TRL Marantz Sa-14

SA-14 weak in the bass? You're kidding, right? It thought it had a ton of very deep, slamming bass, a perfect machine for electronic music. I also think the SA-14 is by far a better machine then any of the flagship sony's, being very near analog on both redbook and sacd with a warm, ambiant, rich, liquid and very musical performance that the sterile sony lacks. I think the SA-14 would be an excellend base for modifications, it is very well built, and the tray/transport from Sharp alone has to weigh 5lbs, tons of copper, etc. etc! It could use a bigger powersupply and isolated supplies and MAYBE a little tweaking on the output stages to keep up with the latest and greatest from todays esoteric companies. All IMO, of course.

PS, try placing the SA-14 on a partially inflated small bicycle innertube. It does wonderous things. This machine needs good to great isolation to really shine...

Not to be an sa-14 cheerleader, but its redbook was compared to the benchmark dac1 as being very, very close, a dac rated as first rate by every pro reviewer and recording engineer to get there hands on it. John Marks used it as a cornerstone suggested player for $30k'ish systems, if I recall, and there are tons of reviews of the SA-14 suggesting it is superior to anything Sony, denon, philips or most small company offereings under 2-3K. Are you quoting TRL when they say it is "NOT a very good player?" If you are, I'd presonally stay far away from TRL and their mods, as I find the SA-14 quire good and I'd deduce that the TRL house sound is not going to be to my tastes. I know a guy that thinks the SA-14 sounds better then the Esoteric DV-50 on redbook, and plenty of folks have commented that the SA-14 and Esoteric are nearly indestinguishable on SACD. ...ok, I'll put the pom-poms down. I don't own this machine but did at one time and hate to see people that have never listened to it give it a bad shake. I've owned it, among countless $3-5K digital rigs, and its near the top of my list for making music....