The original 1980s Marantz flagship, launched when the Philips + Marantz production started to make sense and not be a mere rebadging scheme with multiple sources and contradictory ambitions.
At the center of the PM-84 are AVSS (or Automatic Voltage Shift Supply - two voltage rails, an old idea) and Quarter A circuits to make Class A/B more efficient.
The first 60W of the PM-84 are thus in real hot chili pepper Class A : 2x 30W.
- read the TECH1 section for the details !
Build-quality is excellent with copper-plated chassis (not diecast, though), FET phono section, an encapsulated transformer and a conductive plastic volume pot. PCB tracks width are varied according to current magnitudes and the MC position is gratified with two positions, normal and high.
The "direct" switch bypasses everything but the volume pot ; the filter caps and power transformer were directly imported from the contemporary Sm-8 power amp.
Invisible on most images, the AVSS front badge is backlit in cold green.
The PM-84 was available in black everywhere on the planet and in champagne as well in Europe.
Unlike the later PM-94 (1986), the original PM-84, if raising hotness indeed, did see much less self-destruction cases due to overheating like the PM-94s did.
The PM-84 was updated in 1986/88 (depending on market) as PM-84II or PM-84D with minor layout differences but mostly MOS-FET output transistors inherited from the PM-94.