European, American and Japanese cultures and the advantages of marantz
It should be said that acoustics began in Britain, America and Europe. Before the 1960s, Japan only copied things from the United States and Britain, without any high-fidelity culture. Today, we all know that there is an American high-fidelity view. What is the Hi-Fi view in the United States? If there is a Steinway piano playing, American audio lovers want to reproduce twice the effect that Steinway actually feels at home, and they will say, "Wow, that's strong enough. This is high fidelity." What about England? They don't care that the speaker is a little small and the scene is a little small. Their house is not as big as that in America. They believe that the key lies in the accuracy of timbre and the accuracy of positioning. Accuracy of the proportion of each frequency band. Looking at Japan again, I said that Japan does not have its own Hi-Fi culture, but one thing is that Japanese products are very, very reliable, which is also a great thing. I think marantz has the best of the three; It was born in America. It is a subsidiary of Philips in Europe. It received a lot of technical support from Philips. At the same time, it has the best technology in Japan under the good organization and management of the Japanese. This is a very unique company, and no company has such a background with many advantages. I believe many people will agree with me.
Why does marantz have a KI signature version?
KI signature was first produced in CD63, which is not a very expensive product. This practice comes from my idea that a good stereo doesn't have to be expensive. Unfortunately, the so-called Hi-End products in the audio circle are almost all sky-high, and young audio lovers are far behind. But you should know that the passion for music and acoustics often comes from young people. What I have done in the past twenty years is mainly to show young people what is a real good voice and good music. I want them to know about the unheard-of sound and get a shocking feeling, so that they can see that it is not necessarily expensive. This is my motivation to make a signature version: to make things affordable for young people, with reasonable prices and much higher quality than similar products. I made CD63 first, and then made a signed version of the amplifier PM-66. These are all things that can produce a wonderful sense of music and can really be called Hi-Fi, and they are not expensive.
In addition to the signature version, I also selected some models from many products in marantz and made them into "original special edition", which has been done for more than ten years. The price gap between the special edition and the regular edition is smaller, but their musical taste is obviously stronger.
My task is to reproduce all the details of the sound source without distortion.
For me, listening to a concert and listening to the stereo are two different things, because no one can actually "move" a live concert to the stereo at home. People have a completely different feeling in the concert hall, that kind of atmosphere, that kind of presence, you can't experience it at home. The recording is often very different from the scene. How to capture the atmosphere of the scene is the job of the sound engineer. My task is how to play back all the details in the sound source (CD, LD) without distortion as much as possible. I often compare live concerts with high-fidelity replays, but I don't think they can be the same. There is only one way for you to reproduce the effect at home: invite musicians to your home.
The sum of all high-end components is not necessarily equal to high-end equipment.
Many parts of a machine have their own characteristics and personalities. Just like people, it is difficult to combine harmoniously. My job is to adjust their personalities and achieve overall harmony. In order to achieve this goal, I sometimes design my own parts and spend a lot of time making these parts in the factory, which is a time-consuming thing, but the result is to improve the musical expression of the equipment. In short, we have to understand this. The best ingredients together do not necessarily produce the best effect. Just like football, a team made up of the best players in the world may not win AC Milan because there are problems in coordination. Therefore, a device full of high-grade components is not equal to high-grade equipment.
Although the "original sound special edition" is much better than the ordinary edition in quality, the price cannot be too high due to price restrictions. Generally only 20% higher than the normal version. I try my best to make this 20% price increase have a great impact, such as 80% quality improvement, but after all, we must attach great importance to the cost; The signature version will cost more, maybe twice as much as the regular version, but it will be more musical, that's for sure. I have to achieve a real change in quality without a sharp price increase. This is a huge challenge, but it is also an exciting part of this work.
Where did the "golden ears" come from?
Someone asked me, "I heard that you have a keen hearing and are one of the few' golden ears' in the sound industry." Is that so? " My answer is: not my ears, but my heart, my passion for music. My hearing is not born, mainly by training, a lot of continuous training every day, listening to music with passion and listening to sounds with passion.
Trust your own ears.
There are many people who love music and acoustics. Some people often tell others that this is the best sound system. I often tell people that the sound that can make you feel sweet and move you is a good sound. So I never, never impose a system on others.
Malanz's philosophy
What we design and produce is just a tool to enjoy music. I just want to design the best tools, that's all.
In fact, this is the philosophy of Maranz.