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Marantz
Sm-6
(1980 - 1983)
The
little ESOTEC. But little is here meant by the standards of the
very late 70s... The front flap hides the Power-On button as well
as the Class A/AB and speaker switches.
Supposedly the stereo version of the Ma-5
monoblock but the techniques used are fairly different. And there's
"only" one transformer, "only" the same amount
of smoothing caps and a heat-pipe system instead of the forged heatsinks
of the Ma-5.
Still - "only" is here meant by the standards of the very
late 70s!
Sorting by numbers, one may think that the SM-6
would be closer to the Sm-7
- well, no: the Sm-8
is much closer to the 6
than the 7
is from either. The 7
being a rebadge of an older unit, this makes sense. In fact the
8 is an
upgraded 6,
with two small smoothing caps added, a market-related optional black
face, a blue meter window and the Quarter
A topology.
Seen the other way around, the 6
is a smaller 8. But
then, the 8 doesn't have two sets of
inputs (Normal/DC), nor input level pots, nor Pure Class A all the
way like the 6
has...
So who's the little one?
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