Marantz PM11 S2 Reference Series Integrated Amplifier Lower Treble/Upper Mids

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I apologize up front for this NOT being a question; but an experience.  There may be owners of this amp which could benefit from this information.

After I purchased this amp I read with interest the TAS review and I found my experiences to be very similar to the review.  Overall, decent transparency and detail, excellent control, a very nice phono stage, a very nice soundstage.........and a "dry emphasis" in the upper midrange/lower treble.  I have discovered however that this issue is not forever.

The first thing I did was purchase a power cord.  I used the Shunyata $99 unit and was more than pleased with the results as it only made the strengths of this amp stronger and I really did not notice any negatives which jumped out.

The second thing:  I realize this is not very "green", but this amp really does need to be left on all the time.

Last and certainly not least; break in:  I kept track (roughly) of the number of hours (actually playing music) it takes to break this amp in.  It was in excess of 200 hours.  The change was not subtle.  It was like one morning I got up, put on some music and there was a seamless bottom to top sound that was never present before.  The upper mid/lower treble issue was simply gone and during break in there were gains in transparency and dynamics.  It has officially become my fave of any and all amps I have owned and to think I nearly sold it!  This is one time that my procrastination paid off!

Asked by hawkeye1956
November 12, 2012 3:05 p.m.

1 Answer

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    Long break-in times are not uncommon with audio gear.

    Many top-flight headphones need at least 100 hours to break-in.

    I'm currently "burning in" three DACS and three pairs of headphones - Two are hooked up to a Squeezebox Duet where they've been streaming music from the local classical music station for the last two weeks - one more week to go...

    Answered by StevenStone
    November 13, 2012 9:16 a.m.
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