Marantz SA-1 CD Players
Marantz SA-1 CD Players
USER REVIEWS
[Mar 26, 2020]
jeff89
Strength:
I heard the prototype SA-1 at the 1999 London Hi-Fi show, at the Novotel in Hamersmith. When I wandered into the cramped and tiny demo room it was empty except for a few seats and a tired-looking Japanese executive in the corner politely smiling at anyone who dared set foot inside. Cheap Tannoy bookshelf speakers were sat either side of the SA-1 prototype (which was just a CD player as far as I knew at the time) and a battleship-build Marantz integrated AV amp, finished in Champagne Gold. Since this was obviously not a high-end, whiz-bang demo with huge amps and speakers I nearly turned around and walked out immediately as had, no doubt, most of the other visitors that day (a trade-only day). But I felt sorry for the Japanese man with no visitors and decided to stay a couple of minutes just to be polite and pretend to listen to his demonstration. Weakness:
custom stickers | print stickers | business printing | printing company Purchased: Used
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[Jan 29, 2020]
r Kiesz
Strength:
Very detailed dynamic and lush Weakness:
Display quit working could not tell difference between sacd and regular cd Price Paid: 800
Purchased: Used
Model Year: 2012
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[Jan 21, 2003]
Daninthemix
AudioPhile
Strength:
ambience, atmosphere, emotion - the SA-1 will never be the weak point in your system
Weakness:
the assumption that you will be putting SACDs rather than CDs in, and consequently a second or two delay when putting discs in for the player to read the TOC. I like SA-1 a lot, although I use it almost exclusively for CDs (not SACDs). I find it slightly annoying that it assumes you are going to use SACD, then after a brief squint at the disc realises it is normal CD, then clicks the relays over to the CD path. Very small point though. The short answer is I don't think you'll ever need another CD player once you have this, as some other part of your system will ALWAYS be the bottleneck - or more often than not, the discs themselves. I proved this by simply changing my speaker cable and gained a massive increase in presence and clarity. If the rest of your system actually matches SA-1, you have a very special system indeed!!! Strongest points are warmth, presence, ambience, emotion - very good at giving you a window to the emotion of a recording. I use it with Marantz PM-14mkII KI Signature amp, and Kef Reference 201 speakers. ICs are Kimber KCAG (balanced), and speaker cable is Kimber 8TC. Similar Products Used: Marantz CD-17KI Meridian 508 Linn CD12 |
[May 30, 2002]
melhsu
AudioPhile
Strength:
larger than life ambiance.. natural and smooth high, larger than life dynamic contrast.. warmth.
Weakness:
transparency.. structural frames and outlines could be a bit solidier. First of all, SA-1 is reverberant with a larger than life ambiance. The best ambiamce i've herad! Secondly, Every disc that I've tried with SA-1 brings out the most dynamic lower end I've heard from other CDPs... A tendency to lower the volume at high frequency and boost the lower end bass is very noticable to me... ( don't know if anyone ever mention this). I sense a greater dynamic contrast from this player all the time especially with CDs that have dinamic bottom ends. Thirdly, sweet and natural high frequecy is much better than 777es, which is not bad at high frequency all.. 777es is smooth, but SA-1 is smooth and organic at this region. The very best high frequency I've herad regardless of price.. A slight hardness at mid-range sometimes. Nothing is perfect, and I am not absolutely sure about this. A softer frames and outlines may contribute to a somewhat "indirect" presentation(not as straight forward). But the strong and reverberant ambiance adds the excitment into music... Above are for both CD and SACD, and only that SACD has a better organic texture and stronger lower end... weakness is transparency. A bit more detail is possible but not necessary according to my taste. I sold the player because i don't like to wait forever for new SACD titles... If you like the reverberant ambiance from this player, i don't think anyone can find a better performer... At the price I paid for it, a five star... Similar Products Used: SACD: 777es, ce775 CD: AR CD2, Meridian 508.24, MSB platinum etc... |
[Apr 01, 2002]
Carl
AudioPhile
Strength:
Excellent SACD sound. Gives the impression of good build quality.
Weakness:
Decent, but not very good CD sound. Noisy drawer mechanism. Mediocre to non-excistent service/customer management. I ordered my SA-1 last spring. When I finally received the machine after months of waiting in early June, I was immediately thrilled by the superb SACD sound. In comparison with good quality CD, the highs were smooth and clear, the bass very solid and extended. Although standard PCM sound seemed to be lacking something the best PCM players have, I was very happy with the product. Thats when the truble begun. Having had the machine for 6 weeks, it suddenly started rejecting discs. It was not able to get the TOC, and displayed an error message "Can''t read". First I thought that there was a disc specific problem, but over the next weeks the problem intensified and was clearly not dependent on the CDs or SACDs I was feeding to it. Having described the problem to my local Marantz dealer the machine went in for service. I got it back in six weeks. They had not managed to find anything specifically wrong with it, but said that there have been related problems with other players using the same mechanism. The cure, I was told, was to order a fix kit from Marantz. Waiting for the fix I retained the machine and continued listening. Superb sound when functioning. Unfortunately the read problems kept intensifying, and took the fun out of listening. On average every fifth disc was rejected several times before being accepted. On discs that the machine submitted to, a new problem arouse. It didn''t obey the controls. Pushing play, nothing happened. The machine was stuck. The only way to continue was to boot the machine by turning the power off/on. While I was becoming more and more annoyed by the malfunctions, neither my dealer nor Marantz managed to come up with any solutions. Finally in January this year, we agreed that I return the SA-1, and get my money back. I''m very upset by the way a well respected company like Marantz handeled this issue. The service and attitude were definately not up to the standard one expects when handling 7 grand CD players. Marantz is unfortunately still only a mass market MidFi actor. I now have an Accuphase DP-85. SACD sound is somewhat better than SA-1, but the real difference is in PCM. The 24/196 upsampling really does it. And of course - it doesn''t do any tricks... Similar Products Used: Sony SCD 777 ES, Bow Wizzard, Accuphase DP-85 |
[Aug 17, 2000]
mike lavigne
Audiophile
Strength:
in sacd mode the best source i have heard on every aspect. good cd sound. beautifully built.
