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Marantz SA-10 arriving Monday!

I've been hearing and reading all I can about this player during this last year. I have a 6005 right now and it's a nice player but not as good as my analog rig (10k) so it's not a fair comparison. Elizabeth mentioned that her SA-10 is better than her analog. I will be comparing the 2 SACD players side by side. I have at least 3 CD's in which I have duplicates. I'm fascinated about how the circuitry upsamples to DSD SACD. Well not exactly but somehow an improvement over Redbook CD. I have a 2" thick maple block coming in the same day for it. It's going to be a long weekend. I know it can't work miracles on all CD's. If there is jitter in the recording then supposedly you will never get that out. Speak up if I'm wrong about that.
128x128blueranger
cmach
195 posts
 

I purchased a refurbished SA-10 from Music Direct last year. I got a three year warranty with it. Unfortunately its been in the shop twice since then. Frustrating to say the least but I'm hoping Marantz will eventually sort this out.  Its a wonderful sounding unit but reliability on this one is in question.

 

 

stereo-one
13 posts
 
cmach, Hope you work it out with your SA-10.  I know how draining that can be.  I'm dealing with my Denon DP 72L which is a cherished table to me and it's starting to die on me.
sharri
114 posts
 

 I seem to have been asked to post about XLR connections and phase. I would follow what the SA-10 manual states regarding the phase setting.

stereo-one
13 posts
 

@jayctoy I have owned Cary equipment preamps before.

I looked up your manual on the Cary SLP 05, via balanced it says that pin 2 is hot.

If that's the case chances are it's the same as the European settings that the SA-10 comes with by default.  So if you have your SA-10 in default which is European standard you're fine.  But if you have any questions call Cary Audio.  They're very nice people and they'll help you out with it.

stereo-one
13 posts
 

I’m reading that the SA-10 is as good as the Esoteric? Which is not good! From what I understand the Esoteric is cold clinical sounding. I’ve also read the SA-10 being closely compared with Ayre CD players. I know Ayre makes smooth equipment but it’s VERY BRIGHT! When I bought this Marantz SA-10 that’s not what i was looking for. I’m looking for the opposite.

I’m not a Detailed Hound. Detail is one part of music it is not all of music. I’m not sure if it’s because of lack of hearing highs or what? My hearing unfortunately is impeccable. So I’m wondering if the SA-10 is gonna be unforgiving with lesser CD recordings of red book and show flaws as opposing to rolling them off as the SA-11s3 did. The SA-11s3 was a very nice player! But I really wasn’t happy with it because it was flat, meaning one dimensional. It had the bass the richness and everything, very smooth but it wasn’t engaging.

That’s what I was helping the SA-10 would be. A warm three-dimensional sound, Like Vinyl. Now I don’t know. I am wondering if the unit I sent back was flawed because I talked to a dealer and they stated right out of the box it should be smooth but tight maybe bright, so you have to burn it in somewhat which is understandable.

But when my $700 HHB 850 burner is listenable compared to the SA-10 which is not, that’s pretty depressing. Even after 50 hours of burn-in time. Detail to me is a nasty word. I prefer separation, that has no reference towards brightness. Beautiful smooth rich separation is what I was looking for in the SA-10.

Am I wrong?

Is the SA -10 warm sounding or more center cold sounding?

Either way the SA-10 I had was not smooth.

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