Marantz is celebrating brand ambassador Ken Ishiwata's 40th anniversary with the launch of two very special, limited edition products: the Marantz KI-Ruby series. The SA-KI Ruby SACD/CD player and PM-KI Ruby amplifier will be made in a limited run of 1000 units apiece, in honour of the legendary high-end hi-fi figure.
Since joining the company in 1978, Ken Ishiwata has been at the heart of the development of the Marantz sound, and has led the team responsible some of the company’s most celebrated products.
He also pioneered the idea of Special Edition tuning, adding higher quality components to established products to deliver even better performance, and launched his own KI-Signature range of high-end Marantz products.
Fresh from working on the new flagship Marantz SA-10 SACD/CD player and PM-10 amplifier, comes the limited edition KI-Ruby Series - two completely ground up designs, drawing on decades of experience.
Set apart by a laser-etched facsimile of Ishiwata’s signature and a ‘Ruby’ motif on their front-plates, the new components are designed and tuned by a team led by Ishiwata to deliver truly outstanding sound – and are destined to become instant collectors’ items for any hi-fi enthusiast.
SA-KI Ruby
Designed for pure audio performance, the SA-KI Ruby builds on 35 years of expertise to deliver a sound that's vivid with detail and delivers effortless dynamics. The Super Audio CD player uses a SACDM-3 disc transport and can play SACD, CD, CD-ROM and DVD-ROM.
Not just a top-class disc spinner, the SA-KI also offers an asynchronous USB input, able to handle formats all the way up to PCM/DXD 384kHz / 32bit and DSD11.2MHz. Marantz Musical Mastering converts all incoming digital audio data to a single-bit datastream for ultimate accuracy, allowing the analogue output to be served by a simple low-pass filter stage.
All the digital inputs are isolated to block noise from connected sources, and the player features a new analogue output stage with Marantz HDAM-SA2 technology and low impedance output.
PM-KI Ruby
Like the SACD player, the PM-KI Ruby amplifier has been engineered from scratch and tuned by a team led by Ken Ishiwata.
It features a fully-discrete two stage design combining a high resolution preamp stage using Marantz HDAM technology and with its own dedicated toroidal transformer. There's also a switching power amplifier section able to deliver 100W per channel into 8ohm, or 200Wpc into 4 ohm.
As well as line inputs, the amplifier features the innovative Marantz Musical Premium Phono EQ circuit for connecting a turntable. Derived from the flagship PM-10, it's compatible with moving coil and moving magnet cartridges.
An all-analogue design with separate power supplies for pre and power stages, the PM-KI delivers 100 watts per channel into 8ohm or 200 watts into 4ohm.
The Marantz SA-KI Ruby and PM-KI Ruby are available now, each costing £3500/€3999 and available in a limited edition of 1000 numbered units (500 black and 500 gold), and complete with a certificate of authenticity.
Experience the sound of the KI Ruby Series for yourself at select Marantz retailers.
