Marantz Model 6200 Turntable – Walnut, Empire 4000 XL-I

A fully automatic Marantz belt drive in walnut, carrying an Empire 4000 XL-I — a cartridge chosen for the same job this turntable was built for.

What it is

The Model 6200 sits in the run of turntables Marantz had built by CEC in the mid-seventies, and they were built properly — a point people who have had the plinth off tend to make unprompted, comparing them favourably with the Pioneer belt drives of the same period.

The drive is a belt turned by an AC servo motor with a built-in frequency generator, which watches its own speed and corrects continuously rather than trusting the mains to stay honest. Speed is set against a strobe, with independent fine adjustment on each of the two speeds, so 33 and 45 are tuned separately instead of sharing one compromise. Wow and flutter is quoted at 0.06 percent and rumble at 60 dB down.

The tone arm is a static-balance S-shaped design with calibrated tracking force and anti-skate, and the cueing is hydraulically damped — the lever lowers the stylus at its own unhurried pace and will keep doing it after you have stopped paying attention. Automatic return and repeat are both there, and the platter is a 30 cm aluminum die-casting under a mat impregnated with anti-static compound, which keeps the record from collecting the dust it would otherwise attract.

One detail worth pointing out: the output cables are deliberately low capacitance, specified for CD-4 quadraphonic playback. That mattered in 1976 for reasons most people have forgotten, and it matters again now, because a low-capacitance lead is simply the better electrical path for any cartridge with a wide response.

The cartridge

This is the part that makes this one worth a closer look, and it is not an accident.

Mounted in the headshell is an Empire 4000 XL-I, gold-bodied, with its magenta stylus. Empire split that range in two: the 2000 numbers were the stereo cartridges, the 4000 numbers were the wide-response line, built when the industry was chasing discrete four-channel records. Those needed a cartridge that could read information far above anything you can hear, because the rear channels rode on a carrier up around 30 kHz. Empire’s answer was the 4000 series — gold-plated bodies, miniature nude diamonds, and a response specification that runs to 40 kHz.

Now look back at the turntable. The 6200’s output cables are deliberately low capacitance, specified by Marantz for CD-4 playback — the same four-channel format, with the same requirement. Whoever put this cartridge on this table understood what both pieces were for. That is a considered pairing from the period, not a cartridge that happened to be in a drawer.

The practical benefit today has nothing to do with quadraphonic records, which almost nobody plays. It is that a cartridge engineered to stay accurate to 40 kHz is working comfortably within itself across the whole audible range, feeding an arm wired with the lowest-capacitance cable Marantz could specify. The four-channel era is long over. The front end it produced is still very good.

It sits in the original Marantz headshell, which is worth having on a table of this age — the arm takes any standard S-arm headshell, so the factory one is usually the first thing to go missing.

Other work

The ground wire has been fitted with a spade lug, so it lands properly on an amplifier’s ground post instead of being a bare strand wound round a screw.

Condition

Very good. Every function runs smoothly, and the walnut and the dust cover present well.

A well-made Marantz automatic wearing the cartridge it was meant to wear.

Marantz Model 6200 Specifications

• Drive: belt, AC servo motor with built-in frequency generator
• Speeds: 33 1/3 and 45 rpm, strobe referenced
• Speed control: independent fine adjustment on each speed
• Wow and flutter: 0.06% WRMS
• Rumble: -60 dB
• Platter: 30 cm aluminum die-cast, 800 g, anti-static impregnated mat
• Tone arm: static balance, S-shaped, calibrated tracking force and anti-skating
• Cueing: hydraulically damped
• Automatic functions: auto return, repeat, auto shutoff
• Output cables: low capacitance, CD-4 compatible
• Cartridge: Empire 4000 XL-I, gold-bodied, magenta stylus, in the original Marantz headshell
• Empire 4000 series: wide-response line, gold-plated body, miniature nude diamond
• Ground lead: upgraded with a spade lug
• Finish: walnut
• Built for Marantz by CEC, 1976 to 1977
• Dimensions: (Width x Height x Depth) 17.3 x 6.5 x 13.8 inches (440 x 165 x 350 mm)
• Weight: approximately 17 lbs (7.6 kg)

⚠️ Important Information for International Buyers

This unit is configured for North American 110/120V power. Buyers outside North America will require a step-down transformer and appropriate plug adapter.

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