As a rather uneducated SA10 owner of about four years--what a horror story! Yuk!
But what a lot of great information and assistance from everyone who pitched in on this one! I am keeping my fingers crossed because it looks like there are no authorized repair centers anywhere real near me.
My SA10 was a factory refurb from MD for 2k off list, and after reading this thread I am thinking it must have been one of those premature failures that was sent back to MD under warranty. I hope they did a good job.
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@jayctoy , as I typed previously: great thread for SA10 owners. Please follow up and let us know however it gets (or doesn't get) resolved. I guess I should consider keeping a traverse lens assembly on hand in case mine takes a crap and the part is no longer available when it happens.
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@jayctoy , so what is your plan now? Reading through your thread I was getting the impression that you were going to bring it to a shop in Chicago? As a fellow SA10 owner, I hate to read about such bad customer service/tech support from the manufacturer.
As far as my SA10, it is out of warranty. It was a factory refurb from MD and I bought it because it was 2k off of mrsp and it was really the only way I felt I could justify stepping into that price range. The telephone salesman from MD told me (and it is not that I put a whole lot of faith in what salesmen tell me, as imo they are basically paid to bend the truth or outright lie) that a factory refurb was a unit that had been a demo piece at an audio show or the like. So I bought it, and when it arrived and I opened the box, it was like it had just been tossed in the box and shipped. In other words: the Styrofoam enclosures that fit it inside the box were not even around it. There was no owners manual and no power cord. so I called MD, and the dude was like, "Wow!" He told me to check it out/make sure it played/ download a manual on the internet/and he would send me a cord. In the meantime I used a power cord from an extra component I had laying around.
All of that above makes me now think that it must have been a SA10 that shot craps on someone who subsequently sent it back to MD who then sent it to a service center for repair who then sent it back to MD who then listed it as a factory refurb and sold it to me.
All I can say is that if I am correct, I hope the service center did a better job of repairing it than they did at putting it back in its box. I do like it, but I am keeping my fingers crossed.
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@sharri , I appreciate all your input to OP's SA10 thread as it may help me out. I am hoping you are correct about my SA10, as imo, it does sound great. I am coming back to this thread later to study on the checks you described, and if I have any problems figuring them out (I am digitally illiterate) I'll ask you. Again, your input is appreciated!
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Sharri My traverse lens are arriving Tuesday. Encompass shipping dept. did not give the package to Fedex, it’s ten days delayed,
@jayctoy , who is going to install it?
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Ismmatthew more likely pick stereo rehab to install it.
@jayctoy , where is Stereo Rehab located?
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@sharri , I went back through and re-read the posts in this thread, and once again want to thank you for the wealth of helpful information you provided for SA 10 owners. I copied and pasted and made a document which I saved and also printed of the procedures to check LOP and TB1 and TB2 and I am planning on doing that tomorrow.
However, I have a theoretical question: if one's laser did take a crap and one was having issues finding a tech anywhere close to local he or she trusted to do the work, how would it work to buy either a SACD dedicated transport, OR a cheaper SACD player, and connect either of those to the SA10 and therefore use the SA10 as a separate SACD DAC?
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. . . hmmmm . . . well, after doing some searches, as related to that question I just asked @sharri , I am getting that (mostly) that (probably) cannot be done. Someone did post a link at the end of the discussion I am about to paste a link for about a (possible) solution, but when I click on that link, I get nothing.
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However, the reason for having the player is generally to play sacd discs.
Yes, @sharri , the reason I bought it was to hear the full sonic attributes of SACD and to also play my red book discs. You are right--if I did not want to play SACD I would not have bought it.
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@jayctoy , I just got through going to that lin@sharri provided and ordering the assembly from encompass. Hopefully I will never need it, but it is kind of like insurance, I guess, that if I can find someone to install it, at least I will have the part. Thanks @sharri and @jayctoy .
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@jayctoy , I run on the neurotic side and being a bit paranoid I always try to think ahead. I may have to contact stereo rehab about shipping them my unit IF ("IF" being the operative word) mine ever takes a dump. $230 sound reasonable. This is a great thread for SA10 owners thanks to all of you who have contributed. Encompass sent me an email saying that my insurance policy is in the mail.
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Though Iam hoping your sa10 will stay healthy.
@jayctoy , so am I, but as you say, one never knows, so as you suggested, I am thinking ahead. Bummer that Stereo Rehab doesn't take stuff that is shipped. To get to Chicago I'd have to drive across Ohio and then Indiana and then deal with driving through Chicago. Not my favorite thing to do on a good day, but with my eyesight now a days, I definitely would not be up for it. When and if it happens, I will explore other options, but at least I will have the lens. Good to read that yours is now being repaired. I bet that makes you feel good. Keep us updated.
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. . . I remember a few years ago on Audio Asylum some one posted a thread about an issue he was having with the transport mechanism with an SA10. I cannot remember exactly what was going on--I think that either it would not open or close. I was interested because I think it was about the time I had bought mine, but it was one of those deals where the OP drops in an posts a thread and then becomes a ghost, despite how many people ask him for a followup.
