Marantz PM8005 Stereo Integrated Amplifier

The sweet sound of stereo

Surround sound can be lots of fun. But when it comes to music, nothing beats the purity of sumptuous stereo sound. The Marantz PM8005 integrated amplifier specializes in delivering music accurately, with lifelike stereo imaging and lots of clean power. The upgraded toroidal power transformer is even more adept than the previous version at handling demanding dynamic peaks in music. Conservatively rated at 70 watts per channel driving 8 ohm loads, this amp is designed to drive even power-hungry 4-ohm speakers to room-filling volumes while confidently handling the ebb and flow of your music’s peaks and valleys.

Defeatable tone controls and expandable system options

Dial in your perfect sound using the PM8005’s front-panel tone controls for treble, bass, and midrange. Or enable Source Direct mode to bypass these controls for a cleaner sound with an impressively high signal-to-noise ratio. If you like to keep your upgrade options open, there are preamp outputs for connection to an external power amplifier to feed even more juice to your speakers. Or if you’d like to beef up the current supplied to the front speakers of your surround sound setup, you can connect your home theater receiver’s main preamp outputs to the stereo direct inputs on the PM8005. This allows you to enjoy enveloping surround sound for movies and TV shows without sacrificing power and tone when listening to stereo music.

Ready for up to six source components

The PM8005 offers six RCA inputs, including a moving magnet phono connection. That gives you plenty of capability to connect numerous sources, from CD players to turntables to network streaming boxes through your external digital-to-analog converter. Build quality is just what you’d expect from Marantz: rock solid, with a triple-layer bottom plate to minimize vibration-induced distortion. It’s a sturdy foundation on which to build a glorious stereo playback system to get more enjoyment out of your music.

So, after a few weeks of owning the PM8005, i feel ive listened to enough music to give a personal opinion on it….im not one to waffle endlesley with superlatives, so ill keep it as short and sweet as i can. to give a brief background, i listen to a wide variety, dance, hiphop, punk, indie, jazz, classical…..anything other than really hard metal. I previously owned a Denon PM350 SE which was approaching 20 years old (along with my speakers). I was generally loving my system, but the midrange was recessed and on certain albums it was driving me nuts, i was 50/50 as to whether to replace the amp or the speakers, but plumed for the amp as the PM8005 came on a sale at £580 so i couldnt refuse it.

SOUND:

Blacksabbath mentioned he thought the sound changed after 2 weeks, i have to say i was sceptical. However straight out of the box i was “slightly” underwhelmed, dont get me wrong, it did everything i would expect of an amp, however i was still getting the recessed midrange….no problem i thought as its got a mid tone control….Anyhoo, after a week or so of running it in, the midrange seemed to really come through, to the point where i no longer have any issues with it! So def run the baby in for a week or so.

The soundstage has been improved compared to my Denon, that was good, but the marantz has really added a 3D quality to the representation, especially noticed it with classical.

The treble is clearer, however im not a massive fan of overly bright systems, i would say the amp is not sibilant or necessarily birght, but i would probably be careful about matching it with really bright speakers.

Bass is a bit tighther than with the Denon, it drives the speakers very well, and my missions are real bass excavators, so when cranked up it will mince your inner organs. Love it.

Volume wise i was a bit surprised, it doesnt seem any louder than my Denon (which was 50W), again my standard listening position is about 9:30 – 10 o’clock on the dial, about 11 o’clock is pretty darn loud, and approaching 12 o’clock starts to raise the roof…..pretty much the same as my Denon….i would say however the Marantz has more control nearer the 12 o’clock position.

Overall i would describe the sound as neutral, very clear, sepration of the instumrents and vocals is excellent, and its maybe a bit lively. It doesnt add much character to the music (compared to my Denon which was a very warm sounding amp, which was part of my problem as my speakers are very warm too).

BUILD:

Its a big unit, and its grown on me in terms of appearance. Its not the prettiest out there, the Audiolabs and Creeks slimlines are much prettier – however the Marantz is a lot better value in my opinon, especially as the creek is 50W.

The rear has about all the connections you could ever want, including bi-wire, the speaker termainals are monsters! Even has the ability to use in bi-amp mode.

Having discussed the materials with blacksabbath, he is quite right the flat font facia is metal, however the 2 curved side panels are definitely plastic, but you dont really notice unless up close. Also there are little cut outs on the dials to see where the positions are, and when sat a few meters away its impossible to see the dial position (at least in my set up where the amps sat in a wooden unit). They are my only two real gripes.

Volume is motorised which i really love haha, never had that before.

Remote is just brilliant, and can be used with the CD6005 as a single remote. The ONLY thing you cant do is adjust the tone controls via remote.

EX
OVERALL:

The PM8005 has really sorted a few of my bugs out that ive suffered with for a long time now. The sound quality is great and the functionality is just as good, love the tone controls even if i dont use them that much. That said, ive waxed lyrical about laws of diminishing returns for a while, and although the delta to my Denon is easily enough to justify the upgrade, it isnt light years ahead in terms of sound, mainly it sorts out the midrange issue i was having, the other minor improvements are a nice to have.

All PM8005 owners feel free to add your comments for anyone else out there who is thinking of purchasing it!

my system is now finished, and im happy with it. I “may” change the speakers at some point, but im in no rush. Also need to add a record deck.