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O N T E S T

Marantz PM-KI-Pearl Integrated Ampliﬁer

LAB REPORT PAGE 60

Newport Test Labs

microphones (á la Motown) I couldn’t hear

any sonic blur at all. I also found the sonic

character of the PM-KI-Pearl’s midrange to be

completely neutral—no audible softness, no

harshness, no discernible texture. If you want

to hear exactly what was recorded, this Ma-

rantz amp tells you like it is. If, during your

auditions, you hear any sonic aberrations, I

can assure you that the Marantz is revealing

stuff that’s buried in the recording itself!

I have already touched on the quality

of the treble sound, but I’ll revisit it if only

to reinforce my opinion that it’s ﬂawless,

and perfectly transparent. This transparency

is emphasised by the lack of circuit noise,

which means that if you’re listening in a

quiet room to a recording of a single chime,

for example, you can hear the sound decay

for so long that eventually, you’re not sure

whether or not it’s still there at all.

Most of my auditioning involved using

the matching Marantz PM-SACD player (a

review of which will soon appear in Austral-

circuitry, but this never transpired, despite

me leaving the ampliﬁer operating continu-

ously for more than a week, and there being

several +30° days during that time. However,

when I deliberately blocked the vents just to

see what would happen, the casing tempera-

ture did rise quite alarmingly, so I would cer-

tainly pay attention to the instructions in the

Owners Manual regarding the spaces required

around the ampliﬁer for ventilation.

The PM-KI-Pearl delivered its power

smoothly, and the volume control enables

super-ﬁne control of output volume, which I

liked immensely, even though it did require

rather more rotation of the volume control

than I’m used to. Bass frequencies were

delivered in a completely uniform manner,

irrespective of volume level, and that man-

ner was with perfect control, so the bottom

end always sounded ﬁrm and solid. When I

turned up the volume, the tonal quality was

the same, so even at high SPLs, the solidity of

the bass sound wasn’t tinged with the addi-

tional ‘thwack’ sound that indicates a power

supply that is running out of puff. The stabil-

ity of the power supply was also in evidence

when I listened to music where high levels of

bass accompanied higher frequency musical

information. With lesser-quality amps, you

can hear the higher frequencies being modu-

lated as the bass notes suck the power supply

dry. Listening to the PM-KI-Pearl, it was as if I

were listening to a bi-amped system, with the

bass strands kept completely separate from

the treble. I was also impressed by the PM-KI-

Pearl’s ability to control unwanted cone mo-

tion. It perfectly controlled a pair of cabinets

containing 15-inch bass drivers: there was no

overhang at all.

Midrange sound was equally impres-

sive, particularly when it came to imaging,

so that horizontal movements of vocalists

and instrumentalists in front of the micro-

phone position were captured and delivered

with pin-point precision. When multiple

vocal sources were moving across multiple

ian Hi-Fi Magazine) as a source, but I also span

some vinyl and can report that the phono

stage in the PM-KI-Pearl far exceeded my ex-

pectations, returning performance with both

moving-coil and moving-magnet cartridges

that was almost the equal of my dedicated

outboard phono stage. In the end, I did prefer

the sound and performance of my outboard

phono stage, but if I didn’t already own it, I’d

be perfectly happy using the one onboard the

Marantz.

ConCLusion

The Marantz PM-KI-Pearl is without any

doubt an outstandingly good stereo ampli-

ﬁer—so good, indeed, that I can’t help but

wonder if Ishiwata would have been better

advised to omit the bi-amping and F.C.B.S.

circuits, and the complicated ‘Trim’ function

(and maybe even that above-average phono

stage, but my internal jury’s still out on that

one), in addition to ‘souping up’ the internal

components. That said, I do like the bi-amp

capability, which I am certain many more

people will use than they do the F.C.B.S.

circuitry… and I can also certainly appreciate

the cachet of this model being a ‘30th Anni-

versary’ edition.

greg borrowman

Power Output: Single and both channels

driven into 8-ohm, 4-ohm and 2-ohm non-

inductive loads at 20Hz, 1kHz and 20kHz.

Power Output: Both channels driven into

8-ohm, 4-ohm and 2-ohm non-inductive

loads at 20Hz, 1kHz and 20kHz.[PM-KI]

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