Every so often, I work on a piece of hi-fi gear that really makes me smile. The Marantz Model 6300 direct-drive turntable is one of them.
One look at a Marantz Model 6300 and you’ll reach an inevitable conclusion: you want and need to find one to add to your collection! That’s exactly what happened with the owner of this very pretty unit. Surely, the Marantz Model 6300 is one of the finest-looking turntables ever.
Let me know in the comments if you’d like me to write up and review the Marantz Model 6350!
The Model 6300 features the classic styling elements so typical of Marantz equipment from this era, including the Marantz font, mixed wood and metal finishing and elaborate feature designation on the front fascia.
The Marantz Model 6300 is a direct-drive deck, with moderate specs, not high-end, but certainly no slouch. In terms of other brand decks, I put the Model 6300 on par with the Kenwood KD-500 / 550, Rotel RP-3000,Denon DP-30L,JVC QL-F4, and others. It’s close to but not quite as nice as the Kenwood KD-600 and KD-650.
Tonearm: S-shaped Effective length: 231mm Overhang: 15mm Stylus pressure: 0.5 to 4.0g Motor: Servo-controlled direct drive Speeds: 33.33 and 45rpm Speed control: +-3% Rumble: -60dB Wow and flutter: 0.04% Platter: 31cm Platter weight: 1.6kg Dimensions: 435 x 180 x 381mm Weight: 10.0kg
Service
This unit belongs customer who wanted her properly serviced and set up. Sadly and all too often, decks come to me poorly set up, even after having been elsewhere first to have this done.
A Liquid Audio turntable service involves a thorough cleaning of the lid, chassis, platter, mat, tonearm, stylus and headshell. I service all deck mechanisms including motor and spindle bearings, switches and controls, and accurately set cartridge overhang, azimuth, VTA, lateral balance, tracking force and anti-skate, as required.
Beyond this, if there are issues not resolved by standard maintenance, I take a detailed look at power supplies and motor drive circuits in the case of turntables like the Marantz 6300, 6320 and 6350.
Naturally, I also assess the match between the tonearm, cartridge and headshell. In this case, advised the owner that he should also consider adding a better cartridge and headshell. There’s much more to a turntable service than cleaning the stylus and checking the tracking force, so beware!
Anyway, let’s step through this process, in pictures.
Chassis
I love the look of the Marantz Model 6300. I think the combination of walnut veneer and brushed aluminium works incredibly well and, to my eye, these are one of the most gorgeous consumer machines from the golden era.
The Marantz Model 6300, as she came to me, prior to cleaning or any other work. Note the roll of paper in the background. Contrary to its appearance, this is not a roll of toilet paper! It’s actually a high-quality lint-free paper towel I use when cleaning and servicing hi-fi equipment.Here I’m getting ready to pull the old girl to bits. The lid, mat, platter, headshell and covers all come off as part of a proper Liquid Audio service.The tone-arm bearings of this 6300 needed a little attention. Here, I’m using a precision Wiha screwdriver to make small adjustments to the horizontal bearing free-play. Ill-fitting screwdrivers will make a mess of these bearing adjustment screws. Note the anti-skate mechanism. I like this arrangement, where a weight pivoting on a shaft acts against a rod. No nylon monofilament thread to get tangled, or break.The 6300 is stripped and ready for an intensive chassis clean and further work.The platter, mat and headshell to one side, receive individual cleaning/adjustment.The special foaming cleanser I use helps to remove accumulated dirt, grease and oil. I always treat wood like this with premium wood oil after cleaning.
Motor
The Model 6300 motor appears to be a technics model similar to those used in many other decks from this era. It appears to be slightly hobbled for this deck. A closer look reveals that only two of its possible four wiring phases are wound with wire, and two additional poles per sector are missing. This motor is designed so that phases/poles can be added to suit more advanced applications.
Once the chassis and surrounds are clean, it’s safe to have a closer look at, and service, the bearing. I’m holding the rotor, the stator is visible in the background.The rotor from a different angle. Note the largely unblemished bearing surface, and the recessed, roughened mid-section, that holds some of the bearing lubricant. It’s important to ensure this section is adequately lubricated before reassembling the motor.A better view of the motor, minus the rotor. Centermost is the bronze bearing insert. This is often referred to as ‘oilite’ material and is impregnated with oil from the factory. It’s typically supposed to be maintenance-free, though I doubt Marantz, Technics or anyone else figured that decks like these would still be working 40+ years later. We’ve had to develop our own service procedures in cases like this, based on standard, similar bearing maintenance and sensible mechanical engineering practices. I always clean and lubricate bearings like this with a special synthetic bearing oil.Close-up of the stator and bearing sections of the motor. Note the Teflon thrust pad at the bottom of the bearing well. I carefully cleaned this with lint-free materials to ensure a free-running, and therefore quiet, bearing. Note also that Marantz has wired the motor up with only two of the four possible winding phases – green and gold. There are two additional and unpopulated set of poles and winding phases, left out presumably to save some money in this model.I’ve included these shots though to show that Marantz was still working to some excellent tolerances. Note that both the rotor and stators are sized for correct fit, with the grade printed on the rotor and stator, in the form of two ‘+3’ markings in this case. These were hand-matched to a particular tolerance grade at the factory.Correct rotor for this stator/motor, based on production tolerance testing. See if you can find this attention to detail in modern turntables. Anyway, the bearing is now clean and contains the correct amount of synthetic bearing oil.
