Nick Tate looks at one of Marantz's second-hand classics, the PM-94 integrated amplifier.

Being born in 1988 made life terribly hard for Marantz's flagship PM-94 integrated amplifier. For this was the height of the Linn/Naim Flat Earth hegemony that dominated Britain's high-end scene, and most magazines and dealers just didn't want to know about Japanese esoterica, regardless of how good it sounded. A great shame, because it meant one of the best integrateds ever to come out of Japan was all but ignored.

More than just another big black box, the PM-94 was a huge 25kg integrated that sold for the princely sum of £1000. It was packed with some very original thinking, much of which went on to become common practice during the Nineties.

The PM-94's primary novel feature was its successful use of MOSFET output devices. Although many amps use them nowadays, back in the late Eighties they were about as fashionable as admitting you liked ABBA - memories were still fresh in people's minds of the very mediocre sounding first generation MOSFET amps. But used properly, as the PM-94 proved, these clever new transistors had far lower distortion and a wider bandwidth, resulting in a cleaner, smoother, more valve-like sound.

The '94 also boasted Marantz's unusual 'Quarter-A' system, in which lower level signals up to a quarter of the maximum power output were handled in pure Class A. When called upon to pump higher levels, the amp switched into Class B, resulting in a not inconsiderable 140W per channel. The system was surprisingly effective in practice, and not, as many assumed, just a Japanese-style sales gimmick.

Another ace the PM-94 played was its very carefully specified, high-grade componentry chosen through in-depth listening rather than by accountants. Critical signal capacitors were damped copper styrol types, while the main power caps were damped with ceramic powder to eliminate microphony. To reduce sound-degrading eddy currents, the chassis - in true Ken Ishiwata style - was copper-plated, along with most of the power transistor and case screws. 

And just for good measure the transformer was a huge, centrally mounted toroid, larger than many British specialist integrated amps in their own right!  Finally, rather than just chucking in a proprietary IC phono stage or even doing a quick discrete transistor jobbie, Marantz specified a superb quality LC-OFC wound transformer - a lovely touch!

So rather than being a steroidally enhanced version of your average gadget festooned Japanese amp, the PM-94 was a very finely fettled beastie indeed. Providing the Source Direct mode was used to bypass its numerous unnecessary bells and whistles, it sounded gorgeous. At normal listening levels it was an extremely sweet, clean, clear performer with an uncanny ability to let music flood forth from your 'speakers.

But pressed into action with a clockwise twist of its beercan-sized volume control, the velvet fist turned into an iron battering ram able to make mincemeat of the most inefficient loudspeakers. And even when forced out of its natural Class A operation, the big Marantz displayed as much grace, space and pace as a TWR Jaguar.

Such superb engineering means all the PM-94s that found their way into the UK should still be running sweet as a nut even today. And if you factor Marantz's excellent after-sales service into the equation, there's a lot to be said for acquiring a used PM-94. 

Unfortunately, the amp is already something of a cult, meaning it isn't as cheap as most of its rivals of a similar vintage - look to pay between £400 and £450 for a top example. But even at this price, it's still one hell of an amp.