At a glitzy platinum anniversary event, held in its spiritual home of New York City, premium audio brand Marantz has been celebrating its illustrious past and embracing a future that will see it evolve into a luxury brand.
The Luxe Review was invited along to celebrate the milestone, and to talk about the transformation with brand president Joel Sietsema.
Speaking at a rooftop cocktail party high atop Hudson Yards, Sietsema raised a glass to the brand’s heritage and promised exciting developments to come.
“We are investing heavily into this luxury transformation,” he promised.
Sunset fell, cocktails flowed and music played long into the night…
Marantz Hi-Fi equipment has long been revered for its musical performance and build quality, and its hardware designs are iconic…
Marantz Hi-Fi equipment has long been revered for its musical performance and build quality, and its hardware designs are iconic. Amplifiers and receivers from the Sixties and Seventies have an industrial authenticity that still resonates today. Even its most button-strewn kit now appears chic.
The company’s history is fascinating. Driven to resolve the inconsistencies that plagued 78 rpm records at the time, Saul Marantz launched his first music product, the Audio Consolette, in 1952. A year later his company officially launched.
In 1958, Saul followed the Audio Consolette with the Model 7, a classic stereo preamplifier. Featuring novel electronics it became a huge hit with music lovers across the States. Industrial design had found its groove.
In recognition, Marantz has put a veritable museum of Hi-Fi hardware on display. For music nerds (hands up!), the collection was as compelling as anything you might find in The Met (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) uptown.
Turntables and headphones dotted the floor, record bins packed with classic recordings available to play. High res streaming audio was on hand via tablets.
The Marantz Model 9c amplifier, released in 1960, is particularly gorgeous. This minimalist tubed titan (pictured above) could deliver 70W of power, remarkable at the time. A Marantz 4400c receiver (below), released in 1974, is altogether busier. A stereo + Quadradial design, it’s distinguished by a mesmerising ‘Scope Display’ oscilloscope which pulsates when music is played.
Such vintage Marantz components are now much sought after, and command high prices from enthusiasts and collectors.
Much of the Marantz’s unique design language can be attributed to the many influences that have shaped the company.
Created by Saul Marantz, out of his home in Kew Gardens, New York, Marantz was the quintessential American electronics success story, very much at the forefront of audio innovation at the time. Then brand ownership transferred to Japan, and then Europe. Now the company is back with a homegrown focus, and drawing inspiration from New York
“In luxury, origin is a super important part of how people develop an interest in your brand,” says Sietsema.
The home turf focus seems appropriate. New York is a city with a unique soundscape. It’s loud, surprising, cosmopolitan and sonically exciting. All of which can be equally said of Marantz itself.
The company has identified two key groups which it believes are ready to embrace luxury audio: the Indulger, who purchases luxury products simply because they want the very best of everything, and the more aspirational Status Seeker, eager to affiliate themselves with high status brands.
Significantly, both sectors are largely unaware of the amazing audio products out in the world, says Sietsema. “They have an appetite for something much better.”
But what is luxury, in the context of home audio, we ask?
“If you ask a lot of consumers, they’ll say it’s about being very expensive, about very big speakers and amplifiers,” says Sietsema. “But that’s my definition of High End. Luxury is a lot more about the adjacent experience that comes with it when you’re shopping, how you experience the brand, the packaging, and the product interaction.”
The user interface shouldn’t just be an app, he tells us. “There are other interesting ways to engage with the product that are worthy of conversation. Just like when you buy a nice watch, or a nice automobile, or whatever luxury category you care about.”
“We’ve done focus groups with luxury consumers, and there’s a quality threshold that is absolutely good enough. Where you go from there is uncharted territory. There are a lot of products that are interesting from a design perspective, interesting from a user interface perspective, and then there are some brands that do a nice job on their commerce, and how they manage their brand out in the world. But no one’s really piecing that together in a very integrated way.
“The journey for us is to try to take someone who’s interested in quality products, and has the capacity to buy from the very best brands, and make them see audio in a different way. There’s really nothing out there, in my estimation, that’s doing a great enough job.”
