Next track is Dream Thrum from James' Laid album.
Here I start on the Marantz and make notes of the key points I want to focus on in the MM-6. the guitar drones at the start, the follow through sounds in the vocals, the string picking and scrape sounds, the punchiness and presence of the lead guitar, the separation of bass guitar from the drums, the vocal separation from the other instruments once the layering is in earnest, the overall density of the layers, and finally the bass extension.
On the MM-6 there is a clear win taking place almost across the board. The separation of the guitars that drone sounds far more like a duet instead of a singular drone sound. The vocals come way more forward and stand atop the music. The lead guitar was admittedly more laid back and a little less stinging, I preferred the Marantz presentation here. The bass guitar separation from the drums rose to a whole new level on the MM-6. I think on everything I've ever heard I perceived them as one and they were clearly separate today.
Onto the vocals in the layered portion of the track; they were more correctly integrated, they did not lose the sense that they were an extension of the music but did stand out better. The big difference was that the layered ending of the song felt way more like a build or culmination than just dense soundscape. This was an exciting aspect. This was a level of dynamics I was not getting at all from the Marantz.
The bass extension on the Marantz was just edging out the MM-6. It's not a huge knock but this track has a specific bass ending that was definitely hitting harder on the stock preamp.
I went ahead and just played the album through on the MM-6 but this time I turned the amp up to 90% which was verging on hearing loss, haha. My dog started panting and looking back and forth between me and the speakers and whens he realized I was intentionally doing this and it wasn't going to stop she went outside. I have never had this system this loud and it sounded damned good. I know I was well past any level I had taken the stock input and it's because that level would be quickly fatiguing there. That thing
@krichard2496 was talking about with higher levels and fatigue was absolutely true. I won't deny scream singing and maybe even shedding a couple tears cause the album moves the shit out of me.
Final verdict is that the MM-6 is a distinct improvement over the stock Marantz input. I think I'd like just a tad more gain to get that kind of electric vibe back. I will likely buy a MM-6 in the not too distant future. I think applied over various types of music I'd continue to find improvements. The cost benefit ratio is appropriate considering the alternatives out there. Additionally, I see benefit to establishing a separate phono pre to divorce myself from relying on stock inputs since amps have high potential to come and go over the course of my life as opposed to the turntable which I hope to never feel the need to replace.
What did not happen was a night and day smack in the face that demanded a replacement phono pre right now so I could stop listening to subpar presentation ASAP. The stock Marantz phono is pretty damned good, maybe better than I was thinking it was. It's been a while since I critically listened to music A/B style and I really grew to appreciate what I have. I had upgraded a lot of things at once a couple years ago and I knew the then improvements were huge and it was nice to see I'm now fully in the territory of marginal improvements with what I'm currently using.
manuals.marantz.com
manuals.marantz.com
