Marantz PM6003 woes

[toneey.m]

I am having problems with a Marantz PM6003 amp and wondered if this is common.

Basically the amp hums constantly (I've tried 2 pairs of speakers) and frequently drops into stand-by mode which is apparently protection against speakers less than 4 ohms. I have very little electronics knowledge and am baffled and dissapointed as I have owned older amps that have given no problems for 10-20 years.

Any thoughts or assistance would be appreciated, Marantz have supplied me with a company to send the amp to to get fixed and I'm waiting for an estimate.

 

[BigH]

I heard this happen on the 6004, guess 6003 is similar. Solution change the amp or speakers. For amps. try NAD or Rega or Creek or HK.

 

[GMK]

Is this possible user damage or poor manufacturing? If it's the latter that's concerning

 

[toneey.m]

Thanks for your replies.

Re user damage, I can't think of a definite reason. However one of the inputs is the audio from a Freesat box, the volume has been up high a couple of times but not defeningly high, the volume had not been left high for more than a few seconds. Could this have done it?

Ref replacing amp/speakers. I use Mission 760is so these maybe the logical choice for change. I've been thinking about replacing them but not sure what to replace them with. What hi-fi rate the Tannoy DC6 speakers for instance but i'd quite like to find out more about older speakers. I like jazz e.g. Polar Bear, Promesis .. so quite modern but most of the time my hi-fi is used for listening to the radio. So I think I like mid range but like base when its supposed to be heard! My Missions seem a bit lacking in the base dept.

 

[toneey.m]

Could do with some input from those who might know.

Has this amp let me down or have I somehow overloaded it?

 

[matthewpiano]

How did you connect the audio from the Freesat box to the amp? Did you use conventional phono/rca leads (red/white) at the Freesat end or did you take a feed from the Freesat's headphone output? If the former, the signal would only be line level at most, and not amplified, so shouldn't cause any damage.

It does seem more likely that there is a fault with the amp. I've owned a PM6003 and currently have a Denon PMA720ae which probably shares a large percentage of the PM6004's components (Denon and Marantz being the same company) and I've had no such issues despite using a wide range of different speakers with both. Certainly I wouldn't say your Missions would be a difficult enough load to cause any damage to the amp.

 

[toneey.m]

Thanks Mathew.

Yes I am using the phono outputs from the Freesat box - red/white connections.

I think I'll send the amp off to one of the recommended agents.

 

[toneey.m]

I've been a bit of a while to post the update on my Marantz, it had a faulty IC unit.

Some of you may be interested in this type of problem.

Thanks