Marantz 3650 Stereo Control Console Preamp - RARE

This listing is for the 3650 preamp only. the 300DC Amp and the 2110 Tuner shown in the video will be listed separately.

The 3650 is a Top of the Line component from the golden age in the late 70’s, and are VERY hard to find, especially in very good condition like this. I purchased the system at an estate sale 8 years ago, and planned to eventually build a walnut cabinet. I've now decided to let it go so someone else can enjoy it.

Here is a video of the actual unit: https://youtu.be/25VKi-RZg2w

I often used this as an MM phono stage in my high end rig (Ayre/ ARC/Thiel) due to the excellent phono section. The sound is bold, holographic and dynamic. It s a “Vinyl Lover’s” preamp. It has two phono inputs, front panel controls for MM/MC cartridge selection, and even convenient front panel knobs for capacitance & resistance for easy cartridge adjustment. There are also Aux and Tuner inputs, either of which can be used with a CD Player, DAC, or in a modern home a Bluetooth or Airplay source input.

The "Scope Out" is used with the oscilloscope on the matching tuner, to send the sound waveform from the vinyl or Aux to be viewed as an analog "Visualizer"! I LOVED this feature when listening at night.

There are two preamp outputs. The second could be used for bi-amping or adding a powered subwoofer. There are also two tape outputs. In a modern home, they could be used to route sound to two different amps, in different rooms. And the selection controls would even allow separate sources routed to each.

The equalizer has bass, midrange, and treble sliders for each channel. If you don’t use tone control in your main room, you can flip a switch and use the tone controls on either of the two other zones. The bass and treble also have selectable turnover. By pushing a button in the upper right, the bass control now is now effectively only Low Bass only control, so you can add some deep bass to music. Likewise, the treble control can become High Treble only to take the edge off of bright recordings. The Contour Control allows you to add richness to the sound at low listening volumes (better than a “loudness” control).

There are MAIN and REMOTE speaker switches on the front panel, which might seem odd considering this is a preamp with no amp inside. On the back panel you can run the output of your amp BACK TO THE PREAMP. From there, you can connect two pairs of speakers and have front panel speaker switching! If you don’t intend to run speakers in two rooms, you can simply forgo all this, and just connect your speakers directly to your amp as I did.

I gave it a basic test only, and the power on red indicator light works. The volume control is noise free and feels great with a high quality stepped attenuator. The left EQ sliders were a little scratchy at startup, but smoothed out after a few minutes. I didn’t get output from the 1/4" "phones" jack, but did from the "dubbing out" jack. If you use headphones, a dedicated headphone amp could be connected via one of the preamp outputs. There are light cosmetic blemishes on the brushed aluminum face that are hard to see, and I've added high res photos to zoom in.

It will be very well packed and double boxed. Local pick up is fine as well, in or near Lexington KY. North America only. This listing is for the 3650 preamp only (the 300DC Amp and the 2110 Tuner shown will be listed separately)