All of our speakers under test would be precisely positioned on the empty speaker box. We would set a 36'H dummy speaker box on the floor in that exact location, every time, no deviation. Bart had determined a specific spot just off the left-to-right center and just forward of the front-to-back center of the room. We did all of our speaker testing in that same room. And in the back was a huge custom-made walnut credenza which held the Marantz house system consisting of a Model 20B tuner, Model 32 preamplifier and Model 250 power amplifier. The left wall was almost completely covered with a heavy drape. On the right side wall was paneling with what appeared to be randomly spaced 24'W x 15'D shelves which were used to hold display models of the Marantz gear. The riser and the rest of the floor had a heavy shag carpet. The speaker lab/sound room had an 8'H x 3'D riser running completely across the 28' front of the room. Bart and Dawson had appropriated a large 28' x 35' x 8' room at the Marantz manufacturing facility in Sun Valley, CA where they were building the last U.S.-made Marantz-branded electronics. My education in entering audio at that time didn't end there. And that this 14 gauge Belden was the wire that Locanthi had specified to be used as a standard for all speaker development. I believe each conductor had around 50 stands.Īll I was told at the time I started in the lab/listening room was that famed audio pioneer Bart Locanthi had consulted with then Chief Marantz Engineer Dawson Hadley about setting up a speaker testing facility. 'Stranded copper' was the only description. Back then the speaker cables we used in the lab/sound room were what I eventually took home and used in all my systems for the next twenty years. My first thought about even needing a 'reference' cable was when I started at Marantz designing speakers in 1971. After reading that series just about anyone who really cares about using the cable path as a legitimate upgrade had a fairly good handle as to which new cable might offer true sonic improvements versus a 'snake oil special' which somehow filtered the audio signal. Initially, the Audioholics topic that impressed most was their multi-part series on cables.

Large advent speaker specs