Marantz CD-94

The CD-94 is the original of this bestselling series from Marantz... and Philips.
And this dual-crown explains the fairly large and complex Luxman-like family tree.

Launched in Japan in 1986, quickly upgraded in 1987 to become the CD-94 Limited, then upgraded again to become the Marantz CD-12 & CDA-12 (outside Japan), the Philips LHH1000 (in Japan) and then again some other versions...
By which time it must have been a little confusing even for the Marantz (& Philips) product planners. Not to mention that the origins of the Marantz CD-94 came, not surprisingly, from the Philips CD960 !

The accompanying but optional CDA-94 d/a unit (aka Philips DAC960...) followed the same upgrade route, although stopping after the CDA-12 / LHH1001 step.

Marantz in the USA optimistically kept the old Superscope tag on the back model sticker : "Designed in the USA, produced in Japan" :)
This was all Philips EU of course and mostly Marantz JP and there was nothing designed elsewhere, especially considering Marantz USA still was Superscope or Cobra-owned (depending on timeframe).

There are two versions of the original CD-94 :
the first run had a TDA1541 chip and a fairly ugly badge inserted onto the drawer's front ; later runs avoided that thingy and had a TDA1541A.
That version was available in champagne color in Japan as well as here shown in image #3.


So - the CD-94 in black is the most basic version of the series : diecast aluminium chassis (not yet copper-plated), Philips CDM CDM1 drive, one Philips TDA1541 d/a, coaxial 75 Ohm digital output, one beefy OFC-wired trafo with multiple windings & regulations and ceramic-damped & copper styrol caps.

An optical output was also present on the original version but not of TOS (Toshiba) format as the latter, in 1986/87, wasn't yet completed and accepted by the EIAJ.
That output looks like a smaller ST glass and was delivered with the first series, the "badgy" ones.

Build-quality-wise, this clearly isn't nearly on the level of the contemporary CDP-555ESD or PD-91 but the one advantage is that the Philips CDM already has and will continue to outlive all Sonys and all Pioneers and everything else.


All of these are high and lower versions of the same circuit, the two-box contemporary summum of which were the CD-12 / CDA-12 (Marantz outside Japan) and LHH1001 / LHH1002 (Philips in Japan) combos, both from 1988.

For the "ultra" inclined, the CD-95 or CD-99SE both had two TDA1541A S1 (95) or TDA1541A S2 (99SE Limited) as main upgrade, alongwith a toroidal trafo and copper-all-over (99SE).

The CD-94 (black, sans badge) isn't rare at all as Marantz sold oodles of them.
So much so that B-stocks of the CD-94 and CDA-94 (black, badge or non-badge versions) were available from Marantz outside Japan as late as the late 1990s !

So there really is plenty but people tend to hang on to them. I really wonder why :)


Nudies aplenty of the CD-94 (black, sans badge) here or here.

The old/original look with badge and pre-TOS output can be seen here or here as well.