That said, Marantz isn’t moving away from its enthusiast base, insists Sietsema.” They’re more parallel paths that need to feel like they’re coming from the same brand. The audio enthusiast will always be there, but it’s less than 20 per cent of the total pool of consumers.”
The challenge, he says, is to do something different.
“We’re trying to take Marantz into a place that is underserved. When you talk to luxury consumers, they care a lot about origin, and sustainability. So we’ve hired people that intuitively feel, in their gut, that we need to be a more sustainable business; not just because we want to attract people who care about that, but because they actually feel it is the right thing to do.”
It’s not just about product longevity, either.
“We’ve done that for a long time. Products that last, products that get handed down. People who own Marantz will hand it down to their son or daughter. That’s not uncommon. We build the very best that will last as long as they possibly can.”
70 years on, Marantz is at an inflection point, says Sietsema. “Luxury is our North Star. We plan to introduce the type of products that we think luxury consumers actually want. There’s just not a lot of brands out there trying to do that.”
As far as business plans go, this is music to our ears. Watch this space.
Danish audio outfit DALI has announced a new Hi-Fi speaker series, which combines advanced acoustic engineering with contemporary Scandi design. Landing globally in February 2026, the Sonik range will comprise seven models covering stereo, home cinema and on-wall applications. The enclosures come a choice of finishes: Black Ash, Walnut, Natural Oak and White, complete with…
The Audio-Technica Hotaru is a music system like no other. This limited-edition turntable combines analogue vinyl playback with magnetic levitation and reactive lighting. Only 1,000 units have been made, each priced at €9,999. The design is intended as both a high-end music system and a sculptural object d’art. The Hotaru uses a floating structure and…
Now here’s something you don’t see every day: a £35,000 sound system built from a real Lamborghini supercar exhaust. The iXOOST ESAVOX isn’t a concept or a marketing gimmick. It’s a fully functional Bluetooth sound system handcrafted in Italy from genuine Lamborghini components, complete with a working start/stop button that powers on the system, much…
The Luxe Review 
At a glitzy platinum anniversary event, held in its spiritual home of New York City, premium audio brand Marantz has been celebrating its illustrious past and embracing a future that will see it evolve into a luxury brand.
The Luxe Review was invited along to celebrate the milestone, and to talk about the transformation with brand president Joel Sietsema.
Speaking at a rooftop cocktail party high atop Hudson Yards, Sietsema raised a glass to the brand’s heritage and promised exciting developments to come.
“We are investing heavily into this luxury transformation,” he promised.
Sunset fell, cocktails flowed and music played long into the night…
Marantz Hi-Fi equipment has long been revered for its musical performance and build quality, and its hardware designs are iconic. Amplifiers and receivers from the Sixties and Seventies have an industrial authenticity that still resonates today. Even its most button-strewn kit now appears chic.
The company’s history is fascinating. Driven to resolve the inconsistencies that plagued 78 rpm records at the time, Saul Marantz launched his first music product, the Audio Consolette, in 1952. A year later his company officially launched.
In 1958, Saul followed the Audio Consolette with the Model 7, a classic stereo preamplifier. Featuring novel electronics it became a huge hit with music lovers across the States. Industrial design had found its groove.
In recognition, Marantz has put a veritable museum of Hi-Fi hardware on display. For music nerds (hands up!), the collection was as compelling as anything you might find in The Met (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) uptown.
Turntables and headphones dotted the floor, record bins packed with classic recordings available to play. High res streaming audio was on hand via tablets.
The Marantz Model 9c amplifier, released in 1960, is particularly gorgeous. This minimalist tubed titan (pictured above) could deliver 70W of power, remarkable at the time. A Marantz 4400c receiver (below), released in 1974, is altogether busier. A stereo + Quadradial design, it’s distinguished by a mesmerising ‘Scope Display’ oscilloscope which pulsates when music is played.
Such vintage Marantz components are now much sought after, and command high prices from enthusiasts and collectors.
Much of the Marantz’s unique design language can be attributed to the many influences that have shaped the company.
