My new Digital player!

My other thread went a little haywire because Jeff had a secret and Joey figured it out.


I have upgraded my Arcam Alpha 8se to a Marantz SA 14. I am not HUGE on the idea of SACD but what I decided is that I love digital playback.

The idea was that, given my current equipmnt, I will need to spend close to $2,000 on a LP spinner to get the low noise that I would want.

I am also a fan of seperate transports/DACs so I wanted a player/transport that had more than the "average" transport mechanism. I started off aiming for a Teac VRDS 25 but they are not too easy to find and after reading up on them, I started to get nervous about their reliability. What drew me into the Marantz is its cast aluminum and zinc disk tray, as well as the added bonus of SACD playback as well as a well praised Redbook performance.







....and know what I discovered? The remote for this matched my Arcam exactly. Every button; eject, ff, play, display on/off, program, etc. works!

Congrats, Beat. Being a satisfied owner of the SA-11S1, I know you will be very happy with this purchase. Enjoy the music!

Niiice!......being the satisfied owner of the Marantz 8300 SACD I also know you'll be very happy with your purchase!

Listening to it right now through the Forte Dac and guess what? There's barely any difference

Beat,

Congrats on your new player.
I didn't mean to take you joy away. It is a great player.

The reason I sold my DAC was the reason you just mentioned. There was such a small difference between my player's internal DAC and my external one it seemed pointless to keep my external DAC.

I really think Marantz finally figured out what they were missing and are back on the upswing and a are making very good products like they used to be 30+ years ago.


Jeff

Enjoy Beat!!! :cheers: :cheers:

Jeff Zaret said:

Beat,

Congrats on your new player.
I didn't mean to take you joy away. It is a great player.

The reason I sold my DAC was the reason you just mentioned. There was such a small difference between my player's internal DAC and my external one it seemed pointless to keep my external DAC.

I really think Marantz finally figured out what they were missing and are back on the upswing and a are making very good products like they used to be 30+ years ago.


Jeff

Click to expand...

Hey Jeff!

You know you owe us pics and impressions and comparo (against the VDA) of your Krell SACD Standard, right?

Joey

Joey,
Yes I know but it has not come back from Krell yet.
I have on loan the black one and it was brand new. . Mine is silver. I have done A/B tests on the loaner but I wanted to check mine when it gets back but I sold my DAC now.
I will give you some observances when I get mine back from Krell.


Jeff

Krell needs to have a 3-day turn around on these things!

I did some A/B listening between the Marantz and Forte DACs on redbook today. They are fairly similar in bass performance but up top the Marantz seemed to have a lot more detail. The Marantz also had a bit more "snap" on snare transients.

What this does though, is make for a less forgiving setup. On mediocre recordings, the Forte is a bit easier to listen to because it is more relaxed to my ears.


.... of course this is a preliminary review, we'll see how I adjust to it all

Beat,
I am in California and they are in Connecticut so there is at least a 3 to 5 day UPS ride. I did not control how it was sent out or how it was shipped back. Hopefully by this weekend.

I do have their brand new floor model loaner so I do have one at the moment.

Jeff

Not good enough, all mail should have been overnight!

You just are not going to cut me any slack.



Jeff

Jeff Zaret said:

You just are not going to cut me any slack.

Click to expand...

Personnally, I loved your review of the Krell comparing it to your Rotel and CI DAC combo. Short, sweet, to the point, no audio-speak.

'There was such a small difference between my player's internal DAC and my external one it seemed pointless to keep my external DAC.'

Dan,
Thanks.

Yo Beat this is for you.
This was taken tonight

Jeff

Sexay!

Joey,
Mine is silver but it is getting some tender loving care back at Krell

Jeff

Jeff Zaret said:

Joey,
Mine is silver but it is getting some tender loving care back at Krell

Jeff

Click to expand...

And here's the kicker.. I prefer the silver clear aluminum! That makes double !

Haha thanks Jeff, that'll buy you a few days of freedom from my pestering

Jeff

I bought the Standard a couple months ago. I love the sound. I finally moved my Aragon D2A to storage yesterday. It has been setting on the floor behind the couch for most of that time. I no doubt should just sell it but in the
back of your mind is but what if I build another system. My wife patience would probably cease to exist at that point.
Hope yours comes back soon.

Brad225 said:

I finally moved my Aragon D2A to storage yesterday. It has been setting on the floor behind the couch for most of that time. I no doubt should just sell it but in the
back of your mind is but what if I build another system.

Click to expand...

A sign of a true audiophile! Good on you, Brad!