MAGAZINE
When developing the PM-12 Special Edition integrated amplifier, the Marantz team opted for a discrete two-stage design with separate power supplies for the pre- and power amplifier channels. The circuits are designed to provide a direct signal path to the amplifiers, which deliver 100 watts per channel to 8-ohm speakers and 200 watts per channel to 4-ohm speakers.
The design of the PM-12 Special Edition is based on the PM-10 and PM-KI Ruby amplifiers, so phono amplifiers for MM/MC, Marantz Musical premium phono EQ circuitry and Marantz HDAM technology, which is designed to ensure optimum signal purity, are included.
According to the manufacturer, the PM-12 Special Edition is said to have an extremely low background noise and very clean construction, which is not least due to its completely analog design. While a D/A converter in the amplifier is convenient, digital circuits cause electrical noise and can interfere with the sensitive analog signals passing through the amplifier. Therefore, Marantz decided to take an entirely analog approach to keep the sound of the PM-12 Special Edition as pure as possible. They equipped the SA-12 Special Edition SACD player with a DAC mode instead.
The SA-12 is also based on the flagship players SA-10 and SA-KI Ruby and is equipped with the audio-specific transport mechanism "SACDM-3", which enables the playback of SACDs, CDs and audio data from CD-ROM as well as DVD-ROM. The asynchronous USB input supports formats up to PCM/DXD 384 KHz/32 Bit and DSD 11.2 MHz. The Marantz Musical Mastering (MMM) Stream section converts all PCM file formats into DSD format using sophisticated filters and proprietary processes. The MMM conversion stage then converts the 1-bit stream directly into an analog signal – completely without conventional D/A converters.
The Marantz PM-12SE and SA-12SE will be available at authorized Marantz dealers in black and silver-gold from September at a price of 3,300 euros each.
