Mahwah, NJ — Marantz America is celebrating 30 years of visionary guidance from its European brand director, legendary audio designer Ken Ishiwata, with the unveiling of two limited-edition audio components, the KI Pearls. Designed and engineered to Mr. Ishiwata’s exacting specifications, the new KI Pearl units, including the SA-KI Pearl SACD Player (SRP: $2,999) and the PM-KI Pearl Integrated Amplifier (SRP: $3,599), exemplify his passion for music and reflect his ongoing quest for audio perfection. A limited number of the SA-KI Pearl units will be released in May 2009 to select Marantz retailers, with availability of the PM-KI Pearl scheduled for September 2009.
“Ken Ishiwata has literally been the vision and guiding spirit of Marantz HI-FI for 30 years,” noted Kevin Zarow, vice president, marketing and product development for Marantz America. “In order to celebrate his anniversary in the United States, we decided to provide our most loyal customers with the opportunity to experience his virtuosity in audio design and engineering in an exciting new way. With the introduction of our two KI Pearl components we’re literally bringing his dream to life, fully embodying his expertise, passion and knowledge while celebrating his sublime love of music. Our new KI Pearls are two of the most unique and sophisticated audio components ever created. Mr. Ishiwata’s personal attention to these components and to our company for the past 30 years is a great honor for us, and we believe a compliment to our discriminating customers as well.”
With their silk-black finishes and Marantz “blue-light” cosmetics, the two KI Pearl components have been designed to combine art gallery-quality aesthetics with the highest quality build materials, copper-plated chassis and advanced audio performance features. Most importantly, they were designed and personally tuned by Ishiwata to reproduce music exactly as the original artist and recording engineers intended.
The SA-KI Pearl SACD Player, for example, was built to Ishiwata’s demand for a “bulletproof” vibration-damped cabinet, massive power supply with a toroidal transformer and unsurpassed precision CD mechanism. Underneath the SA-KI Pearl’s 5mm aluminum cover is a Xyron Disc Tray with Precision Super Audio CD Drive, a copper encased toroidal transformer, and Marantz-exclusive HDAM SA2 circuitry. Together they work sublimely with all the other carefully selected components to deliver precision high-speed signal handling over the widest possible frequency range. Adapting HDAM-SA2 and HDAM-SA modules with high-performance DACs (CS4398) from Cirrus logic, and selectable filters, ensure superior sonic reproduction, with playback capability for SACD stereo, CD-DA, MP3, and WMA files.
Like the SA-KI Pearl, the PM-KI Pearl Integrated Amplifier is packed with advanced circuitry. Beneath its 5 mm aluminum top cover is a fully discrete 2-stage power amplifier (140 watts per channel at 4 ohms, 90 watts per channel into 8 ohms) as well as a constant current feedback phono equalization circuit (including both MM & MC), CD Direct input buffer circuitry and more. The two-stage circuit construction guarantees a breathtaking signal to noise ratio and a music experience to match the grace and beauty of its physical design.
For more on the Pearl products, visit www.marantz.eu/kipearl/.