Electronics & Mechanics
I really like the physical layout of this deck. Even the parts you can’t easily see underneath are thoughtfully laid out and trimmed.
The layout of the Model 6300 is extremely neat. At the bottom left is the power supply filtering and regulation, plus the mechanical arm position switching and speed controls. Top left you’ll notice a couple of solenoids and other arm controls. A small transformer is located to the top right, with the motor in the middle.Master speed controls, on the bottom plastic cap the motor. This motor module houses all the drive circuitry and sometimes needs attention.Two diode bridges, some good quality and decently sized capacitors, a series pass regulator transistor and miscellaneous other parts from the 6300 power supply. People often replace all these parts chasing faults that are unrelated to any of these parts.Microswitches, levers, pivots, potentiometers. Everything here needs attention. I cleaned and lubricated everything you see here as part of the comprehensive service this deck received. Note the thickness of the high-density particleboard plinth/chassis.
Results
I was sad to say goodbye to this gorgeous deck, but her owner is very happy. After service and a precision set-up, she played a record more quietly, with lower wow & flutter and greater overall musicality.
Ready for her first power-up, post-service.This Marantz Model 6300 now looks a million bucks and is ready for her final arm set-up and test.I lightly oiled the wood veneer after cleaning. Hopefully, that shows up here.The name badge as it originally came to me.Nice clean badge!And the tone-arm pivot assembly before cleaning…And after, a big improvement, I’m sure you’ll agree. The last thing to do is to finish the setup of the arm lifter, which needs a positional adjustment. Otherwise, the job is complete!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at and service overview of the Marantz Model 6300 direct-drive turntable. Don’t forget, you can get in touch with me for all your turntable service and repair needs and book some turntable TLC for your deck!
Hi Dan, this very much depends on my customer’s budget, the rest of the system, whether there is the capability to work with moving coil cartridges and so on. in general terms though, the arm is low to medium mass and therefore needs a medium to high compliance cartridge to work with.
Hi David, thanks for your question and how are you? When you re-read your question, does it occur to you that anything might be missing in terms of how you’ve written it..?
He should have written as follows:
I have 2 Marantz 6300 turntables; just had them both serviced, had the stylus replaced with a Grado Red2 Diamond stylus. Was this a good match?
Nice to take part in your work.
I bought a 6300 at the end of the 70’s. Got it now after 20 years of storage. Want to start playing vinyl again.
I notice it needs maintenance.
Can you give me examples of good cleaning products inside and outside and a suitable lubricant.
Mention that I had 6300 connected to the Marant 4400 via the Marantz CD-400B which gave a wonderful sound.
Regards Anders
Hi Anders, thank you for the coffee, much appreciated! I’m often asked about the products I use. There are many and it varies according to the equipment, the job etc. A good foaming cleanser works well on many surfaces like lids and chassis parts. Mr Sheen is a silicone-based foaming cleaner and it is also good for lids for example. Window cleaner also works quite well for general cleaning duties. For wood, I recommend a specialty wood cleaner, I use a wood soap, followed by beeswax or specialty wood oil like cedar oil. The lubricant side of things is also complicated, but for small mechanical parts, I use synthetic or mineral-based machine oil, depending on the application. For bearings, again it varies but a 30 weight synthetic oil is a good option and would work well here. Cogs and gears usually get a dose of light-weight synthetic grease. Brands etc vary according to region. Correct setup with an appropriate cartridge, good stylus, correct VTA, azimuth, overhang, tracking force and anti-skate is critical and the part most tend to get wrong, so spend some time on that part and seek expert help if you are unsure. Those things make all the difference to performance, along with getting that servicing stuff right.
Hi Mike! Although I don’t own a Marantz 6300 it was a pleasure reading your Service Routine on One. What A Beautiful Turntable and How Thorough You Are. It’s Awesome to See Someone Loving What They Do.
Hi Layne and thanks for leaving such a positive comment! I agree these are lovely turntables and definitely one of the nicest Marantz made. I love working on all Japanese turntables from this golden era.
I purchased 6300 in 78. It started to play slow and I’ve not used it since 1990.
Today I brought in to get it up and running.
I’m so excited to get in back. Just hope it can be fixed
If the person working can’t get this going I will dhip to you to repair.
Roger
Hi Andy, not sure which part you are referring to, but all mechanical and chassis parts are no longer manufactured and so must be made, or sourced from parts machines.
