Marantz Imperial-III
Documentation on the Marantz Imperial-III is thin, and what survives is mostly incidental. The model shows up in the period record as a test companion. Stereo Review (March 1968) noted that when the reviewers evaluated the Marantz 16A stereo amplifier, they used a pair of Imperial-III speaker systems as their references. That tells us the Imperial-III was credible enough to serve as a benchmark speaker in a serious amplifier review. No direct opinion of its sound quality was recorded there.
The spec sheets show a bookshelf-size speaker rated at 30 watts of program material with a nominal 8-ohm impedance. Marantz's own advertising of the era positioned the Imperial series - the III, IV, and V - as affordable bookshelf systems engineered for high power handling. It claimed the Imperial-III could take over 100 watts of continuous RMS without listener fatigue (Audio, August 1970, p.36). That figure sits in tension with the 30-watt rating in the spec record, so treat both numbers with some caution. The 30-watt figure is the more conservative and better-documented one.
Beyond that, the record is nearly empty. No production years, original price, dimensions, weight, driver complement, or crossover details have surfaced. The Imperial-III was one model in a broader Imperial series, but no reliable hierarchy among the Imperial models has been documented.
- Type: speaker system (bookshelf)
- Power handling: 30 watts program material
- Impedance: 8 ohms nominal
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