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I’d have to look to be sure, but I think I got mine in the summer of ’20 and I’ve only had two anomaly’s. I bought a used red book MFSL copy of Linda Ronstadt/Simple Dreams on ebay and it would not recognize it. My previous red book Rega transport did recoginize it . . . I gave that copy away and bought another on ebay which my SA10 did recognize. In approximately four years, that was the only CD it would not read.
Then, and I don’t know how long ago this was, but probably easily over a year ago, I put a CD in and hit ’play’ and it made a horrendous digital static sound. I quickly stopped it, tried another CD , and it worked great. I cleaned the CD that it offended on, tried it again, no issues. That has never repeated.
Also, I bought one of those little carbon fiber discs that Herbies sells that fit over the top of a CD and are supposed to "make it sound better", and my SA10 didn’t seem to like it (made strange noises as it was trying to read it, but then after it could read it, it would play, so I quit using that Herbies CD thingy.
That’s really been it in four years. Knocking wood.
As an aside, my insurance policy arrived today. Prompt shipping. But I do think that considering what it was that they were shipping, they could have done a better job of packaging. I think they could have used a box with bubble wrap instead of a padded mailer.
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EDIT: I don’t know George Meyer’s service policy for out of warranty Marantz components. Give them a call.
Just did a google on them. In the need arises, I will keep them in mind. Thanks.
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My SA 10 it’s beginning to not even read redbook cd.Matthew congratulations now you will have peace of mind.Its just practical to have back up.Later they won’t be available.
As I've typed before, this is a great thread for SA10 owners, thanks to all of you contributors.
Anyway, hopefully I am concerned about something that will never happen, but it's better to be prepared and not need to be, then to have something happen and not be at all prepared.
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The SA 10 shines with balance output as well.
I am using the balanced outs to my preamp.
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@tvad , will George Meyer work on out of warranty SA10s?
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You have, and have had, some nice players, @jayctoy . Some pretty exotic power cords also!
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This doesn’t apply to the SA10 or any of the more expensive CDPs, but the second CDP I ever had was a Carver vacuum tube CDP that I bought in '94 and used standing alone and then as a transport for an outboard DAC. Anyway, it was in my system for about four years, getting most of its use on weekends, and then it started doing goofy things--skipping, getting stuck, etc. I assumed this was related to the laser/lens. Then I bought a Rega Jupiter (top loading) dedicated transport and it lasted and lasted. I put my system in mothballs in 2010, but when I brought it back out near the end of 2017 the Rega was working fine, and in 2020 when I bought my SA10 it was still working.
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My guest it’s a refurbished unit.
Sounds like they didn't do much refurbishing. I need to quit putting off checking the hours on mine.
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I have the solution; spend more! I bought the McIntosh MCD85 SACD player.
@socalml528 , can you expound on what you mean by that? I just looked on MD and the McIntosh MCD85 looks like it is going for 5k, and the Maranzt SA 10 is going for about $7500.
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@immatthewj yikes! Didn’t know SA10 was $7k must have confused it with the 30N at $3K. There you go I saved $ by getting a McIntosh 😉, never thought that would happen.
@socalml528 , no sweat on that. And that was the premise of the OP’s thread--he bought this high dollar SACD player and after the lens that reads SACDs took a crap on him, the Marantz service centers wouldn’t touch his player because it was out of warranty (even though he would have been way happy to pay out of his own pocket). Which kind of sucks if you ask me, and is kind of on my mind as well, because I am also SA 10 owner.
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@sharri , if you are still out there, there is an issue with the phase of the SA10 (when using balanced output from it) that I do not understand and confuses me a bit. AQs I am not good with these subjects, I wonder if you could offer me your insights? Thanks. I will paste the question I have been asking below:
The manual explains that the USA system is pin 2 is cold, pin 3 is hot; versus the European system which is pin 2 hot, pin 3 cold; on both systems pin 1 is ground.
The manual states that "This unit employs the European system."
Then it goes on to state that "If a product that employs the USA system is connected with this unit [the SA10] via a balanced cable [which I am using], the signal may be phase-inverted. To correct the inversion, set the "Phase" to "Inverted" at the menu setting."
My SA10 is connected to my preamp, which is a Cary SLP 05, via balanced cable, and Cary is not saying in their manual whether they are employing the European system or the USA system so I am ASSUMING that they went with the USA system.
So as I understand the SA10 manual, I should be setting the Phase on my SA10 to ’Inverted’? Since my preamp is using the USA system?
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Thanks for getting back to me on this, @sharri ,
so is that way you interpret what I quoted from the SA10 model? To invert the phase on the SA10 unless connected to a preamp that is utilizing the "European system"?
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Just a quick follow up: another member ( @stereo-one ) on another thread did the research that I should have been able to do on my own (except that I wasn't thorough enough) and my preamp (Cary SLP 05) is indeed wired with pin 2 hot (of the balanced connections) so therefore it is wired the same as the SA10 (the European system" of balanced connection) and therefore I was incorrect in my thinking that to have the phase correct from my CDP to my pre I should have the phase selector on the CDP set to "inverted." I have switched it back to "normal."
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