all, the new Marantz PM-12 Special Edition delivers twice 100 watts to speaker systems with an impedance of 8 ohms, and proudly delivers twice 200 watts to those with an impedance of only 4 ohms.

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The company expressly states that the new Marantz PM-12 Special Edition is a purely analogue design, which guarantees extremely low background noise. A D/A converter in the amplifier is quite practical, according to the manufacturer, but it brings a number of problems with it, as digital circuits by nature bring electrical noise and can interfere with the sensitive analogue signals. Since the Marantz PM-12 Special Edition is in any case accompanied by the Marantz SA-12 Special Edition, it was decided to outsource the functionality in these, which actually seems obvious.

The Marantz PM-12 Special Edition offers a high-quality phono preamplifier among the numerous analogue inputs, which is designed for both MM and MC cartridges and has a new discrete Marantz Musical Premium Phono EQ circuit.

What more is there to say: The Marantz PM-12 Special Edition relies on thick, nickel-plated connection sockets for CD and phono, high-quality loudspeaker terminals from Marantz made of high-purity copper, and features a continuously variable volume control with a new electrical volume system.

As “analogue” as the integrated amplifier is, the SACD player boasts the finest digital technology. This is how Sound United LLC. describes the new Marantz SA-12 Special Edition as a Super Audio CD player whose signal processing is also available to external sources and which can rely on the latest digital technology.

The new Marantz SA-12 Special Edition is based on the flagship players Marantz SA-10 and Marantz SA-KI Ruby and has been further refined.

For example, a special transport mechanism is available here, the Marantz SACDM-3, which allows the playback of Super Audio CDs, Audio CDs, but also CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs with audio data.

For digital sources there is not only an optical and coaxial S/PDIF interface, but also a USB port. Of course this is an asynchronous data transfer, whereby the full potential of the converter can be used to process signals with up to 32 bit and 384 kHz (DXD) or DSD up to DSD 11.2 MHz. It should be mentioned that the developers have opted for a strict separation of USB and other digital inputs to prevent noise from internal and external sources.

The signal processing is done by a so-called MMM, i.e. Marantz Musical Mastering Stream section for filtering and innovative upsampling to DSD. A specially developed MMM conversion stage using the 1-bit method is used to convert DSD directly into analogue signals. This means that no conventional D/A converter is used.

The output stage is designed with Marantz HDAM-SA3 and Marantz HDAM-SA2 technology and should contribute to the new Marantz SA-12 Special Edition having an output stage with particularly low impedance.

The power supply is provided by a toroidal transformer.

The new Marantz SA-12 Special Edition even has an integrated headphone amplifier, which is completely discrete and uses Marantz HDAM-SA2 modules.

According to information currently available, the two systems Marantz PM-12 Special Edition and Marantz SA-12 Special Edition are scheduled to be available in September 2020. The customer can choose between a black or silver-gold version. In both versions, a budget of € 3,299 must be budgeted for the Marantz PM-12 Special Edition as well as for the Marantz SA-12 Special Edition.

Getting to the point

The classic stereo combination Marantz PM-12 and Marantz SA-12 was originally developed solely for the Japanese market, but the Marantz PM-12 Special Edition and Marantz SA-12 Special Edition solutions are now being launched on the international market. According to the manufacturer, the new Special Edition models of the Marantz 12 series were developed with remarkable attention to detail by Marantz sound masters and European sound engineers. As mentioned above, they also drew on the success of the celebrated Marantz KI Ruby series.

Manufacturer:Marantz Deutschland D&M Germany GmbH – A Division of Sound United
Distribution:Marantz Deutschland D&M Germany GmbH – A Division of Sound United
Price:Marantz PM-12 Special Edition € 3.299,-
Marantz SA-12 Special Edition € 3.299,-
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Michael Holzinger

Michael Holzinger, founder and editor-in-chief of HiFi BLOG and sempre-audio.at, has been working for years as a journalist in the fields of IT, photography, telecommunications and consumer electronics.

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