Marantz Model 8 (1959–)
The Marantz Model 8 is a vacuum-tube stereo power amplifier. It came right before the better-known Model 8B, and it is one of the most respected tube amps of the early stereo era. The fact sheet for this page is thin on formal specifications, but the period record confirms what it is and how it was regarded.
The Model 8 was introduced around 1959 and stayed in the line into the early 1960s, when it was joined and then succeeded by the Model 8B. A 1962-era review in HiFI-Stereo (June 1962, p.26) said the company's products had built "an enviable reputation among knowledgeable audio hobbyists" through careful engineering and extraordinary quality control. It pointed to the Model 8B, the successor, as a good example of the Marantz approach. The original 8 was a dual-channel stereo amplifier, and the 8B kept that. High Fidelity (October 1959, p.40) noted that Marantz was "again" contributing toward "better stereo" with this generation of equipment.
A restored 1959 example was the test amplifier in an EL34 output-tube comparison published in Vacuum Tube Valley (p.29). That confirms the Model 8 used EL34 output tubes, and that surviving units are still good for serious listening.
Documentation on the original Model 8 is limited. Most period coverage focuses on the 8B, which Marantz advertised at $264 in 1963. The 8 itself appears to have been built to the same standard, with the same basic circuit topology carried into the 8B.
Known specs, as documented:
- Type: Stereo power amplifier, vacuum-tube design
- Output tubes: EL34
- Introduced: circa 1959
- Successor: Model 8B ($264, advertised 1963)
Beyond that, the record is thin. If you own a Model 8 and have the original manual or measured performance data, the Archive would welcome it.
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