Marantz PM-100

Name: Marantz PM-100
Brand: Marantz

A 90mm-tall slab of Marantz that almost nobody wrote down - 30 watts a side, and a paper trail that stops at four numbers.

Overview

Ninety millimetres tall. That's the figure collectors keep coming back to with the PM-100. The chassis is 414 × 90 × 240mm, shallow and low enough to slide onto a shelf with barely any overhang. The rest of the documented record is just as compact: a rated 2× 30W into 8Ω, a frequency response of 20Hz - 20kHz, and total harmonic distortion claimed at 0.3%. All four figures trace to a single directory listing, and nothing in the available material backs them up. Treat them as the manufacturer's claims, not lab-verified performance. Reportedly 30 watts per channel is the whole story on output. No 4Ω rating survives, and no figure beyond the 8Ω one.

What the amplifier actually is has become a small point of contention. The archive's own research describes the PM-100 as an integrated amplifier, and that's the classification used here. But at least one resale listing bundles it as a "Marantz PM-100 / ST-100 Receiver," calling it a solid state analog stereo receiver from the 1980s and noting a remote. No source explains whether the PM-100 is a standalone integrated amp or half of a two-box system sold alongside an ST-100 tuner. The relationship between the two model designations isn't documented. Treat the "receiver" label as an open question, not a correction. The 1980s dating in that listing is approximate too. No exact production years have surfaced anywhere.

There are no circuit topology details, no component descriptions, no construction notes. No input or output count, no phono stage specs, no damping factor, no signal-to-noise ratio, no weight, no original price. The design is best described as straightforward: a 30-watt-per-channel integrated that would have driven a pair of bookshelf speakers without fuss. Where the PM-100 sat in Marantz's lineup is just as undocumented. The model number invites the guess that it was a pared-down companion to the PM-500 and PM-700 of the same era, but that is inference, not record, and should be read as speculation only.

Period coverage doesn't help pin it down either. Marantz was clearly active in the integrated-amplifier market around this time - Audio (June 1977, p.148) carried a classified for a Marantz "model 35 2 stereo music amplifier" - but that is a different unit entirely. No period review of the PM-100 itself appears in the surviving press, so there is no contemporary bench test or magazine verdict.

Collectibility & Value

There is no established market for the Marantz PM-100 in the documented record. No sale prices, no auction history, no collector consensus. What exists is a single resale listing describing a unit as all-original and in excellent working condition, acquired from its original owner who reportedly hardly used it. That's a provenance note for one example, not a price guide. Common failures, maintenance intervals, and parts availability are all undocumented, so a buyer has to assess the individual unit in front of them. Searching "PM-100" also turns up a lot of unrelated gear - stage monitors, active speakers, power cords from other brands - none of which says anything about this amplifier's value.