Marantz 10B Vintage Analog Tube Tuner - Top 3 Tuners Ever Made - Highly Collectible - See Video

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From one of our recent System of the Week features "...The Holy Grail of Vintage American HiFi", we are very pleased to offer one of these rare beauties for sale, along with a full video review from our newly launched YouTube channel.

Back in the 60's and 70's there were three tuners released that are now considered the "Holy Grail of Tuners". The McIntosh MR78, the Sequerra Model No 1, and the Marantz 10B featured here. 

It's rumored this is the tuner that actually put Marantz out of business, or at least started the decline for Marantz back when it was a US company based out of Long Island City, New York.  We think it was due to the complexity, build quality, and design of this tuner, as this was quite the undertaking for a company of that size at that time.  The complexity, design, and manufacturing are incredible, and it shows both in performance and build quality.

It has some pretty neat features including a built-in oscilloscope, and the topology of the chassis is also really cool with all the tubes, transformers, etc. being exposed which was common for the time.  The 10B was also available for purchase in a wood cabinet which we do not have.  Should you want one it's very easy to make, just four pieces of wood and any craftsman can make you a gorgeous cabinet to match.  Personally we like the exposed look displaying the beautiful design of all the transformers and tubes.

This particular example is in wonderful shape. You can see the beautiful condition of the brushed gold anodized aluminum faceplate, the glass is in super clean condition, the stencils on the glass are all there and very legible, the knobs are all clean, and the chassis doesn't show any signs of rust which is rare.  In this era they didn't really have great grades of paint and anodizing/all sorts of finishes that would keep from rusting, so it's vey common to find these pitted and rusted.  But not this one, this one is really in beautiful shape.  And a close-up view shows the Marantz serial # 10-2106.

Here are some of the cool features and why this tuner is so unique.  The Oscilloscope for starters, which set in output mode shows you both channels, how they work, and how they center on the frequency spectrum.  Switching over to tuning mode the display is slightly different, with a different display algorithm applied to help you center the station.  Please watch our video to get the real feel on how this all works.

For physical controls starting on the left, there is a scope output type knob (Tuning/Output/External), FM tuning mode knob (Hi-blend, Normal, MONO), large tuning knob center, panel light control knob (Off/On/Dim), and finally the FM muting control (Off/On). The tiny knobs to the left and right of the glass are controls for the oscilloscope (vertical and horizontal).  On the side there's a screw adjustment to center the tuning needle on the proper station on the dial.  

Regarding where the connections are located, they are not on the back of the chassis where you would typically find them.  The connections are up top (center for antenna) and to one side for the output, which seem to be upgraded on this piece to much higher quality RCA jacks.  The external scope inputs are nearby, a test connection, detector output, and then various potentiometers throughout the tuner for adjusting all sorts of things, whether it's the performance of the scope or performance of the tuner (vertical gain, horizontal gain, stereo threshold). 

We're pleased to report everything on this piece is in its place and complete.  As an example of what typically goes missing, a lot of times the black tube isolators will disappear along with the metal RF isolation sleeves. Note there are three tubes near the oscilloscope that do not have the isolators, but you can tell this is by design from the lack of the receiving socket for the sleeve on these specific tubes.

This piece is not from the Marantz that is around nowadays.  This is the original highly collectable Marantz.  This would be a great match to any of their other pieces, as they made a wonderful Model 7 tube preamp for this era and also two amplifiers (The Model 8B Stereo Tube Amp and The Model 9 Monoblock Amp).  So if you're a collector, this is the one to have.

The only thing we haven't sorted out is the stereo indicator lamp.  Currently it's not lighting up even through the tuner sounds wonderful. Aligning and fine tuning this tuner is extremely complicated requiring very specific tools, so we decided not to mess with it since we are currently receiving a wonderful strong signal.  So we will leave the stereo lamp issue to the next owner, and since this will likely end up sitting on a shelf looking beautiful anyway it's not a real issue.

Lastly, we found this fantastic website that has over a dozen documents available for download related to this tuner.  Manuals, Service Manuals, Vintage Reviews, you name it and it's there.  Click here for the full listing available for download.

Click here to view all Vintage Marantz pieces currently available for purchase.

Our Testing Process for Tuners at SkyFi:

We start with a visual inspection of all internal components to make sure there are no signs of stress or aging. Capacitors are checked for telltale sings of bulging or leaking, resistors are checked for signs of overheating or cracking, and tubes are inspected for signs of stress overheating or cracking.

Then the tuner is thoroughly tested in our lab utilizing our professional Sencore SG80 FM Generator, which allows us to generate a reference FM signal of any frequency and amplitude, and then measure the resulting tuner output on our Sencore PR81 or oscilloscope.  This unit passed with flying colors and produced a natural and warm sounding output. 

Please click here for detailed specifics regarding our specialized packing process that separates us from the rest.