Home Hi-Rez Highway

New high resolution SACD releases, players and technology.

RE: Anyone actually heard the Marantz SA 10? RIQUE said he has one, but

Yes, as reported here on another thread. I have one it is installed and is up and running. So far it has about 8 hrs listening on the clock. It is way too early to make wild statements about it's SQ.

What I will say is that it is an incredibly well engineered machine and is extremely well packed and presented. The box contains a personal letter from Ken Ishiwata, a pair of white silk gloves and an invitation to join an exclusive '10' club. The machine appears to use a similar chassis to the SA11-S3 rather than the SA7-S1 but is about the same weight as the SA7-S1 - bloody heavy!

In operation the drawer mechanism is slow in operation but very quiet and it does not "slam" shut like the SA7-S1's which was also an in-house purpose built design. Marantz for some reason have reverted to the balanced output configuration of Pin 1 And, Pin 2 Hot (+), Pin 3 Cold (-). The SA7-S1 had the Pin 2 / Pin 3 configuration the other way around which has caused a problem for me as the interconnects for the link to the pre-amp were specially modified for me by Cardas so now I have to send those cables over to the US again to have them reversed once more. Meanwhile I have been forced to start my listening with absolute phase reversed which is not good.

The things that strike you immediately are;

- Huge soundstage width and depth
-Very high resolving power at even low levels of listening. Inner detail unravelling is excellent even in dense passages
- Extremely low noise floor - it is silent in playback from disc
- Very accurate instrumental timbres, excelling at piano, string and timpani but great on all including organ which had our house shaking!
- Transient attack is guillotine like

Insofar as it is far too early to describe the character of the music produced, I am a little puzzled by a physiological instinct that it seems to play music 'slowly' which I haven't got my head around just yet.


This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Parts Connexion  


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups

FAQ

Post a Message!

Forgot Password?
Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
  Remember my Moniker & Password  (What's this?)    Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:
Message:   (Posts are subject to Content Rules)
Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:  Automagically notify you when someone responds.