Disc Players

Special Editions

The CD 60 is Marantz's first CD player launched after the passing of its legendary brand ambassador, Ken Ishiwata. Ken will forever be associated with Marantz players as a result of his inspired 'rescuing' of the 14-bit CD-45 back in 1986. This was the era of the 'bit wars' where 16-bit DACs were trumpeted as superior to 14-bit (18-bit and 20-bit DACs were to follow) even though Philips' TDA1540 DAC in tandem with 4x oversampling was arguably superior to most 16-bit 2x solutions. Nevertheless, while Philips had finally responded in kind with its new 16-bit TDA1541 DAC, Marantz still had a warehouse full of 14-bit 4x CD-45 players...

Step forward Ken Ishiwata who, arguing against those in the company who wanted to dump the stock at a bargain price, took them in hand. Some educated mods to the power supply, choice capacitors and other tweaks to the analogue stage and, hey presto, the CD-45LE [pictured] was born. So much better did this Limited Edition CD-45 perform that every single player was sold within two weeks, and at a £50 premium! Ken's LE and SE models went on to become a defining theme of Marantz's players for the next three decades. PM