Thoughts on the Marantz TT-15S1?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by TheRavenPoe, Mar 26, 2017.

  1. CraigVC

    CraigVC Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    Waiting for FedEx sucks...

    All week long, we were tracking two deliveries - both estimated to be delivered by Friday (Apr 6th). One via UPS, and the other via FedEx.

    The UPS delivery arrived mid-afternoon yesterday as estimated. Easy!

    The FedEx delivery (Marantz TT-15S1 turntable!) was tracked as far as an hour away from Portland on Thursday morning.

    That Friday estimate was shown for FedEx on their tracking page throughout the day on Friday, until it was suddenly rescheduled as "Saturday" around 4 pm yesterday.

    Then this morning at 5:22 am they changed estimated delivery to Tue Apr 11th!

    A couple of hours later this morning, it was changed again to "Saturday" delivery, and status was updated to "on FedEx vehicle for delivery."

    It's now 3 pm, and I'm still waiting. It's "direct signature required," so I'm afraid to walk out of the living room, much less leave the house for any reason, for fear that they'll softly knock, then quickly leave so they can continue their route.

    Bleh. I rarely have good experiences with FedEx; this is all too familiar for me. :realmad:

    Anyway, perhaps later tonight I'll be setting up my refurbished Marantz turntable.... ?
     
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  2. CraigVC

    CraigVC Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    FedEx is the absolute worst.

    After driving my turntable around town in their delivery truck for the last 9+ hours, the tracking page updated to "Pending" for a delivery date.

    [​IMG]
     
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  3. PoeRaider

    PoeRaider Forum Resident

    Fedex is pretty bad in my area too. They delivered my Beatles mono vinyl box a couple months ago. I got home from work in the evening and saw that the tracking said "delivered", so I looked all around the front and back porches where stuff is always delivered. Nothing.

    I finally saw the box sitting out in the dirt and snow next to the mailbox, barely off the road. I guess he couldn't be bothered to walk it to the door. It looked like someone's garbage sitting out there. Quality!
     
  4. Mr.Sneis

    Mr.Sneis Forum Resident

    Location:
    Phoenix, AZ
    You guys gotta do customize delivery, hold at location like a nearby Walgreens or Fedex office. It's a game changer.

    To be fair I have to call fedex 1800 every time I need to do this because their website is awful/broken.

    I do dislike fedex less than ups or usps overall though when it comes to fubar situations.
     
  5. CraigVC

    CraigVC Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, OR

    Thanks for the tip. I signed up for their delivery management service this morning, and requested that the package be held at my neighborhood FedEx Office.

    Two things are unclear to me about this:
    1. Can my partner Sara pick up the held package on my behalf? Even though our last names are different, her driver's license has the package's original delivery address.
    2. How long will FedEx Office hold the package before they would return it to sender if it's not picked up?

    This morning, we also found a "delivery attempted" tag on our front door, from FedEx.... Which is rage-inducing, considering that we were both home all day, and we didn't go to bed until 1 am, and I was so paranoid about missing the delivery attempt that I stayed in our front living room, right next to the front door, from 9 am until 9:30 pm. I was careful to the point that if I needed to go to the bathroom, I'd ask Sara to stand by the door and watch for FedEx in case they arrived while I stepped away!

    After I received the status change (screenshot above) around 5 pm yesterday, I opened the front door and checked to see if there was a "delivery attempted" tag, and there was not one at that time. I stayed in the front living room the rest of the evening, and there was never a knock or ring of our (loud; can be heard throughout the house) doorbell!

    So one scenario I can imagine is that the delivery person returned undelivered packages to the distribution center around 5 pm, then drove their personal vehicle around to the rest of their route at some point overnight, dropping off "delivery attempted" tags to leave a "paper trail" to cover themselves in case there are questions. I did email a complaint to FedEx last night, so if the delivery person is reprimanded, I suppose they can try to say "but I attempted delivery; I left an 'attempted' tag!"

    I just wish I had a security camera recording video, so I could know more about what really happened, and when this "delivery attempted" tag was actually placed on our door.

    I'm starting to question the wisdom of saving $300 to buy refurbished, going through a third-party seller, when I could have simply purchased directly from Amazon for $1,499, and received it last Tuesday via Amazon Prime! (Or directly from Music Direct, or Audio Advisor, or any number of authorized online sellers.)

    Now I'm headed out for another week of business travel, disappointed and frustrated. Perhaps next weekend I'll finally have this turntable?

