Hi, All,

I recently bought a new Marantz PMD221 portable cassette recorder,
which I really like. I have noticed that the unit has an operating
quirk, and I would just like to know if "they all do that"! (I need to
know if I need to send it in for warranty service.)

When I either begin to record, or begin to play back a tape, there is a
brief, 2-second delay, after which the sound quickly fades up from
silence, then sounds normal. When the sound first becomes audible
(during the rapid fade-up) there is distortion, which is gone by the
time the sound reaches normal level.

The recorder otherwise works and sounds great. I have never used a
similar Marantz recorder, and I would like to know if other PMD-series
recorders behave like mine.

Thanks so much for your help!

Ken

scribbled:

Hi, All,

I recently bought a new Marantz PMD221 portable cassette recorder,
which I really like. I have noticed that the unit has an operating
quirk, and I would just like to know if "they all do that"! (I need to
know if I need to send it in for warranty service.)

When I either begin to record, or begin to play back a tape, there is a
brief, 2-second delay, after which the sound quickly fades up from
silence, then sounds normal. When the sound first becomes audible
(during the rapid fade-up) there is distortion, which is gone by the
time the sound reaches normal level.

The recorder otherwise works and sounds great. I have never used a
similar Marantz recorder, and I would like to know if other PMD-series
recorders behave like mine.

Thanks so much for your help!

Ken



Yup, that's normal. It's intentional to keep the power-up transients from
messing with the power amp IC and speaker. The muting circuit affects
both the record and playback electronics.