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Marantz SA-10

I currently own a Modwright Marantz SA-8005. Its has some upgrades including a WyWires umbilical and SR Purple fuse. Its a great player but I'm considering some system upgrades and the Modwright outboard PS will be an issue. The plan was to move to either an Esoteric/Luxman unit but after doing some research another possible candidate might be a Marantz SA-10. Has anyone had a chance to compare the SA-10 with the Modwright SA-8005? Would the SA-10 be and upgrade or just a sideways move? As always your feedback is appreciated.

cmach
jafant
18,975 posts
 

goose

 

Nice score! on the Luxman D-07x.  I am really looking forward in reading about the comparison with Modwright 8005.  What Cables/Cords do you endorse?

 

Happy Listening!

cmach OP
193 posts
 

Goose, congratulations on the D-07X! I think your going to be thrilled with it. I’ve heard nothing but great things about Luxman. Keep us updated please!

Jafant, my system consists of a Pass Labs XA30.8, Aric Audio Super 6SN7 (with upgrades done by Aric), Proac D-30R speakers, SR Power12 SE power conditioner, and a collection of WyWires and SR Galileo cables and power cords.

The addition of the SA-10 has been a revelation of sorts. I want to thank everyone for their input on this. I don't think I could have made this purchase with the same amount of confidence.

Cheers

gxalan
5 posts
 

I ran some measurements of the SA-10 and got a SINAD to 108.7 dB.  

What is interesting is the comparison with the Topping D90.  While that had lower noise and gets higher SINAD into the -120 dB range, there are spikes that are higher on the Topping versus the SA-10.  

Likewise, the SA-10 is more truthful to the DSD master. When I take a DSD test tone, it has a theoretical perfect score of 91.5 dB SINAD.  The SA-11s2 got to 91.0 and the SA-10 gets to 91.4 dB.  The measurement of the Topping D90 is 92, which is impossible but it is probably doing some additional noise shaping on top of the actual source.

The SA-11s2 had a very quiet transport but the SA-10 is even a step up in performance.

Sound quality wise, it’s great.  I wonder if there is value is masking some distortion with noise versus having really low levels of distortion that peek above the noise floor.

As with the PM-10, I have solid state gear that is more clinical and tubes that make bad recordings sound better.  The PM-10 straddles the two somehow with some great bass and warmth in the highs.  The PM-10 had a ton of distortion in the high frequencies and I think this is beneficial to the overall sound.  The SA-10 seems to be the same.  I have a Panasonic UB9000, and Topping D90 MQA, but the SA-10 is more pleasant to listen to though it is hard to do the ABX comparisons.

jafant
18,975 posts
 

cmach

 

Excellent! Good to read about another SA-10 fan and owner.

 

Happy Listening!

jafant
18,975 posts
 

cmach

 

What are you going to do with the modded 8005 ?

 

Happy Listening!

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