Audio Consolette Model 2 brochure (amplifier shown)

In 1952, Saul Marantz launched his high-end audio company with the Audio Consolette preamplifier. The product used the typeface Metropolis on its faceplate and Davison Spencerian (in later editions), setting a typographic standard that the Marantz brand followed for at least 30 years. In fact, these typefaces (unsusual styles for audio components) are part of the reason Marantz products are visually distinct from their competitors. See these 1970s receivers, for example.

Incidentally, Marantz recently entered the iPod/iPhone dock market with a revival of the Consolette brand, but replaced the formal Spencerian with a contemporary brush script logo.

Audio Consolette Model 1 (1952 edition) sales sheet

Audio Consolette Model 1 (1952 edition) sales sheet

Audio Consolette Model 1 (1954 edition)

Audio Consolette Model 1 (1952 edition) on eBay

Audio Consolette Model 1 (1954 edition)

Audio Consolette Model 2 brochure

Model 3 Electronic Crossover

“Model 2215B. Sexy. Sadly not mine, just borrowed until my (also very sexy) Tandberg is happy again.” — Nina Stössinger

Many of the control labels on these 1970s-era Marantz receivers are set in Metropolis, the typeface from which the custom Marantz logo is presumably derived.

The extra frilly type (by audio equipment standards) used for the model label and “Stereophonic Receiver” is Davison Spencerian, a script from the Photo-Lettering library that was recently digitized by Mitja Miklavčič and the PLINC team at House Industries. The digital version has a conventially cursive ‘r’ form but I assume there was an alternative romanesque ‘r’ available in the film type days.

The use of these two typefaces goes all the way back to the company’s founding in 1952 when Saul Marantz launched the Consolette. 

Model 2220 “It not only sounds good, it looks good too. The dial and meter light are a GORGEOUS shade of blue. It weighs in at about 26 pounds. Back in 1973 it retailed for about 300 bucks, which in today's dollars is about $1400.” — Ron Davis of Revolver

The ad typography uses Kabel and Helvetica.