TRL Marantz Sa-14



After speaking to Paul at TRL I am very curious to hear from those who own this unit what improvements do you hear with the player before and after the mod.

The SA-14 sounds weak in the bass and has no dynamics in comparison to some players like the Sony Scd-1 in stock form. Has anyone compared the TRL Sa-14 to the Sony Scd-1?
la45
This is one long thread! I read a lot of it, but have a question:

Has anyone compared the SA14 to the SA14 TRL, side by side, keeping all variables (interconnects and power cord) the same?

(I have the SA14 in a very large Krell/B&W system. The SA14 replaced a older Krell unit, and surpassed it in almost all respects. The only shortcomming would be the slight loss of detail, which I improved by tweaking it with the Neuance platform and different interconnects.)

I live in San Francisco, and could make such a comparison, as I have extra interconnects of the same type as I am using now.

Richard
Unless you can find a "before and after" owner of an SA-14, the best person/people to ask would be the TRL guys. Paul or Brian would honestly be able to tell you, in detail, what the differences will be.

They don't really have anything to gain by telling you. They Don't manufacture the machines (obviously) - so one more mod isn't going to make, or break them. You'll find them to be, honest, ethical, and professional all the way.

I have no connection with TRL, other than, I am one happy customer. :-)

Best
paul
Yeah, I'm one happy customer as well. The improvements will be as stated here previously, greatly widened/deeper soundstage, thunderous incredibly well defined bass, greatly improved micro and macro dynamics, beautiful highs, etc. I have a pretty darn good dac, and I was floored by the amount of improvement the mod made. There was no single way I could have gotten close to the improvement any other way in my audio system that I did in the mod.
Another way to look at it is, and all this is, is, another way to look at it: how many modified TRL CD players have you seen for sale on this site? I'm a pretty regular Audiogoner and I have only seen one.