6-577: Marantz is a company that develops and sells high-end audio products. The company was founded in New York, but is now based in California. The first Marantz audio product was designed and built by Saul Marantz in his home in Kew Gardens, New York . The company had a major influence in the development of high fidelity audio systems, and reached the high point of their success in the mid to late 1970s. During
12-558: A good representation of how the equipment sounds to each person. For example, some valve (vacuum tube) amplifiers produce greater amounts of total harmonic distortion , but this type of distortion (2nd harmonic) is not as disturbing to the ear as the higher-order distortions produced by poorly designed transistor equipment. The validity of certain products is often questioned. These include accessories such as speaker wires utilizing exotic materials (such as oxygen-free copper ) and construction geometries, cable stands for lifting them off
18-506: Is sometimes referred to as cost-no-object equipment. Audiophile equipment can encompass the full range from budget to high-end in terms of price. The fidelity of sound reproduction may be assessed aurally or using audio system measurements . The human sense of hearing is subjective and difficult to define. Psychoacoustics is a division of acoustics that studies this field. Measurements can be deceiving; high or low figures of certain technical characteristics do not necessarily offer
24-512: The 1980s, while owned by Philips , a pioneer in compact disc technology, Marantz sold some very well received CD players, but other products in the line were not as successful as in the past. Beginning in the early 1990s, Marantz focused on higher-end components. In 2001, Marantz Japan acquired the brand from Philips and owned all overseas sales subsidiaries. In 2002 Marantz merged with competitor Denon into D&M Holdings Inc., later named D+M Group . On March 1, 2017, Sound United LLC completed
30-436: The acquisition of D+M Holdings. Selected products: High-end audio High-end audio is a class of consumer home audio equipment marketed to audiophiles on the basis of high price or quality, and esoteric or novel sound reproduction technologies. The term can refer simply to the price, to the build quality of the components, or to the subjective or objective quality of sound reproduction. The distinction between
36-425: The terms high end and high fidelity is not well defined. According to one industry commentator, high-end could be defined as, "Gear below which's price and performance one could not go without compromising the music and the sound." Harry Pearson , founder of The Absolute Sound magazine, is widely acknowledged to have coined the term high-end audio . High-end audio equipment can be extremely expensive. It
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