Here is a repeat of a post I put on AudioAsylum. This thread seems more active.
I will add that the player is still pretty new, and that I have not yet swapped out the supplied power cord with a Shunyata Venom that I have on hand.
Well, I finally gave in, and in an act of self-indulgence, ordered an SA10. It arrived Monday, and I'e been listening through it for a few hours by now. I must say that it sounds wonderful. I have not done any A/B comparisons with the SA14 (tedious and not fun), so my impressions are based only memory, but here they are, in brief. The main difference, I think, is the big improvement in imaging realism and especially depth and ambience. Singers and instruments, and the relations among them, are much more clearly placed. Before the SA14 I had an Onkyo CD player, which sounded okay but gave a very flat presentation. The SA14 was a big improvement, but still didn't come close to matching my vinyl setup in that regard on CD's (SACD's were better.) Two examples: 1: the wonderful Maazel recording of 'Enfant et les Sortileges" gives a marvelous feeling of where the singers and instruments are and of the enclosing space, esp. in the garden scene, and 2: Zizi Mueller's performance of Crumb's "Idyll for the Misbegotten. In the latter, on vinyl, the flute sounds very focussed but very distant (the score notes say "as if across a lake") The SA14 gave a sense of depth, but the SA10 does much more. In both the flute tone itself is very pure and beautiful, but the vinyl gives it more texture. In addition to better imaging, there is also better rendition of inner detail, both on SACD and CD's. The SACD version of Patricia Barber's rendition of "Summertime" on her"Distorsion of Love" is absolutely breathtaking: one can hear every subtle nuance of her phrasing and shaping, and the bass line is also excellent. Another example: the recording The Magic Flute (with Fischer-Dieskau and Schwarzkopf) now sounds fabulous on CD. I had written before that, through the SA14, the CD could not match the thrill of the vinyl recording. Now it comes close: spatially, and emotionally. Although, at least in my setup, the vinyl has a bit of extra thrill in the soprano voices, the CD version is just about as fun overall. I do think my cartridge is faster. For example, in the cat duet in l"Enfant, the "pfffft" sound is stunningly fast and clean on vinyl, but on the CD sounds breathier and a bit blurred.
I have 60 days to decide if I want to keep the SA!0 or the SA14, and I suppose I really ought to do some A/B tests before deciding if the very great extra expense of the SA10 is worth it to me. So far, I think it is. However, I must say that the SA14 is very good and an outstanding value. If I send it back to Music Direct, someone should snap it up.
