Refurbished MCR502 - no brainer?

[krazy_olie]

Hyperworld/hyperfi have Marantz MCR502 selling on ebay for £200 refurbished/£250 with bundled speakers and I'm very tempted to jump in on it. Mostly wondering if I should look out for any issues when buying B-stock?

Looking to start up my first proper hi-fi and I was considering the 603 but I think I can live without the extra connectivity as all my music is CDs. The service that i'd really want on there is spotify which i'd need a sonos or squeezebox to do properly anyway.

My logic is that I can get this and use the saved money to invest in some good speakers and also put towards getting a decent turntable. Is it even sensible to use this device as an amp for a turntable? (with a preamp)

It's only for my smallish bedroom so I'm not looking at incredibly high level stuff. I don't really have a fixed budget in mind, more concerned about spending sensibly and buying the corrrect stuff for what I need rather.

Lastly does anyone know if the bundled ls502 speakers are "bad" or just not great, for £50 it makes sense in my head to get them to get started on whilst I do some proper speaker research then have some spare/backup speakers to hand.

Many Thanks in advance, Oliver

 

[oldric_naubhoff]

Looking to start up my first proper hi-fi

hi and welcome. not intending to discourage you but a Marantz MCR 502 is quite far from being a proper hi-fi. it should be good for starters but it shouldn't be compared with proper hi-fi. who knows, you might be even happy with it but it's not proper hi-fi non the less.

my first "proper" hi-fi was TEAC Reference 600 with Wharfedale Diamond 10.1 speakers (so quite comparable set-up). suffice to say it was in a completely different league sound wise from what I have now; Pathos Digit + Pathos Classic One mkIII + Dynaudio Focus 110. I upgraded because I was never really satisfied with the sound I was getting and I was expecting a bigger leap in sound reproduction coming from a Creative 2.1 computer speakers set. just my little experience.

Is it even sensible to use this device as an amp for a turntable? (with a preamp)

with an external phono pre-amp, yes. this Marantz has no phono pre-amp built-in. but has 2 line level inputs, so I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to connect an external phono pre-amp with it.

 

[krazy_olie]

Thanks for replying.

I don't really have any issue with the sound I get from my computer. I have an x-fi card going in to some AudioEngine A2s, which sounds really good whilst at the computer (both music and gaming), but I don't want my computer to be my primary music system any more, I am a programmer and I spend enough time at computer desks! The Audioengines are effectively nearfield monitors so with a bit of eq they work well for that, not so much for more more serious listening.

I supose I'm looking for decent sounding bedroom listening rather than a full blown hi-fi, though it may eventually evolve in to such. I am tempted to go with some budget/second hand separates but as it's my own bedroom I don't want massiv echunks taken out of it by hi-fi equipment.... yet. (I already have to make room for bass guitars all the amplification gear that goes with that 😛)

 

[krazy_olie]

The MCR502 arrived!
Turns out it's b stock because it has a black top on the aluminium body which I think looks pretty snazzy to be honest. It also seems to be missing the AM aerial so will contact the seller about that.

Unfortunately the only speakers I can run at the moment are my audioengines which are abviously active so running out of the headphone socket. It seems so much better than when I drive them with my sound card! I can't believe the level of soundstage considering I'm listening at a desk! I thought my soundcard was pretty decent but the fact that I could tell instantly how different it sounds would indicate otherwise. I just A/Bd Miles Davis-Jack Johnson cd on marantz vs wma lossless on my pc with the same speakers and the pc sounds harsh and messy in comparison. I think I need a new sound card for computer music/desk listening for sure.

Considering how loud it all goes with this setup I think I will have to keep speaker selection to something small the the q-acoustics or maybe the passive audioengines.

I am a bit annoyed(with myself :doh: ) that there is no optical/digital input, I didn't realise that this was only added to the newer models but for £200 there's not much to complain about, I have no need for one at the moment anyway and the spare change would be able to cover a nice DAC if needed I think.

Can't wait to hook it up properly.