Marantz CD-73 CD player

18/01/2023

The CD-73 is surely one of the best loved and best remembered of the first generation of CD players. With its eye-catching looks, it stood out among a sea of bland black boxes. Usually it would have been difficult for a company of Marantz's standing to come up with a fully engineered model so quickly, but having recently secured the backing of Philips, it was able to release not one but two class-leading CD players for the opening 1983 season.

One was the CD-63, an unmodified Philips CD100 [HFN Oct '11] sporting a gold anodised finish with Marantz scripting. The other was the CD-73. Although still a Philips player made in a Belgian Philips factory, this machine had more of a Marantz identity.

Statement Piece

The player was shown in prototype form during the previous year as the CD-83, but Marantz had been quicker to get its version to market while the Philips variant, the CD300, took a little longer. The CD300 was soon replaced by the CD303 [HFN Nov '13], which was essentially the same machine but with a digital track-time readout. This refinement was never applied to the CD-73, which right to the end retained its prominent strips of green and orange LEDs as its only form of track indication.

As much as the CD300 and CD303 had been examples of European design elegance, so the CD-73 was brash and busy in the best Japanese tradition. A riot of polished metal, flashing lights and stylised legends, the model could certainly be called a statement piece. Highlights included a vivid blue illuminated 'Compact Disc' logo and an indicator on the sliding tray marked 'Laser' - two motifs to herald the new era. As with the CD300 and the CD303, a form of front-loading was achieved by mounting the complete optical deck on a sliding platform that was driven out from the player's fascia when requested by motor power.

Green Machine

The clamping arm for the disc was operated automatically by the same mechanism, so loading was especially straightforward, while a series of interlock devices prevented the player from being used unless the 'drawer' was shut. Also common between the two brand offerings was the set of six LEDs that bathed the disc being played in green light as it spun.

Despite being almost certainly a styling gimmick, these LEDs did predict the brief craze for marking the edges of CDs with green ink (in the pursuit of improved performance) about ten years later.

Japanese Sourced

Although the optical unit and main printed circuit boards were nominally identical between the Philips and Marantz versions of the machine there were some notable differences when it came to the rest of the build. The CD-73 made use of Japanese-sourced wiring materials and connectors in its supporting circuitry and even some of the larger components, such as the mains transformer, were sourced from Japan.

This was in contrast to the CD300 and CD303, which were made almost entirely in-house by Philips. The CD-73 also had detachable mains and signal cables, the sockets for the latter being gold-plated, while provision was made for remote control, using a link-up system common to other components in the Marantz range of the time. The RC-430 infrared receiver was the key unit here, which was large enough for the CD-73 to stand on. The CD-73 also has an extra box attached to its rear panel that's absent on the CD303. This houses a mains filter. The filter is present in the CD303, but mounted elsewhere.

Like all early Philips players, the CD-73 made use of 14-bit architecture and 4x oversampling in its DAC. The loss of resolution implied by not directly converting the two least significant bits of the music data was addressed by adding three carefully calculated points between each recorded sample, restoring the amplitude resolution of the system.

In addition, it was argued that this arrangement was potentially more accurate than a linear 16-bit converter, on the basis that it is difficult to make the gaps between each digital 'step' exactly consistent at fine levels of detail. Although controversial (both then and now), the Philips-based machines that used this technique were widely regarded as being the best performing of the early generations of CD players.

Of the Philips family, Marantz was often credited with having a small lead in sound quality terms, despite being identical to the other machines in all key areas. This was probably a result of the Marantz range containing better supporting equipment, enabling more effective demonstrations of the player's capabilities.

In the early 1980s, a CD player's error correcting chip was said to be the most intricately made part. Not surprisingly, this led to production difficulties for the Philips SAA7020 and SAA7000 integrated circuits, both key components in all its early players. The solution was to modify one of the circuit boards in the player to accept available parts, in this case the Sony CX7933, CX7934 and CX7935 chipsets as used in the Sony CDP-101 [HFN Jan '12] and CDP-11S and the UK version of the latter - the Ferguson CD 01 [HFN Jan '19].

Maze Of Mods

The modifications were extensive and included a complex maze of interfacing parts, along with the Japanese components mounted on a plug-in sub panel. Model numbers remained unchanged, so it was impossible to tell externally which version you had. This change can be found in any Philips-made player before the CD104, but is most regularly encountered in the Marantz CD-73 (including our review sample). By contrast, the CD303 tested in HFN Nov '13 used the full Philips chipset.

For all its glitz and glamour, the Marantz CD-73 is not a difficult player to use. The drawer lumbers open and closes with a heavy 'chunk' and while it isn't as quick to read a disc as some, it's soon ready for use. The CDM0 swing-arm mechanism (later examples used the CDM1) is silent with no whirring motors, groaning belts or grinding gears to disturb the listener.

The track display LEDs are a little basic, the green ones showing the available tracks, the orange ones how far playback has progressed through them. Discs with more than 15 tracks have to be navigated 'blind' beyond this point, a small 'overflow' indicator lighting up to show when this is happening. In common with all early Philips designs, it is only possible to skip forwards through the disc, although the 'select' key can be used to choose any track, which will then be found on pressing 'play'.

Tim listens

The sonic signature of any early Philips 14-bit CD player is unmistakable, being a combination of rich, plump bass and the subtle way in which sounds such as those from stringed instruments are handled. The CD-73 sounds immediately familiar in this respect: style the cabinet as you wish, but there can be no doubt who made the insides. Many pieces of music revealed these traits, including Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms [Vertigo 824 499-2] - a disc used by Philips at the time to demonstrate the strengths of digital recording.

