Marantz PM-12

Marantz Special Edition

Extensive and painstaking tuning by sound masters is what powers the exquisite sonic signature of any Marantz product. No component leaves the hands of Marantz Sound Masters until it passes rigorous testing. Only the finest products, thoroughly tested and tenderly handled, make it to your home. Marantz Special Editions are the Marantz way to celebrate the love of music that runs deep in the veins of Marantz sound masters and engineers, exhibited in the artistry and craftsmanship of those special components. Sound Masters will occasionally identify a product with a higher potential than expected and master it with extra unwavering attention to detail, component selection and listening sessions. The original PM-12 was solely created for the Japanese market, and quickly proved to be the next chosen one. European sound engineers combined it with achievements made developing the famous PM-KI Ruby, and thus the PM-12 Special Edition was born.

Extensive Sound Tuning

Extensive and painstaking tuning has long been the secret of fine sounding Marantz amplifiers. For the PM-12SE, the Marantz engineering team used all their experience and expertise, both in the design of the amplifier and in the long listening sessions involved in finalizing the sound. The team of Sound Masters located in Japan and Europe didn’t stop their intensive work until they were absolutely certain they reached the height of quality worthy of the Marantz name.

Current Feedback Amplifier

Current Feedback amplification is a well-known, Marantz-original circuit technology, thoughtfully designed to match the requirements of Super Audio hi-res music for wide-bandwidth, high-speed reproduction. The impedance at the Current Feedback point is limited, generating a very low phase shift. Marantz Current Feedback amplifiers reduce the need for phase compensation by minimizing Negative Feedback (NFB). This simplifies the signal path and results in a high through-rate, excellent transient response and superb sonic transparency across the full bandwidth. Unlike conventional Voltage Feedback topology, Current Feedback also makes the power amplifier insensitive to difficult loudspeaker loads.

Powerful Amplification

Drawing on design elements of the PM-10, the PM-12SE is built to leverage enhancements, maintain the purest possible sound and support the power needed to drive the most demanding speakers. The amplifier output stage of the PM-12SE allows a large power output, delivering 2x100W into an 8ohm load, and easily copes with high-impedance speakers thanks to a 2x200W output into 4ohms. The amplifier module connects directly to the rear panel PCB on the PM-12SE to maintain signal purity and sound stability.

Pure Analog Design

The purely analog design of the PM-12SE contributes to its noise-reduction structure and clean build: many rival designs are today including digital-to-analogue conversion, or adopting digital amplification and volume control, but Marantz keeps things as clean and simple as possible with its acclaimed all-analogue design. It may seem convenient to have a DAC in the amplifier, but digital circuitry is by its very nature, noisy (in the electrical sense) and can interfere with the delicate analogue signals passing through the amp. That’s why Marantz chose to design its Premium Series range without any digital-to-analogue conversion, keeping its amplifiers as pure and clean as possible.
There’s also a Power Amp input, taking the signal straight from the input section to the power stage to let the unit work as a pure power amplifier.