Marantz sa 8260: buy or run away

RUN!!

Granted it's a nice sounding player, but absolutely unreliable. And even if you send it in for repair, Marantz will only address the problems specific to the disc(s) you send in that won't play. It's just a matter of time before *other* discs stop playing and you have to send it in again (the cycle never ends).

maybe other marantz models are less reliable?

Never a problem with mine which I bought as the 2nd owner and have had over 2 years now. Some have had problems for sure, but I respectfully disagree with the flavor of Jonathan's assessment.
To be sure though, "it's just a matter of time" with ANY piece of equipment.
Just like with any other purchase, consider who you are buying it from and if they are accurate and honest about the description and it's performance.
Good Listening!

It's a terrific sounding player when it works well. However, mine refused to play any discs within less than 100 hours or so. It was relaced with the SA 8001 model which has about a hundred or so hours currently and plays flawlessly. I cannot say which sounds better having not had them at the same time. For a little more $, I would definitely go with the SA 8001 which has read everything I have thrown at it so far.
I hope this helps....

At the risk of beating this into the ground, I'd argue (respectfully) with Myraj about the "matter of time" statement. Granted a mechanical device of any kind is going to eventually fail at some point. So in this sense it IS simply a matter of time (although I've owned gear that has lasted for over twenty years and is still going strong).

Acknowledging this to be true, I'd still argue that the 8260 is a machine that is fundamentally flawed. There may be a lucky number of folks who have not had "issues," but a quick Google search turns up anecdotal evidence of problem after problem with this unit.

My own experience echoes this. And, unfortunately, even after I sent it in to be "fixed" it continued to fail to read discs. Marantz's request to continually send the machine back along with the offending CDs was just crazy (how many possible problems would they have to address before all my discs would play without a problem?)

I ended up selling my unit for a lot less than I paid (with FULL disclosure to the buyer about my problems with it). He kept it for a while, but opted to try something new due its inconsistent performance. Nice sounding machine? Yes. Huge potential to be a pain in the butt? Definitely.

The sound is soupy and I was extremely disappointed. i gave mine to my 11 year old son and he is happy with it. It was given an "A" by Stereophile and that is a joke. This is without a doubt not an "A" sounding player. I do not recommend it to anyone. I am sorry I purchased it. That is the last time that I will give Stereophile any credence.

I would run away! Stay away from the SA-8260 and get a SA-8001! A good deal of these SA-8260 units are plagued with TOC reading errors and laser issues and the main circuit board is too thin and will sometimes crack in shipping/handling. I have seen four units with cracked circuit boards/traces over the years and had units that had the TOC error issues.

SA-8001 (the sucessor) has been TOC error free, and the circuit board is a different material and much thicker and reliable. Also the transport is spot on. I havent seen a single problem in the SA-8001 chassis, I would recommend the 8001 over the 8260 anyday.

Hope this info helps.