Marantz CD-34

Bestselling Marantz version of the Philips CD-104, appearing a year later than the original and after the magnificent CD-54.


From the latter the CD-34 took the diecast aluminium chassis, a staple of Marantz 1990s amplifiers and CD players.
From the original CD104, the Philips TDA1540P + SAA7030 with 4fs oversampling d/a section ; the TDA1540P was however doubled : there are two 1540P inside the CD-34.

The Philips CDM inside was the first Philips drive to have been made in Japan - as everlasting as any CDM1.
However, all the japanese CD-34 I could spot bear a "made in Belgium" tag under the Marantz Japan T-tag plus a regular Philips serial number and model description (AH01xxx) added to the japanese model name (CD-34(f)) so there must've been a lot of back and forth shipping of chassis and CDM drives...

Marantz added a more refined design to the display scripting, making the CD-34 look like it was made in 1982 and not in 1985.
Said display is at times a bit confusing and is so recessed from the window itself that one has to be close and facing front to see all the digits !

The 4-way control pad allows two-speed scanning : at first slow, faster if pressure is kept longer.
The little "error" LED lights up if interpolation cannot make up for a heavily scratched CD (I've never seen it lit for that) and when the tray closes without holding a CD.

Pity the CD-34 wasn't made available in champagne color like the CD-54 - but it already was 1985 after all.

Available in silver as Schneider CD1104 and Mission DAD7000 versions, the latter having its output and looks largely modded, and, of course, in Philips CD104 silver or brownish black guises.


Sound-wise fairly satisfying today : not an LHH1000 or CDP-R1 / DAS-R1 but it makes lively music and with a track access that is much faster than on a CD100 or CD303.
The CD-34 cannot read SACD, mp3, DVD-A or CD-Text but what it was meant to read it will read forever.


You can see the guts of a CD-34 here and of the CD104 original here.