Created by Saul Marantz, out of his home in Kew Gardens, New York, Marantz was the quintessential American electronics success story, very much at the forefront of audio innovation at the time. Then brand ownership transferred to Japan, and then Europe. Now the company is back with a homegrown focus, and drawing inspiration from New York
“In luxury, origin is a super important part of how people develop an interest in your brand,” says Sietsema.
The home turf focus seems appropriate. New York is a city with a unique soundscape. It’s loud, surprising, cosmopolitan and sonically exciting. All of which can be equally said of Marantz itself.
The company has identified two key groups which it believes are ready to embrace luxury audio: the Indulger, who purchases luxury products simply because they want the very best of everything, and the more aspirational Status Seeker, eager to affiliate themselves with high status brands.
Significantly, both sectors are largely unaware of the amazing audio products out in the world, says Sietsema. “They have an appetite for something much better.”
But what is luxury, in the context of home audio, we ask?
“If you ask a lot of consumers, they’ll say it’s about being very expensive, about very big speakers and amplifiers,” says Sietsema. “But that’s my definition of High End. Luxury is a lot more about the adjacent experience that comes with it when you’re shopping, how you experience the brand, the packaging, and the product interaction.”
The user interface shouldn’t just be an app, he tells us. “There are other interesting ways to engage with the product that are worthy of conversation. Just like when you buy a nice watch, or a nice automobile, or whatever luxury category you care about.”
“We’ve done focus groups with luxury consumers, and there’s a quality threshold that is absolutely good enough. Where you go from there is uncharted territory. There are a lot of products that are interesting from a design perspective, interesting from a user interface perspective, and then there are some brands that do a nice job on their commerce, and how they manage their brand out in the world. But no one’s really piecing that together in a very integrated way.
“The journey for us is to try to take someone who’s interested in quality products, and has the capacity to buy from the very best brands, and make them see audio in a different way. There’s really nothing out there, in my estimation, that’s doing a great enough job.”
That said, Marantz isn’t moving away from its enthusiast base, insists Sietsema.” They’re more parallel paths that need to feel like they’re coming from the same brand. The audio enthusiast will always be there, but it’s less than 20 per cent of the total pool of consumers.”
The challenge, he says, is to do something different.
“We’re trying to take Marantz into a place that is underserved. When you talk to luxury consumers, they care a lot about origin, and sustainability. So we’ve hired people that intuitively feel, in their gut, that we need to be a more sustainable business; not just because we want to attract people who care about that, but because they actually feel it is the right thing to do.”
It’s not just about product longevity, either.
“We’ve done that for a long time. Products that last, products that get handed down. People who own Marantz will hand it down to their son or daughter. That’s not uncommon. We build the very best that will last as long as they possibly can.”
70 years on, Marantz is at an inflection point, says Sietsema. “Luxury is our North Star. We plan to introduce the type of products that we think luxury consumers actually want. There’s just not a lot of brands out there trying to do that.”
As far as business plans go, this is music to our ears. Watch this space.
From stereo music to home cinema, DALI’s new Sonik speaker range can do it all
Danish audio outfit DALI has announced a new Hi-Fi speaker series, which combines advanced acoustic engineering with contemporary Scandi design. Landing globally in February 2026, the Sonik range will comprise seven models covering stereo, home cinema and on-wall applications. The enclosures come a choice of finishes: Black Ash, Walnut, Natural Oak and White, complete with…
Audio-Technica Hotaru first review: floating, glowing turntable elevates vinyl playback
The Audio-Technica Hotaru is a music system like no other. This limited-edition turntable combines analogue vinyl playback with magnetic levitation and reactive lighting. Only 1,000 units have been made, each priced at €9,999. The design is intended as both a high-end music system and a sculptural object d’art. The Hotaru uses a floating structure and…
Introducing the incredible £35,000 Bluetooth speaker built from a real Lamborghini exhaust
Now here’s something you don’t see every day: a £35,000 sound system built from a real Lamborghini supercar exhaust. The iXOOST ESAVOX isn’t a concept or a marketing gimmick. It’s a fully functional Bluetooth sound system handcrafted in Italy from genuine Lamborghini components, complete with a working start/stop button that powers on the system, much…
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