Marantz PM-350 Stereo Integrated Amplifier

My all-time favourite amplifier. This fantastic integrated amp was a "best in class" in its day, with only the legendary NAD 3020 earning more five-star reviews.

This particular unit was in working order but cosmetically dirty, with a broken speaker terminal. There was also some doubt about whether both sets of speaker outputs were fully functional.

After a thorough test and deep clean, I replaced the broken terminal and cleaned all speaker connections with isopropyl alcohol. It turned out that speaker set two was indeed faulty, but an internal inspection revealed the culprit; a tiny strand of copper wire arcing across both terminals, shorting the output stage. Fortunately, after removing it and powering down the amp, the system performed a kind of thermal reset.

The amp went to a vinyl collector in Birmingham, where it’s still going strong, especially when cranking out Thin Lizzy and The Jam!