Superscope BLA-545
First up is this very rare Superscope amp by Marantz. The owner actually found it at a junk yard and got a good deal on it...actually when he told me how much he paid for it, I was pretty jealous! There was some damage to it, mainly the volume knob had been replaced and the front face plate was broken on the right side. It also had no sound on one channel. The owner got it fixed but it recently developed a fault so he called us up.
Before we go any further with this, here's a bit of history on Superscope and the Marantz connection taken from the Audiokarma website forums:
"Saul Marantz sold Marantz to Superscope in 1964. All the classic solid state Marantz gear of the 70's came out under Superscope's ownership. Superscope's claim to fame was that, at the time, they imported all Sony's tape recorders. This is the closest corporate tie that has ever existed between Marantz and Sony.
In any case, Superscope began producing Marantz products in Japan in partnership with Stantard Radio Corp. (SRC) in 1966. Eventually, Superscope would own a 50% stake in SRC. SRC changed its name to Marantz Japan Inc. in 1975 and shortly afterwards was manufacturing all Marantz gear.
In 1980, Superscope sold its interest in Marantz Japan Inc. to Phillips, only retaining rights to the name in North America. Phillips, at the time, was jointly developing the compact disc with Sony, but was a separate company. In the 80's, under Phillips, there was certainly some fine gear produced. Overall though, the quality declined. The schizophrenic appearance of the brand in North America (Superscope silkscreened "Marantz" on some pretty horrid equipment) contributed to the tarnishing of the nameplate in the public perception.
In 1992, things started to turn around. Phillips acquired the North American rights to the brand and set about polishing it. In 2001, Marantz Japan Inc. bought out Phillips' share in the company, consolidating ownership of the brand in one corporate entity for the first time in sixteen years. The following year, Marantz Japan Inc. and Denon were acquired by a Japanese-controlled consortium and D&M Holdings was formed."
In 1980, Superscope sold its interest in Marantz Japan Inc. to Phillips, only retaining rights to the name in North America. Phillips, at the time, was jointly developing the compact disc with Sony, but was a separate company. In the 80's, under Phillips, there was certainly some fine gear produced. Overall though, the quality declined. The schizophrenic appearance of the brand in North America (Superscope silkscreened "Marantz" on some pretty horrid equipment) contributed to the tarnishing of the nameplate in the public perception.
In 1992, things started to turn around. Phillips acquired the North American rights to the brand and set about polishing it. In 2001, Marantz Japan Inc. bought out Phillips' share in the company, consolidating ownership of the brand in one corporate entity for the first time in sixteen years. The following year, Marantz Japan Inc. and Denon were acquired by a Japanese-controlled consortium and D&M Holdings was formed."
Internals very similar to Marantz 1050 / 1072 amplifiers
If you looked inside a Marantz 1050 or 1072 from the 70's and then into a Superscope amp from the same period, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. Same goes for this Superscope BLA-545. As much as it says Superscope on the outside, all the boards inside have Marantz printed on them.
Anyway, back to the customer's Superscope amp, we discovered a bad speaker cable and we replaced all four cables just to be safe. Because we had the amp partially stripped down, we recommended a recap as the amp was still on its original capacitors. We also noticed that the amp was drawing a bit more current than it should and a quick check told us that the bias was set very high on one channel. We reset both channels to factory spec.
The amp had a lot of dirt on the front, since we already had it partially stripped down, we removed the front panels and gave it a good clean. We suspect that most of the dirt came from the time it sat at the junkyard. All switches and potentiometers were cleaned as well. Most of the time, people think that spraying WD-40 into pots and switches will solve all problems. Unfortunately with very heavy dirt build up, this is a temporary solution. Also we do not recommend WD-40 for switches and pots, in the long run, it can actually do more damage than it helps. A good electronic cleaner spray is the best way but to get it really clean, a total strip down is usually required which is what we do for most older amps.
The amp is now ready and should be able to give it's owner quite a few more years of service!
Carver C-11 pre-amp
This pre-amp was bought based on a recommendation from us to one of our regular clients. This client has a Carver 5-channel power amp and was using his NAD integrated to control it. We spotted this Carver pre for sale and negotiated a deal on the client's behalf.
The client collected the Carver from the seller and was told of an issue with the balance pot. We checked it and found that all it needed was a clean to set right. We recapped the unit and checked every function and found it to be operating within specs.
The Carver C-11 is actually an updated version of the Carver C-1. Both pre-amps have a holography feature. Initial tests showed that this function was not working properly on the client's amp. A bit of checking showed that it needed to be re-tuned so we did that and got it working again. Can't say that we're a fan of this feature...in fact it seems to be a gimmick more than anything else.
Well, we can't wait to unite this C-11 with that 5-channel power amp and see how it sounds. Before the unit was fixed we tested it against a Naim Nait 5i and even when it wasn't working properly it was way ahead of the Naim in terms of details, sound-staging and bass. Really eager to hear how it sounds now. For those of you saying how can we compare a pre-power combo against an integrated...well, keep in mind that the Naim costs 3 times the price of the Carvers. The Carvers are almost 20 years old and the power amp is actually a home theater power amplifier whereas the Naim is an "all for music" amplifier. Oh ya...and the Carver wasn't actually at 100% when first tested...
Ok, that's all for now. We're gonna try to keep updating regularly when time permits. We have plans for next year and at the moment its all about implementing those plans.
Till the next one!