Another revealing track was 'Learning To Fly' by Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers [from the compilation album Anthology; MCA 170 178-2], which can sound dry and lifeless when heard via unsympathetic equipment. Played on the CD-73, the bass line thudded away under the rest of the music in a way that was most satisfying while guitars twanged and percussion twinkled over the top, all polished up by the black magic of 4x oversampling and digital filters.

These early Philips designs remain an exceptionally accessible way to enjoy CD recordings. Relaxed-sounding and fluid, the rather overused cliché that they sound a bit like vinyl (but without the clicks and pops) isn't that wide of the mark. Heard in isolation, then, this Euro-Oriental hybrid sounds like any other 14-bit Philips machine. However, under the microscope of an A/B comparison with a Philips CD303 having SAA7020 and SAA7000 chips on board, some small differences can be discerned.

The overall tonality remains unchanged, but there is a slight variation in the character of the treble. The Marantz player has a harder edge (no bad thing it could be said, the standard Philips being a bit soft for some tastes). For example, the CD-73 lifts the sibilance by a fraction in the voice of Tori Amos as she sings 'Crucify', the opening track of her album Little Earthquakes [East West 7567-82358-2]. The standard CD303 does not.

Truth And Consequences

Play music that's rich with positional information, such as the song 'Fascination' by Everything But The Girl [from the compilation Home Movies; Blanco y Negro 4509 92319 2], and here it could be argued that the solidity of the guitar line in the overall soundstage is a tad more diffuse when heard on the Marantz CD-73. However, since these differences are only really detectable if you have both versions of the machines side by side for comparison, I'm tempted to say that they are of no real consequence in real-world listening. In whatever form it comes, the Marantz CD-73 is a fine player and unquestionably worthy of the high esteem in which it is held.

Buying Secondhand

Like all the early Philips players, the CD-73 benefits from having a durable optical unit that rarely gives any trouble. Since worn lasers are a common problem with many vintage CD players, and one that can be difficult to resolve, this is a real boon. It isn't all plain sailing though, as poor soldering is a common fault throughout the CD-73, particularly around the display, the voltage regulators and the flexible cables that run between the drawer and the main chassis.

There are two 100µF electrolytic capacitors in a voltage doubler circuit in the power supply that will almost certainly require replacing by now if they are the original ones. The smaller components of the same type both here and on the panel, which controls the drawer, are also suspect in well used examples, but this shouldn't be taken as an excuse to change them all. The types used on the two main printed circuits inside the screening can are of good quality and are best left alone.

Reluctance to spin a disc, especially after a period of disuse, points to hardened lubricants in the spindle motor, particularly if a CDM0 transport is fitted to the player. There isn't much that one can do about this, but with persistence the machine will usually start working once more and continue to do so until it is laid up again.

The TDA1540 DAC chips can sometimes play up, giving distorted sound in one or other channel (sometimes only when the player is warm). Later models, such as the Philips CD150 and 350 can provide a useful source of replacement parts in cases like this. Not only do they share much in common but are still cheap and plentiful.

Finally, the blue 'Compact Disc' logo on the front of the CD-73 can often fail to illuminate. It may look like an exotic device, but behind it is nothing more than a filament lamp. Replacement is straightforward, even if the dismantling required to reach it is not.

Hi-Fi News Verdict

The CD-73 deserves its position as one of the most desirable early CD players. Visually striking, durable and a joy to listen to, it's a perfect addition to a vintage system for those seeking to broaden the range of media that can be played. The machines are in good supply, so be selective and don't pay over the odds, and are tough enough for everyday use - something you'll want to do once you hear a good one.

Marantz CD-73 CD player Lab Report

This iconic CD player employs the same swingarm transport, servo and oversampling/DAC boards as Philips' original CD100 [HFN Oct '11] and its subsequent CD303 [HFN Nov '13]. Both these players were based on the seminal SAA7030/TDA1540 14-bit/4x oversampling chipset, the DAC itself proving to be very linear down to -70dBFs (within ±0.3dB) but showing a slightly compressive trend thereafter with signals at -80dBFs emerging at -77.5dB and those at -90dBFs at -86.8dB, etc. The limited number of taps in its first-generation SAA7030 linear phase FIR digital filter offer a moderate 51dB stopband suppression but incurs in-band ripples amounting to 0.25dB. We've seen this before, of course, but the 22.676μsec delay between left and right channels was not observed in our re-tests of other first-gen players [see impulse responses, Graph 2 below]. The one-sample-period delay is presumably a function of the extra logic gates in Marantz's 'hard-wired' replacement for Philips' CD decoder/error-correction IC used in the CD100, CD 303, etc.

Otherwise distortion remains low for a 14-bit DAC at 0.0013-0.0035% at its peak 2.08V output (20Hz-20kHz) but the trend of THD versus digital level, with 'steps' at -20dBFs and -75dBFs, is much more erratic than the smooth 'textbook' diagonal achieved by modern DACs [see Graph 1, above]. Digital jitter - not measurable back in the day - is a very respectable 310psec although the spectrum is highly complex and populated with low-level PSU, data-induced and other sidebands related to digital processes within the CD-73. The 104.4dB A-wtd S/N ratio is also '1-bit' ahead of some 16-bit DACs, and would be superior still if it were not for two idle patterns at 650Hz and 3.575kHz. PM

Review: Tim Jarman, Lab: Paul Miller

Source: www.hifinews.com