    Craig.
     
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  6. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    $300 ain't worth a week, IMHO. You won't run into this nonsense from now on, either. Once you get it, you won't remember or care about not having it for the prior weekend.

    Hang in there!
     
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  7. Mr.Sneis

    Mr.Sneis Forum Resident

    Location:
    Phoenix, AZ
    1. Probably not but a Walgreens employee for instance might not be so discerning vs a real fedex one.

    2. Beats me, probably have to call and ask or look up on the web
     
  8. 12" 45rpm

    12" 45rpm Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    Any tips on how to change the speed to 45rpm? Whenever I do it the belt falls out. I then have to completely pull off the gear and gently pop it back in .

    And why do they say to use "white gloves" to change the belt? Surely nobody does that..
     
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  9. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    No, it's definitely not needed .

    I pull it from where the gear is and slid it to the other slot in the gear. I do the same thing with my VPI .
     
  10. CraigVC

    CraigVC Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    Finally got my Marantz turntable, and got it hooked up about 15 minutes ago.

    First LP side I played was a cutout edition of Queen's News of the World, and I thought it was kind of muddy and indistinct, though despite that, I could hear little bits of instruments I'd never heard before (little piano notes at the end of a song, for example, which I guess is due to the lower noise floor compared to my old turntable?).

    I chose Queen because I know it very well (a worn out copy of that LP, still in my collection for sentimental reasons, was the first music I ever bought with my own money, kicking off a nearly 40 year old hobby), and because typically I have taken the MFSL gold CD of News of the World to audio stores to audition equipment. But what I heard with this first LP I spun didn't "wow" me too much, so I moved on to something different ....

    Next LP side, I switched to an audiophile standard: Steely Dan Aja, on MFSL vinyl. Much brighter and distinct (compared to Queen). Cymbals sparkle, keyboards hang in the air between the speakers, etc.

    Does this mean I may have a more "revealing" system now, than I did with my old turntable, capable of showing differences between recordings, studios, masterings, and even pressings of the same album?

    By the way, I ran into a few unexpected obstacles that I had to overcome before I could get this turntable installed and ready to play music:

    The RCA cables were too short! My old Thorens turntable's RCA cables were long enough to reach my receiver, so I didn't imagine that this new Marantz turntable's cables would have been significantly shorter. The shortness was just a few inches at best, but if I wanted to be able to pull out the fully-articulating drawers that my equipment sits on, the shortness gap was at least 12-18".

    My setup doesn't really offer any viable way to move components around (without creating unwanted heat dissipation issues, such as putting the disc player on top of the amplifier - uh-uh!), so I had to go out and buy a phono preamp, which would effectively extend my RCA cables' reach as far as I needed it to go. I went to a local shop - Fred's Sound of Music - near where Sara and I were having an early dinner, and bought the best choice under $300 that they had in stock: Musical Fidelity V90-LPS. I also bought a relatively cheap set of Audioquest RCA cables, not wanting to dig through my box of retired Monster Cables to find a suitable, long-enough pair.

    (I had gone there hoping to buy Pro-Ject Phono Box DS, but they don't carry that model, and I didn't want to order online and spend another weekend waiting to finally hear this new turntable.)

    Getting home and trying to set up the Musical Fidelity phono pre-amp took me to my next obstacle: The two Marantz turntable ground leads were too small to fit the connector bolt of the Musical Fidelity phono pre-amp! Again, this was unexpected, as I figured there had to be a standard for such connections. So I got out pairs of pliers and gently teased further apart the two tines of each of the two ground leads, until they would sort of fit around the Musical Fidelity's ground connector - at least enough for me to tighten it, such that the Marantz ground wires stay tightly connected.

    Last little obstacle was to find a place to tuck that little phono pre-amp, because my equipment cabinets are intended to only hold a minimalist system - integrated amplification, digital disc player, and turntable. And because the challenge was that the turntable's RCA cables barely reached up to the cabinet above, putting the phono pre-amp up there wasn't an option; it had to go in the same cabinet as the turntable. So I ended up pulling out the turntable, closer to the front of the tray upon which it sits, which fortunately left enough room behind it to place the phono pre-amp, just behind the counter-weight of the tonearm.

    Now I'm listening to Urge Overkill's Stull EP (10" at 33 1/3 RPM), and it sounds great. I'm starting to really like this new turntable!

