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MARANTZ - SA-KI PEARL SACD - CD PLAYER as a headphone amp?

post #1 of 29
6/17/10 at 2:53pm
Thread Starter 

Anyone use this as their headphone amp?  I almost fell over when I found out it has a discreet headphone amp built in.

 

K

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CD Player
post #2 of 29
6/18/10 at 1:50am

Why?

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post #3 of 29
6/18/10 at 7:26am
Thread Starter 

Not too many companies including a headphone amp these days.

 

K

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post #4 of 29
6/18/10 at 8:46am

i think all of the marrantz cd line have headphone amps built in

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post #5 of 29
6/18/10 at 9:43am

Do you have one? If yes how does it sound?

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post #6 of 29
6/18/10 at 10:07am

Actually they don't sound bad.

 

The Headphone out of my Marantz surprised me by producing nigh on equal performance in the highs as the Solo (2007 pre SRG). I had picked the Solo for its superior performance in high detailing vs Heed's Canamp. It actually drove the K701 quite well up to reasanoble levels. I slighly prefered the ammount of mid bass from the headphone out of the marantz vs Solo 2007.

 

there were some obvious gripes as well.

- headphone out had little gain. max volume produced squashed sound while the Solo would be at 12 o clock.

- the Solo wiped the floor with the marantz when it came to musicality. The Graham Slee simply makes you FEEL the emotion in music, while the marants just presented the notes.

 

The cards have been trully shuffeled though with the coming of the Solo Ultra-Linear. It performs so much better in so many ways than the marantz.

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post #7 of 29
6/18/10 at 1:43pm
Thread Starter 

My original stereo system w/Marantz 1060 from 1972 had a headphone jack too.

 

K

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post #8 of 29
7/30/10 at 4:14pm

The headphone outputs from the Pearl are very very good.

 

Compared to my other tube amps (Leben 300xs, Singplepower mpx3 slam), and driving my Denon 7000s, there is a slight difference in presentation, but no loss in control, slam etc. It still retains the Marantz warmth, but as expected, the dedicated amps has fuller bass (but slower).

 

So I'd guess you have to listen with your favourite cans as its going to be personal, but if I had to, I could still listen through the Pearl's headphone section all day. Just be sure to listen to a Pearl that has many hours on it to hear its full glory.

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post #9 of 29
8/15/10 at 9:06am

How do you compare built-in headamp (Pearl) with dedicated headamps like rudistor or wooaudio ? Does it drive well high impedance headphone ? It's high current amp so it should drive very well low impedance like grados etc ... It should be much better than built-in amps in other marantz because of fully discrete, high-end design. Please share some more information because I don't know whether to buy rudistor rpx-33 ev-08 (had wooaudio 6 pdps & sophia before but rudi is a real beast and I don't want tubes anymore) + sa-15s2 combo or SA-KI Pearl with built-in, 'not so bad' (or even great?) headamp and that will be even cheaper option.

 

btw I'm using arcam alpha 9 cd player (dCS Ring Dac inside) and sennheiser hd600/grado gs1000i


Edited by magicman - 8/15/10 at 9:23am
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post #10 of 29
8/15/10 at 5:19pm

 

 

The headphone out of my Marantz 121 drives low z phones with ease (9 o clock volume control ) and sounds excellent.

 

Nice digital out on them as well,pity there is no digital in.

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post #11 of 29
8/16/10 at 12:37am

yeah, beacause marantz has one of the best built-in headphone amps inside CD players (and that might be a way to go because there is all inside in one box, there are many advantages of it - no inteconnects, extremely low distortion, no extra environment affect - perfect shielding inside, shortest signal path etc) I'm curious how does the one inside KI Pearl sound (discrete design[!]), there is no information anywhere about this built-in amp, this is so annoying...

 

btw is that true they don't sell it unless I buy it with dedicated amp PM-KI Pearl ? that would be a good joke !


Edited by magicman - 8/16/10 at 2:34am
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post #12 of 29
8/16/10 at 12:56am

Do any of the Marantz receivers have built in headphone amps? Or is this only on their CD players?

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post #13 of 29
8/16/10 at 4:44am

I have just phoned my local dealer and this is true - there is no way to buy only cd sa-KI pearl - you can buy it only with pm-ki pearl amplifier - this is so wrong !!!!

 

I dont know what to do know - 11s2 is not worth the price, 15s2 - maybe I'll listen to it, sony xa5400es and bryston bcd-1, that would be the short list by now ...

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post #14 of 29
8/17/10 at 7:06am

This is absolutely crazy. Perhaps you should write to Marantz in your country to find out why. In Singapore you can get the Pearl KI below S$2800, and the exchange rate currently is around S$1.4XX to the US Dollar.

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post #15 of 29
8/17/10 at 7:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by StupidN00bie View Post

Do any of the Marantz receivers have built in headphone amps? Or is this only on their CD players?

 

Yes there's a headphone jack on their slimline receivers too:

 

http://us.marantz.com/Products/3217.asp?ProductName=NR1601+%26lt%3B+%26lt%3B+NEW+!+!+%26gt%3B+%26gt%3B+%26quot%3BSlimline%26quot%3B+HDMI+ver.1.4a+AV+Receiver


Edited by metalgear - 8/17/10 at 7:13am
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