The Design

The first impression looking at this turntable is how simple it appears. Marantz collaborated with the German based Clearaudio not only on the design, but the 15S1 comes installed with a Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood Ebony moving-magnet (MM) cartridge.

It came disassembled in this packing layout.

Here is a photo of the tonearm gimbal in the rear.

The cartridge.

The motor with power switch, and the pulley.

Here is the metal bearing on which the platter sits.

The clear chassis platter is almost a dead giveaway to many Clearaudio turntables. But this is Marantz, and it represents their original commitment to audio.

The Marantz TT-15S1 is a silicon-belt drive design, and the motor is isolated from the chassis resting on the rack shelf surface and poking through the chassis cut about 1/8” larger all the way around the round motor drive.  The one issue with this design is the motor is manually turned on and off, and requires you to reach somewhat below the body to the switch on the motor.  So you must be careful not to move the motor or it will rest up against the chassis and transmit vibrations. I found placing my finger on the motor with one hand and reaching below with the other did the trick. Having fun so far?

The low-resonance turntable chassis sits solidly on three padded hefty legs of solid aluminum with felt bottoms. Two of the three legs are adjustable to level the surface.

Marantz provides a clamp to secure and flatten the record to the turntable.

No cover is provided, but after a bit of research, I found after-market companies that make one specifically for the Marantz.

The 15S1 operates at both 33 1/3 and 45 rpm and is switched by adjusting the belt to different slots of the motor pulley.