Well, not really. There IS a difference in sound, but its subtle and not obvious without a/b.
NO Marantz SACD players factory out-of-phase
This refers to the USA models. The manual describes that Marantz shipped the SACD in 2 XLR balance configurations: USA and European. USA shipments are shipped in "European", which means XLR Pin 2 is Cold (-ve). 90% of high-end XLR wirings are wired for Pin 2 hot (+ve phase).
I must admit my tin ear must have slipped and didn't discover this after listening and complaining that the Marantz sounded not as good as my outboard DAC in redbook. BECAUSE MARANTZ COMES WITH THE PHASE REVERSED!
Putting the phase back to Pin-2 hot:
1) Hardware swap the XLR pins. Doable in SA-1, but not in SA14, as SA14 uses PCB mounted XLR.
2) Order special XLR cable that flips the polarity.
3) The lucky people that has preamp with a phase-switch.
4) Switch the speaker cable polarity.
Then, sell your external DAC and pocket the change ....
As a side line, remember one of the 'golden' (or tinned) ear reviewers saying that he heard no difference between SONY SCD-1 and Marantz SA-1. Well, the 2 players are 180-degree out-of-phase! What a review that was!
RCA users need not worry, as the RCA's are wired in-phase.
www.extremephono.com
I must admit my tin ear must have slipped and didn't discover this after listening and complaining that the Marantz sounded not as good as my outboard DAC in redbook. BECAUSE MARANTZ COMES WITH THE PHASE REVERSED!
Putting the phase back to Pin-2 hot:
1) Hardware swap the XLR pins. Doable in SA-1, but not in SA14, as SA14 uses PCB mounted XLR.
2) Order special XLR cable that flips the polarity.
3) The lucky people that has preamp with a phase-switch.
4) Switch the speaker cable polarity.
Then, sell your external DAC and pocket the change ....
As a side line, remember one of the 'golden' (or tinned) ear reviewers saying that he heard no difference between SONY SCD-1 and Marantz SA-1. Well, the 2 players are 180-degree out-of-phase! What a review that was!
RCA users need not worry, as the RCA's are wired in-phase.
www.extremephono.com