Weakness:
noisy drawer mechanism. remote won't open drawer. iec plug has no ground. i recently upgraded my cd source from a levinson 37/36s to a linn cd-12. as i am a levinson guy i wanted to like the the levinson 30.6/31.5 combo better than the linn but it was not close imho. i also listened to the top wadia and the dcs elgar/972 upsampling combo but again the linn cd-12 was clearly better. i then concluded that in digital, the right 1 box solution would probably equal or surpass the swiss army knife approach of a do all dac and multiple transports. i wanted an sacd player and listened to the sony scd-1 3 different times at a local dealer. two design problems with the sony were the access times and the top loading design; my gear is next to my listening seat and i enjoy reaching over to switch discs without having to get up. the sony sounded great compared to the top of line krell gear at the dealer, but the difference was not as dramatic as i thought sacd could be. other issues with the sony were lack of a truly balanced design (i must admit the linn isn't either) and a feeling that the first machine to market might not take enough advantage of the design oppertunities sacd presents. then i heard about the marantz sa-1. it was a truly balanced design. marantz, while being percieved as a mid-fi company in this country, in japan is definitly high end, and much more likely to "do it right" than sony. the design of the dacs and analogue output sections sounded a little more high end to me than what i understood the sony to be. also, access times were like a typical cd player. so....i ordered the marantz. i have had it about 2 months. out of the box i was a little disappointed, there was some sacd magic but it did not bowl me over. it was sounding a little closed in and forward ,detailed but not natural. at that point the sony sounded a little better. on some discs the linn sounded better on cd. after about a week it started to open up, the bass deepened and quickened, the treble smoothed out, the music literally came alive. over the next 3 weeks it continued to noticably improve. the best way for me to describe the sound of the marantz sa-1 now is on an emotional level. it puts me in touch with the music. on my system in my room, the marantz reveals more information from the source and renders it in a believable way than anything i have heard. i don't percieve it as pieces but as a whole piece, if it is recorded naturally. if it is multi-miked or pieced together it will be revealed. i feel the music is personal and real. up to this time 45rpm vinyl has been the best source i have heard. the marantz improves on all 45rpm's strengths and eliminates the negatives. on "kind of blue"s openning cut "so what" miles' horn is totally real appearing in my room to a degree only hinted at on 45rpm vinyl. forgive me if i have not given enough audoiphile verbage and specific sonic checklist of virtues. as to the sony i feel the marantz sounds better to me and just takes sacd further than the sony. more detail, more dynamic, more live sounding; not dramaticly better but better. clearly, i am not totally objective and have not heard them side by side. the cd performance of the marantz is good--about on par with the levinson 37/36s combo. it is not in the class of the linn, but then no other 16/44 device is that i have heard. i own 2500 cds, therefore the majority of my digital listening will be with the linn, which for my listening priorities comes closest to the magic of sacd. both the marantz and the linn give the music a natural kind of weight and body, along with drive and rhythm not found in other digital sources in my experience. also, both of these machines avoid sounding "etched","hi-fi",or "mechanical". for the first time in my audiophile addiction i am not thinking about any equipment additions or changes, just new music. Similar Products Used: sony scd-1, linn cd-12, levinson 30.6/31.5 |
[Sep 24, 2000]
YMK Tang
Audiophile
Strength:
An entirely new dimension and paradigm in naturalism sonic realism, and aliveness in conveying musical performance
Weakness:
Current shipments totally sold out in many places. Software is still expensive & not stocked in many stores. Range is limited, but growing fast. CD players & sofware have been improving dramatically in the last few years, and mid-priced players no longer sound harsh and dead as before. Good players like the Bow zz-8 or Naim CDS2 manage to sound more smooth and musical than ever before, especially tweaked with A/C & vibration treatments, noticeably closer to the benchmark of vinyl/analog. Similar Products Used: Sony 777ES, Bow ZZ 8, DADs on Muse 8/296, Mark Levinson 360S, Naim CDS2, Meridian 508.24, Electrocompaniet EMC-1 |
[Nov 17, 2000]
Peter Earnshaw
Audiophile
Strength:
On SACDs - unquestionably the very best digital audio I've ever heard. Warm yet clear, natural and powerful yet unforced.
Weakness:
2-channel only. The prototype was multi-channel, why not the release player? I heard the prototype SA-1 at the 1999 London Hi-Fi show, at the Novotel in Hamersmith. When I wandered into the cramped and tiny demo room it was empty except for a few seats and a tired-looking Japanese executive in the corner politely smiling at anyone who dared set foot inside. Cheap Tannoy bookshelf speakers were sat either side of the SA-1 prototype (which was just a CD player as far as I knew at the time) and a battleship-build Marantz integrated AV amp, finished in Champagne Gold. Since this was obviously not a high-end, whiz-bang demo with huge amps and speakers I nearly turned around and walked out immediately as had, no doubt, most of the other visitors that day (a trade-only day). But I felt sorry for the Japanese man with no visitors and decided to stay a couple of minutes just to be polite and pretend to listen to his demonstration. Similar Products Used: Sony SCD-1, dCS Elgar/Purcell |