markl
Hangin' with the monkeys.
Member of the Trade: Lawton Audio
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2001
- Posts
- 9,130
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- 49
Introduction
After months of penny-pinching and saving up, she’s finally here!
The SA-7S1 is Marantz’s latest flagship CD/SACD player. I’m taking a bit of a risk in buying this unit sound unheard, given its high sticker price. In addition, there are no “official” print reviews of the player yet, just some excited chat and one amateur review on Audio Asylum, plus a small preview of a forthcoming review in the latest Positive Feedback. Still, you ever just get a *gut feeling* about a new piece of audio? Well, I had a “hunch” about this one I couldn’t shake in the 6 months or so since it was first introduced, so I had to try it out.
Here's the knowledge base to date on this player (such as it is):
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Iss...arantz_sa7.htm
http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?...s1&r=&session=
Actually, there is one other review, written for a Japanese magazine. Here is just one brief hilarious excerpt courtesy of Google’s translation software:
Quote:
| “With the table which it shakes off in former times LP under remaking if from under preparing it raised the table which it shakes off above the man with underdeveloped genital organ duck earth in the vibrating back…” |
No, I didn’t make that up, and it goes on like that, useless...
So, as you can see, it’s still a bit of an unknown quantity. So what’s even more crazy than buying such an expensive new player sound unheard, pedigree unknown? Having that sucker *modified*. Yep, my intention as I type is to have this player’s guts upgraded (provided I approve of the stock unit). Am I nuts?
Probably.
But she’s more than a pretty face. Under the hood are two very interesting new features:
1. It is the first commercial product to use the latest DACs from NPC that are alleged to have the best measured specs of any DAC currently made. This is appealing because my last two CD/SACD players (both modified Sonys) used the same Burr-Brown DAC chipset, and this time I wanted to try something different.
2. It has a brand new deluxe transport mechanism, designed to compete with Esoteric’s VRDS-NEO. No typical flimsy, jittery, off-the-shelf, cheap plastic drive for this puppy. It’s shocking, but many very high-end manufacturers use the same cheap OEM drive/laser/transport as any budget CD or DVD player you can get at Best Buy. Why is that? As with DAC chips, there are only a handful of manufacturers that make them, and even fewer “high-end” models. There’s the Phillips top-loader introduced on the famous Sony SCD-1, the Esoteric VRDS-NEO, and there used to be the JVC top-loader used on the Reimyo, but that is now discontinued. That’s about it in the world of high-end transports until this new Marantz unit was introduced here on the SA-7S1. Unless a high-end manufacturer can afford to purchase 10 thousand units at a time (and few can), they have no way to get their hands on those better transports, so they have to use the cheap ones.
The analog section is op-amp free as you’d expect at this price point, and uses Marantz’s proprietary “HDAM” modules instead. The “problem” is that these modules contain many parts and Marantz stacks several of them one after the other in the analog stages of all of their better gear, affecting their overall transparency. As a result, you typically read descriptions of their sound as being warm, analog, pleasant, relaxing, and “musical”. All well and good, but you’ll notice “neutral” and “resolving” are not among those adjectives. Whether the SA-7S1 (which uses more sophisticated HDAM SA2’s) displays these characteristics or not remains to be seen (the Positive Feedback reviewer claims the Marantz has the same or better resolution than the EMM one-box player, so who knows?). Whether I’ll actually like those characteristics or not is also unknown until I establish some initial impressions.
In case it turns out I don’t like it, I can always by-pass the output section altogether with the Audio Consulting output transformers which I know to be open, clear, neutral, transparent, revealing and dynamic from having them added to my current source, a RAM modified Sony XA9000ES.
Or, in case it happens I have no use for the player whatsoever, my next choice will be a used Esoteric that I will also likely have modified.
(If you are intersted in this Marantz, please PM me, I'll tell you where to get a great deal from a reliable, responsive and friendly *authorized* dealer. Beware of a certain dealer that advertizes heavily on audiogon, they are not what they claim to be, and quite notorious for bad service.)
OK, enough yapping-- more sexy pictures!
Here's a close-up of the face and main manual controls:
Here is a shot of the rear:
Here is a top view:
Here is a picture of the remote:
Finally, here it is in my stack:
Features
The SA-7S1 has a number of cool (or maddening, depending on your point of view) features that are worth exploring.
It has this really cool INV. PHASE button, which inverts the phase of the CD/SACD you are playing. As it turns out, many CDs and SACDs are actually (and amazingly) *out of phase*. With a push of the button, you can switch the phase to see if it is. From what I’ve read, when an out-of-phase CD is corrected, the sound seems to snap into better focus, and sounds more coherent. I can’t wait to play with this one.
Then there are the 3 special filters that change the way the SA-7S1 crunches the numbers and have subtle effects on the sound and frequency response. My Sony has similar functionality but only 2 filters, as did the Krell SACD Standard I owned briefly (Wadia machines also have similar controls). In general, the changes are minor and frustrating. You can get lost and end up spending days endlessly A/B-ing the effects of the different filters trying to decide which one is microscopically preferable to you.
In addition to these 3 filters, the Marantz has two other sets of parameters that can be manipulated. There is a NOISE SHAPER button which adds or subtracts digital feedback in the DAC, and a DC FILTER button whose purpose is not adequately described by the manual.
So you can see there are almost exponentially complex numbers of different combinations of filters and functions that can be turned on and off. It’s either audiophile heaven or hell, depending on your personality. (Hopefully, I won’t get so worked up I toss the thing out the window.)
Functionality/Ergonomics
------------------UNDER CONSTRUCTION-------------------------
[size=small]First Impressions Day 1[/size]
My System
Headphones- Sony MDR-R10
Amp- Rudistor RP010
Interconnects- Virtual Dynamics Master 3.0
CD Power Cable- Virtual Dynamics Nite II
Amp Power Cable- Michael Wolff Bohica
Previous CD Players of Note I’ve Owned (Chronological)
California Audio Labs (CAL) CL-10
Sony SCD-333ES
Modwright modified Sony SCD-333ES
Sacmods.com modified Sony SCD-555ES
RAM modified Sony XA9000ES
------------------------COMING SOON--------------------------