Hello, do you think it would be possible to replace a rod from anti skate mechanism that a weight pivoting on a shaft acts against? Mine has broken off and a little part is left inside the tone-arm element. Mine 6300 was perfect – almost mint condition and I’m quite devastaded because of this broken rod.
Thank you 🙂
Thanks for this lesson Mike. I was able to fix the speed problems on my 6300 for $11 for a can of cleaning fluid, rather than having to find a technician to do it for me. Greatly appreciated.
Hi John, very glad to have helped! Keep in mind that this is a small fraction of the work a deck like this needs at this age, but great to know it helped. For those reading this, know that cheap contact cleaners are a disaster long term as they leave sticky residues that cause more problems. Always use the very best contact cleaner you can buy. The good ones are not cheap, but well worth spending a little more on.
Stellar work as always sir!
You make me wish I had pursued a career in electronics in my youth.
Thanks very much Tim, never too late to take it up!
What recommendations would you have made for the stylus and cartridge?
Hi Dan, this very much depends on my customer’s budget, the rest of the system, whether there is the capability to work with moving coil cartridges and so on. in general terms though, the arm is low to medium mass and therefore needs a medium to high compliance cartridge to work with.
I have 2 Marantz 6300 turntables just had them both serviced had the stylus replaced with a Grado Red2 Diamond stylus was this a good match
Hi David, thanks for your question and how are you? When you re-read your question, does it occur to you that anything might be missing in terms of how you’ve written it..?
He should have written as follows:
I have 2 Marantz 6300 turntables; just had them both serviced, had the stylus replaced with a Grado Red2 Diamond stylus. Was this a good match?
Thank you, certainly improved by punctuation, still missing common courtesies though!
Nice to take part in your work.
I bought a 6300 at the end of the 70’s. Got it now after 20 years of storage. Want to start playing vinyl again.
I notice it needs maintenance.
Can you give me examples of good cleaning products inside and outside and a suitable lubricant.
Mention that I had 6300 connected to the Marant 4400 via the Marantz CD-400B which gave a wonderful sound.
Regards Anders
Hi Anders, thank you for the coffee, much appreciated! I’m often asked about the products I use. There are many and it varies according to the equipment, the job etc. A good foaming cleanser works well on many surfaces like lids and chassis parts. Mr Sheen is a silicone-based foaming cleaner and it is also good for lids for example. Window cleaner also works quite well for general cleaning duties. For wood, I recommend a specialty wood cleaner, I use a wood soap, followed by beeswax or specialty wood oil like cedar oil. The lubricant side of things is also complicated, but for small mechanical parts, I use synthetic or mineral-based machine oil, depending on the application. For bearings, again it varies but a 30 weight synthetic oil is a good option and would work well here. Cogs and gears usually get a dose of light-weight synthetic grease. Brands etc vary according to region. Correct setup with an appropriate cartridge, good stylus, correct VTA, azimuth, overhang, tracking force and anti-skate is critical and the part most tend to get wrong, so spend some time on that part and seek expert help if you are unsure. Those things make all the difference to performance, along with getting that servicing stuff right.
Hi Mike! Although I don’t own a Marantz 6300 it was a pleasure reading your Service Routine on One. What A Beautiful Turntable and How Thorough You Are. It’s Awesome to See Someone Loving What They Do.
Hi Layne and thanks for leaving such a positive comment! I agree these are lovely turntables and definitely one of the nicest Marantz made. I love working on all Japanese turntables from this golden era.
I purchased 6300 in 78. It started to play slow and I’ve not used it since 1990.
Today I brought in to get it up and running.
I’m so excited to get in back. Just hope it can be fixed
If the person working can’t get this going I will dhip to you to repair.
Roger
Hi Roger, these are lovely turntables, hopefully that works out and you do get her up and running again!
Hi
Could you direct me in the direction where I could find the front thin black plate that goes on the Model 6300?
thank you
Hi Andy, not sure which part you are referring to, but all mechanical and chassis parts are no longer manufactured and so must be made, or sourced from parts machines.
Hello, do you think it would be possible to replace a rod from anti skate mechanism that a weight pivoting on a shaft acts against? Mine has broken off and a little part is left inside the tone-arm element. Mine 6300 was perfect – almost mint condition and I’m quite devastaded because of this broken rod.
Thank you 🙂
Hi Ciemnoc, sorry to hear the bad news but yes, this is the sort of thing I can and do repair.
Thanks for this lesson Mike. I was able to fix the speed problems on my 6300 for $11 for a can of cleaning fluid, rather than having to find a technician to do it for me. Greatly appreciated.
Hi John, very glad to have helped! Keep in mind that this is a small fraction of the work a deck like this needs at this age, but great to know it helped. For those reading this, know that cheap contact cleaners are a disaster long term as they leave sticky residues that cause more problems. Always use the very best contact cleaner you can buy. The good ones are not cheap, but well worth spending a little more on.
Have a M 600 needs cleaning and adjusting arm.. Also Hmmm when i engage channel in my Grundig Amp