Marantz 67SE CD player

I had this when it first came out. I found it decent, but on the lean and dry side, no matter the quality of the electronics and cables in the system. I tried rich and good DACs like the CAL SIgma and the Alpha as well as the Theta Pro Prime II. The CD67SE always had that same sonic signature, lean and dry and slightly recessed. This affected the tonality and tmbre of the whole system. I sold it.

Adding an outboard DAC is a definite improvement. I started with the 63se as a stand-alone player, first added a Parasound 1100 DAC, then changed that out for a McCormack DAC-1. Each improved the sound a lot. I've just bought a McCormack SST-1 transport and sold the Marantz. The McCormack is another huge improvement, as it should be, but upgrading by adding the DAC's, shopping carefully for good used prices, meant I arrived at a set-up I really love without the pain of big chunks of cash flying away at any one time. A side benefit is being able to really hear the difference each piece makes isolated from any other change. I found that I understood more about my total system, even what the speakers were doing, than if I had upgraded in one jump.

I recently added an Adcom GDA700 to my Marantz 67SE and it made a significant ipmrovement in transparency, soundstage and overall extention top to bottom. It is also a very sweet sounding DAC without losing midrange neutrality. Highly recommended. PS. I have to say that I have tried both coax and toslink outputs and keep going back to the toslink it just sounds truer to the music although Robert Harley and the Stereophile team write that it is an inferior connection.