Marantz is a company that develops and sells

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 ...

products. The company was founded in New York, but is now based in Japan. 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 the 1980s, while owned by

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...

,Iverson, John
Philips and Marantz Japan Re-Shuffle Brand Ownership
in ''Stereophile'', 4 March 2001. a pioneer in

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in O ...

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 is a Japanese electronics company started in 1910 by Frederick Whitney Horn, an American entrepreneur. Denon produced the first cylinder audio media in Japan and players to play them. Decades later, Denon was involved in the early stages of de ...

into D&M Holdings Inc., later named

D+M Group D, or d, is the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''dee'' (pronounced ), plural ''dees''. History The ...

. On March 1, 2017, Sound United LLC completed the acquisition of D+M Holdings.Nikkei Asia Review 2018-09-23, ''Pioneer's woes echo those of earlier Japanese audio legends - What became of Sansui, Nakamichi, and Akai?''
retrieved 2020-04-24.

History

* 1952 Saul Marantz sells his first audio product, the "Consolette" pre-amp * 1964 Marantz acquired by Superscope Inc. * 1966 Beginning with the Model 25, and then 22 and 28, Marantz starts manufacturing its products in Japan through a partnership with Standard Radio Corp. * 1974 A manufacturing plant is opened on the Péronnes-lez-Binche site, Walloon Region,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

* 1975 Standard Radio Corp. changes its name to Marantz Japan Inc. * 1980 Superscope sells the Marantz brand, dealer network, and all overseas assets (except U.S. and Canada) to Philips Electronics * 1983 Marantz's audio enhancement technology (Marantz Enhanced Digital Stereo) is introduced * 1992 Philips acquires U.S. and Canada trademarks and dealer network * 1997 Saul Marantz dies aged 85 * 2001 Marantz Japan Inc. acquires the brand and all overseas sales subsidiaries * 2002 Marantz Japan and

merge to form

D&M Holdings D+M Group, formerly known as DMGlobal and D&M Holdings, was a Japanese corporation that owned several audio and video brands. It was formed in 2002 from the merger of Denon and Marantz. It had acquired several other companies since that time. Pri ...

, to later be joined by other higher-end audio equipment brands such as

Boston Acoustics Boston Acoustics was an American manufacturer of home and mobile audio equipment founded in 1979. The company produced speakers for home, custom/architectural, and car audio. History Advent veterans Andy Kotsatos (known as Andy Pettit) and Frank ...

* 2008 Philips sells its remaining stake in D&M Holdings, ending a 28-year relationship between Philips and Marantz * 2014 Marantz Professional acquired by inMusic Brands * 2017 Sound United LLC acquires D+M Holding * 2019 Ken Ishiwata dies aged 72

Products

Selected products: Marantz 150 tuner (crop)

Marantz 2325 ReceiverMarantz 2275 Receiver
* Marantz 2600 – Marantz's most powerful receiver
Marantz 10b TunerMarantz 2385 Receiver
* Marantz HD77 – Four-way, high-fidelity loudspeaker system * Marantz PMD-660 –

solid-state Solid state, or solid matter, is one of the four fundamental states of matter. Solid state may also refer to: Electronics * Solid-state electronics, circuits built of solid materials * Solid state ionics, study of ionic conductors and their ...

recorder * Marantz CD63, CD63SE and variants - iconic CD player range * Marantz UD7007 - Universal HD

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

player * Marantz PM-KI Ruby - Ken Ishiwata signature reference 2 channel integrated amplifier * Marantz MM8077 - 7 channel amplifier with XLR and RCA inputs * Marantz M-CR612 - Network CD receiver * Marantz SR7011 - 9.2 Channel Network Receiver * Marantz SR8012 - 11.2 Channel Network AV Receiver * Marantz SR8015 - 11.2 Channel Network Flagship AV Receiver * Marantz AV8805 - 13.2 Channel Network AV Pre-Amplifier

References

External links

Marantz global

Marantz America

Online Audio Museum "TheVintageKnob"

{{Japanese Electronics Industry Companies based in Kanagawa Prefecture Audio equipment manufacturers of Japan Audio amplifier manufacturers Consumer electronics brands