Positioning the new Reference SACD SA10 from Marantz

Will provide feedback once I audition but it's going to be delayed until my Cary dies.

Hi John,

Your location is showing that you are in Saudi Arabia, but I am wondering if you can give a call to Music Direct in the USA - when your schedule and their hours of operation coincide. They sell the Marantz player, as well as other units in that general price range. Their phone sales people are very helpful and should be able to provide you the general sonic signature of the Marantz as well as comparison / trade-off information with other digital products.

Good Luck!

John,

I've auditioned the Esoteric K01, the Dcs Puccini with clock, and the Oppo 105D over the last two years. Returned all of them for various sonic reasons.

Still liking my Cary despite its age.

John57 said:

And so far I come up between Marantz voicing by Ken and non Marantz transparency.

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Please explain.

It would be great if we could get feedback from someone who has heard the Marantz.

I think the Marantz front ends are similar to Accuphase. Both makes are sweet sounding. On systems that rely mostly on direct sound the way these players treat the highest octaves may result in reduced dimensionality as the tradeoff for the smoothing. This is not such a problem for systems with wide dispersion and/or make use of the room reflections more. All in all I think both these companies make pleasurable sounding products at prices that are, while not cheap, more easily justified.

I have owned the SA10 now for 2 plus years after selling my Esoteric K-01. I lost nothing and gained a more natural sound. Settings of course make a difference to a good degree. Filter 1, noise shaping 3-1, headphones off (when on it impacts the music) gain set to medium, yes it impacts the sound even if you have the headphones turned off, funny with the headphone jack on the unit can sound similar to my K-01 speaking in sonics, with it off more natural. Phase in my system meaning the XLR pin configurations all match throughout the system is normal in your system reversed phase so to match your other gear. The USB input is superb by the way, and from top to bottom this player is one of the best, SACD reproduction is excellent, and for streaming, it is great also, but the disc is still superior much like streaming a 4K or HD movie then putting in the Blu_ray/4K disc, it beats any streaming movie hands down, CD's gotten a bad rap once the Magazines saw the future in streaming what they called SOTA when reviewing gear with CD as the front became garbage overnight and well folks follow like sheep. I am a vinyl guy, but I don't miss Vinyl with well master CDs for many years with well-designed CD players such as the Marantz, SONY SCD1, 3 Esoterics, and Luxmans, Accuphase is too overpriced in the USA, not worth the asking price.
I stay well away from a manufacture who use OEM parts to build their players because just too many problems with quality issues, I buy for the ones who design their CD players from the ground up in the house. Marantz SA10 is still a keeper with my past experience no need yet to look for another player, it is that good.