KEN ISHIWATA

We pay tribute to hi-fi legend Ken Ishiwata – and the products he made

Sad news fills the Insider section of our magazine this month: Ken Ishiwata, legendary hi-fi personality and audio engineer, has recently passed away. Ishiwata died on 25th November following an illness, and we remember him here.

We suspect many readers will have come across Ken Ishiwata’s work, even if they might not know it. If you’ve ever heard or owned a Marantz product made any time during the past 40 years, the chances are he had a hand in it.

Over the decades he became synonymous with the brand. His demonstrations at various hi-fi shows were legendary thanks to his eclectic choice of music and unusual but highly effective set-ups. His penchant for sharply cut and boldly coloured suits was also hard to miss.

Up until his recent departure from Marantz, Ishiwata’s job title was Brand Ambassador. What that rather vague moniker never made clear was the scale of the impact he had on the brand’s products and, by extension, the rest of the industry. He was Marantz’s flag bearer for decades, working tirelessly to ensure that every new product measured up and displayed that distinctive Marantz-ness in its sound.

There are a small number of prominent people throughout the industry that do similar jobs, but Ken’s influence spanned decades and extended to massively successful products across the price points, from affordable to mortgage money.

Many of these even carried his name, in the form of the long-running KI Signature moniker. His work in the earliest days of CD players, particularly those at more affordable prices, was instrumental in making the format more attractive to the audiophile masses on a budget.

The Marantz Team told What Hi-fi? that “we will keep him in our memories with his love for music, the outstanding demonstrations he gave, and his passion to create the most musical audio components. We could fill several pages with our memories, simply because Ken was so versatile and talented in countless fields. Let’s keep him in our memories whenever we enjoy music.”

Towards the end of 2019, Ken attended the What Hi-fi? Awards ceremony to receive our Outstanding Contribution accolade. His speech went down a storm, stirring the soul in a way that only Ken ever managed. In it, he said: “I always said music is the highest form of art we human beings created. The way music touches you is so unique… Music was the one that drove us in our industry, and, as you know, music will never die. And that means we will never die either, right? I believe we will make this industry even bigger.”

More than just the products, the man brilliantly represented the industry we love. He was always enthusiastic and happy to talk, whether about the latest technology and the direction of the industry, or by regaling us with stories from the past. He was a real gentleman and will be sorely missed.

He was a real gentleman and will be sorely missed

Marantz LD30 (1983)

The LD30 standmounts came about as part of a project entitled Marantz Mini Monitors. As we said in our 1983 review, it was Marantz’s intention to produce a compact, inexpensive and efficient speaker with low colouration and strong imaging qualities; one that would be widely distributed. But they were faced with either compromising the unit down to price or making it as intended to sell at a price dealers and consumers wouldn’t be entirely happy with.

In the end, Marantz built a no-expense-spared Mini Monitors to sell at a higher price (£139) and then made a more affordable version – these LD30S – with cheaper drivers while doing its best not to sacrifice. The result: a likeable pair of speakers with good power and bass control and strong imaging.

Marantz CD-45SE (1987)

The CD-45 was one of the first generation of midi-width CD players, but in 1987, after a long and successful stint, it was coming to the end of its life. Rather than wave it off altogether, though, Marantz decided to sell what it had left on the production line (some 2000 units) and modify them for improved sound quality.

Repackaging an existing product was out of character for Marantz at that time, but its success here would inspire the brand to progress that strategy in the form of its KI (Ken Ishiwata) series. Modifications included the introduction of more advanced capacitors and other components – mains power supply capacitors were replaced with ceramic damped capacitors to make the supply stiffer, while those around the digital power supply were similarly upgraded.

The upshot was a performance that had clearly taken a step forwards, showing an undeniable musicality as well as a more even quality across the frequencies over the original 45.

CD63 MKII KI Signature (1996)

Through the 1990s Marantz made an art form of transforming basic budget CD players into giant-killers with the help of some strategic upgrades, and the CD-63 MKII Ki-signature was an example. Arguably the company’s finest moment, it was essentially the player Ishiwata made for himself. Thankfully, everyone else loved it too.

It built on the existing basic CD-63, which was already a class leader at its sub-£300 price, with a smattering of advancements that included a reinforced and copper-plated chassis and a premium-quality toroidal transformer. In the past couple of years, we revisited the MKII version of the player and, despite its veteran age, still heralded it “a special proposition”, with a presentation “so full of colour and life that it’s hard not to get enthralled by the music”.

Marantz PM-66 KI Signature (1998)

Based on the PM-66SE but taking the design forward through a substantial reworking of its chassis and the use of improved components, the PM-66 KI Signature was a well-equipped amplifier. It included an improved movingmagnet phono stage that made it more appealing for vinyl fans.

The sound had a “clear and dramatic” balance, with instruments and voices having a striking presence in the soundstage. There may have been amplifiers that sounded as good, but none had that mix of sound and features at that price.

Marantz CD7 (1999)

Ten years in the making, between projects such as the KI Signature series, the CD7 launched as Marantz’s ultimate statement CD player – with a die-cast metal transport, digital connections and processing, and a choice of digital filtering positions.

With super-cd formats such as DVD-A and SACD on the cusp of existence, the CD7’S purpose was to show just how much a machine could get out of the traditional 16-bit compact disc. And it worked. Awarding maximum star ratings for sound, facilities and build, we called the CD7 “a very serious machine”, good enough to become as much of a reference spinner as the Marantz CD63 KI Signature had become at the lower end of the market.

To highlight Ishiwata’s remarkable achievement, we’ve taken a trip down memory lane and selected what we believe to be five of his best and most interesting Marantz products