38
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Australian Hi-Fi
equipment
review
Marantz PM7003
Integrated Amplifi er
Marantz has been carefully fi ne-tun-
ing the circuits inside its stereo amplifi ers
for many years, a process that has included
gradually fi ltering down technology and com-
ponents that were once available only in its
high-end products down to its budget-priced
models. The PM7003 is the latest amplifi er to
benefi t from these processes, and has benefi t-
ed to such a great extent that in many ways
it’s similar to the highly-awarded PM7001KI.
One of its most outstanding technical features
is the use of completely symmetrical circuitry,
which can only help its ability to stereo im-
age, however the PM7003 also benefi ts from
containing Marantz’s Hyper Dynamic Am-
plifi er Modules (HDAMs) which use current
feedback rather than voltage feedback. These
enable greater dynamics, particularly when
the amplifi er is driving speakers whose imped-
ance drops below their nominal value. The
PM7003’s ‘ace in the hole’ is that it’s the cur-
rent holder of the ‘Best Amplifi er of the Year
award from Sound & Image magazine.
The Equipment
As you can see from our photograph, the
PM7003 is outwardly conventional, though
Marantz’s design department has managed to
add in some nice cosmetic touches that put
its external appearance a cut above the aver-
age. I’m thinking here of the vertical ‘scallops’
in the front panel that bisect the large rotary
input selector on the left and the identically-
sized volume control on the right. Marantz has
also been cunning with the four rotary con-
trols that sit at the centre bottom of the front
panel. From left to right, these are for speaker
selection (Off, A, B, A+B), bass, treble and bal-
ance. I don’t know if you’ll be able to see from
the photograph, but they sit partially behind
the front panel and protrude through it. This
not only gives the panel some visual ‘depth’
but means that the knobs can’t be accidentally
misaligned by a bump or a knock, so you’ll
always get a nicely smooth (and noiseless!)
rotation. The circuitry of the bass and treble
controls isn’t the conventional Baxandall to-
pology either, Marantz instead provides dual-
frequency EQ, which is very unusual in this
price range, and far superior. The bass, treble
and balance controls all have central detents,
so you can easily fi nd the ‘neutral’ position,
but otherwise have smooth actions over their
rotational ranges.
Above these rotary controls is a long slot
that indicates which input source has been
selected. This, too, is really clever design,
because the bottom of the slot is angled and
there are blue LEDs hidden away in the ‘roof’
of the slot, so that when an input is selected
and the LED illuminates, it shines downwards
and the light is refl ected out into the room.
The beauty of this is that the whole slot tends
to be vaguely blue-coloured, which adds to
the overall impressive appearance of the am-
plifi er, but there’s a practical purpose, which
is that it’s easy to see which input is selected
from almost anywhere in the room, such is
the spread of the refl ected light. The ‘quality’
of the illumination is also far more appealing
than if Marantz had just fi xed blue LEDs into
the front panel.
Things get even better when you use the
front panel rotary to select your preferred in-
put source, because the control has a continu-
ous action and there’s a satisfying ‘click’ sound
from the internal relays as you scroll through
the available inputs (Phono, CD, Tuner, Aux/
DVD, Recorder 1, Recorder 2). Although it
appears as though there are only six inputs,
there’s actually a ‘Direct In’ set of terminals
on the rear panel so you can, if you wish, go
directly into the power amplifi er section to
bypass the tone and balance controls. This is
selected via a pushbutton on the front panel.
(As befi ts an audiophile amplifi er, there’s also
a ‘Source Direct’ selector, which also allows
you to bypass the tone and balance controls.)
The volume control moves smoothly, but
the friction betrays the fact that it’s motor-
ised, enabling it to be controlled by the small
RC003PM remote Marantz provides with the
PM7003. The only problem I could see is that
there’s only a small notch on the rotary con-
trol to indicate its position (rather than an
Power Output: Single channel driven
into 8-ohm, 4-ohm and 2-ohm non-
inductive loads at 20Hz, 1kHz and
20kHz. [Marantz PM7003]
Ne
wpor
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T
est Labs
38-44 Marantz HFMay09.indd 38 7/05/2009 2:58:11 PM
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