    ... And now, after prepping the photos below, I'm listening to the new Intervention Records remaster (Kevin Gray) of Billy Squier Don't Say No. Oh my, this is good. Really good. :drool:

    Craig.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
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  11. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    Glad you're enjoying it. Queen is the worst thing you could put to judge SQ of anything. None of their stuff was ever recorded very well. Good music but it always pretty muddy and smeared.

    Did you ensure to use the proper VTF? Sure looks like the tail is quite high up or is that just an illusion?

    Nice to you see you're finally all hooked up. Was it worth the wait and saving $300 for? ;)
     
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  12. CraigVC

    CraigVC Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    Yep! That saved $300 came in handy this afternoon to buy the phono pre-amp and interconnects. So I'm still in for about $1,600 total, but that's sure better than edging toward $2k if I'd paid retail for the turntable and still needed the phono pre-amp.

    VTF is vertical tracking force, which is the same as what Marantz manual calls "stylus pressure," right? In this case, I had a digital scale and I kept making adjustments to the counter-weight until it read as exactly 2.2 grams.

    Craig.
     
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  13. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    You're correct. Did you set the tonearm level with the plinth or is i tail up like it looks like in the picture?

    Which phono preamp did you get? :)
     
  14. CraigVC

    CraigVC Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    I'm not sure what you mean, but I have a guess: What's a good angle I could use to take another photo of the turntable that could demonstrate the tonearm level with the plinth? Should I take a photo from the side of the turntable, while a record is playing, to show that the tonearm is parallel to the plinth?

    For the phone preamp, I got a Musical Fidelity V90-LPS. I'm not sure what I can say that the phono preamp does, compared to the turntable, since I could only install and listen to them as a set.

    Craig.
     
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  15. PhilBiker

    PhilBiker sh.tv member number 666

    Location:
    Northern VA, USA
    Thank Roy Thomas Baker and his philosophy of oversaturating analog tape to the point of distortion. Most of his recordings sound bad. Worst most overrated producer ever IMO. The albums he recorded that do sound good, sound good despite his production bot because of it (The Cars come to mind).
     
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  16. 12" 45rpm

    12" 45rpm Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    I got a deal on a used Grado gold with 8mz stylus. Now the TT-15 sounds better with a more familiar sound. It is extracting more detail out of the grooves than the Virtuoso and the overall sound is more pleasant to my ears.. Nothing earth shattering, but an incremental improvement in the right direction!
     
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  17. 12" 45rpm

    12" 45rpm Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    Does anyone know how long the tonearm is? Is it standard 9"? I downloaded the spec sheet but do not see it listed there.
     
  18. Davey

    Davey NP: Portishead ~ Portishead (1997)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    From the Clearaudio Satisfy specs page ...
    Overhang 17.31 mm
    Distance from pivot to stylus 222 mm

    So about 240mm, or 9.5"
     
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  19. 12" 45rpm

    12" 45rpm Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
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  20. Davey

    Davey NP: Portishead ~ Portishead (1997)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    Yea, those are made to work for any arm, I guess it's Baerwald (Löfgren A) alignment from the comments, which also matches the Clearaudio specs. I prefer using an arc protractor with my tonearms (such as the one below for my Satisfy printed from the Conrad Hoffman generator) to make it easier to set the overhang correctly, but whatever method you are most comfortable with should be fine ...

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2018
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  21. 12" 45rpm

    12" 45rpm Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    I figured out that I need to tighten three small screws on the gear that attaches to the motor. I must have missed reading this in the manual!

    Also any suggestions on lights to buy to put underneath to give it a glow?
     
  22. Davey

    Davey NP: Portishead ~ Portishead (1997)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
  23. bun

    bun Member

    Location:
    California
    Can you confirm if the TT you received from IQ Home is brand new like the previous 2 members here who got their TT's at the same place? I'm planning to buy 1 soon. Thanks.

     
  24. CraigVC

    CraigVC Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, OR

    The one I received from IQ Home was not brand new. The box had holes where those long/shallow metal "staples" used to be. So it was clear to me that the box had previously been opened. But everything was inside, and appeared absolutely as if brand new. I'm listening to it now, and it sounds fantastic. I'm thrilled with paying only $1,200 for this table, and nothing about it looks, feels, or sounds "refurbished" to me.

    Craig.
     
  25. stax o' wax

    stax o' wax Forum Resident

    Location:
    The West
    That's a great bargain at that price!
     
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