Arkay
09-23-2006, 10:50 AM
Today seemed to be a good day for finding "rare' stuff. Besides sighting the Marantz 1820 Mk II cassette deck (posted about it separately) and scoring a Phillips "Discoverer" Astronaut-helmet television (will post separately in TV forum), I brought home a Marantz "audio digital timer AT-5".
I was lucky to spot it. It was hiding in the shadows behind a turntable at the top of a stack of gear taller than me, behind yet another stack, with just a few inches of one end sticking out, barely showing the Marantz name and model. I strained to see what it was, and as soon as I could make it out, I remembered seeing this mentioned in a thread (with pic) back in the archives here on AK. [THANKS to whoever it was who posted that :thmbsp: : I wouldn't have known enough to bother getting this, if I hadn't seen that thread before! ]
I asked about it, and the poor guy had some work to do moving stuff before he could get it down, but eventually he managed it. He said it was twenty bucks. I offered half that, and he shrugged, smiled, and sold it to me. :banana: :D
Someone cut the power cord (doesn't mean much here), so I'll need to replace that. Don't know if it works, and since it is digital (chips..yikes!) I have my fingers crossed that it does, or that it is at least fixable. Hoping to use it to turn a Marantz receiver into a hi-fi alarm clock, and thus to be able to go to sleep and wake up to vintage Marantz music, without having to get up to turn the gear off or on. :music: :yes: :D
This thing is typical of the silver-fronted Marantz stuff of the era: heavy steel black case with heavy aluminum front panel and solid metal knobs with a good feel to them. Classic Marantz lettering that will match the other silver-fronted 70s units. I was mentally comparing it with a typical "digital clock radio". Just this timer weighs more than most clock-radios, and this is just the clock part! One of the most over-engineered DIGITAL devices I've ever seen. :yes: :thmbsp:
Beyond that, the controls are simple but very well thought-out, giving you better and easier control than anything similar that I've seen, including a 3-position "second adj" (How many clocks let you set the SECONDS, as well as minutes?) and a switch for selecting 50 or 60 Hz operation, making it usable anywhere in the world, etc...
I'm really looking forward to getting this very useful oddity up and running, and part of a system. :thmbsp: :D
I was lucky to spot it. It was hiding in the shadows behind a turntable at the top of a stack of gear taller than me, behind yet another stack, with just a few inches of one end sticking out, barely showing the Marantz name and model. I strained to see what it was, and as soon as I could make it out, I remembered seeing this mentioned in a thread (with pic) back in the archives here on AK. [THANKS to whoever it was who posted that :thmbsp: : I wouldn't have known enough to bother getting this, if I hadn't seen that thread before! ]
I asked about it, and the poor guy had some work to do moving stuff before he could get it down, but eventually he managed it. He said it was twenty bucks. I offered half that, and he shrugged, smiled, and sold it to me. :banana: :D
Someone cut the power cord (doesn't mean much here), so I'll need to replace that. Don't know if it works, and since it is digital (chips..yikes!) I have my fingers crossed that it does, or that it is at least fixable. Hoping to use it to turn a Marantz receiver into a hi-fi alarm clock, and thus to be able to go to sleep and wake up to vintage Marantz music, without having to get up to turn the gear off or on. :music: :yes: :D
This thing is typical of the silver-fronted Marantz stuff of the era: heavy steel black case with heavy aluminum front panel and solid metal knobs with a good feel to them. Classic Marantz lettering that will match the other silver-fronted 70s units. I was mentally comparing it with a typical "digital clock radio". Just this timer weighs more than most clock-radios, and this is just the clock part! One of the most over-engineered DIGITAL devices I've ever seen. :yes: :thmbsp:
Beyond that, the controls are simple but very well thought-out, giving you better and easier control than anything similar that I've seen, including a 3-position "second adj" (How many clocks let you set the SECONDS, as well as minutes?) and a switch for selecting 50 or 60 Hz operation, making it usable anywhere in the world, etc...
I'm really looking forward to getting this very useful oddity up and running, and part of a system. :thmbsp: :D