Marantz 2265 – Just wow.

About 5 years ago, I bought on a Marantz 2265 off Craigslist for $300 from a seller in Park Slope, Brooklyn. That was an attractive price given how popular the vintage Marantz, blue-dial receivers had become (and remain today). I remember him bringing it down to my car and asking about my repair plans. He warned that this probably wouldn’t be an easy job and that he thought it would need “some new transistors and resistors.”

Having far too many projects on hand, the Marantz sat in my closet until 3 months ago, when I finally got around to trying to get this beautiful thing up and running. After using a dim bulb tester to confirm no shorts, I hooked it up to a pair of cheap speakers to see what would happen. To my surprise, I heard crystal clear music. No static. No skipping. Just music.

Okay, this one input was working, but surely there must be other problems. I tried the other inputs, the tone controls, the loudness button, and even the tuner. They all worked. What the hell!

I have no idea what happened here. The best I can figure is that either the prior owner didn’t know how to use the controls (maybe he had the tape monitor button on? wrong speakers selected?) or moving the thing around had somehow reconnected an open circuit. Who knows. All that matters is that the thing works.

And wow does it work.

I have owned a few different Marantz products over the years, including a 2215, which I remember having a nice warm sound, although that wasn’t enough to prevent me from selling it and moving on. But after 3 months with the Marantz 2265 (with original caps), I can tell you that it is not going anywhere and will be a permanent part of my collection.

The word that comes to mind when trying to describe the sound of the 2265 is “immediacy.” Regardless of which speakers I use, the sound seems to jump from them with a speed and immediacy that many modern amplifiers lack. This creates a more realistic illusion that the musicians are in the room, rather than the more staid presentation you often hear nowadays. The 2265 proved a particularly good match for a pair of Klipsch Forte II’s that I recently picked up (and will write about separately). The Marantz/Klipsch combo had not only immediacy, but a deep warmth in the lower midrange and bass regions that I found quite appealing (even if not strictly “accurate” based on my having heard the same recordings on many other systems).

With this combo, I find myself drawn to classic rock, and the Rolling Stones in particular, which is unusual in my experience. I’ve found that many systems, both modern and vintage, struggle with rock. They may sound great with a jazz trio, placing three people on a realistic soundstage, but feed them some Creedence and they become a jumbled mess that causes almost immediate listening fatigue. (I’ve experienced this even with systems costing more than $30,000.) But the Marantz/Klipsch combo excels with rock, creating a lively presentation that you want to listen to for hours. The drums, in particular, come to life with a heart-pounding energy. It reminded me of the feeling of being in the front row and seeing your favorite band just knock it out of the park.

The Marantz was no slouch with other genres or speakers either. It sounded great with Sarah Bareilles’ Brave Enough live album, which I use as a longstanding reference. The piano notes were not as accurate as through other systems, but the warmth added by the Marantz sounded in some ways more realistic and more engaging. This is another useful reminder that accuracy isn’t everything. It seems that designers may have been more cognizant of that in the 70s and more willing to experiment, before everyone became hyper-focused on THD measurements. If you want proof that those measurements are largely meaningless, go buy a big-box-store receiver with .1% THD (supposedly below what humans can detect) and compare it to this Marantz or any other quality receiver from the 70s. There is simply no comparison. The Marantz will blow it out of the water.

At the end of the day, the Marantz did not disappoint me regardless of what speaker or music I threw at it. It creates beautiful, fast, warm, wonderful music that I want to listen to all day. It may not be the most accurate or best-measuring receiver I own, but it is nonetheless one of my favorites. It’s thus no surprise why this receiver and its brethren remain so popular. Go buy one!