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).

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.