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In my review in the February 2009 issue of Marantz's SA-11S2 SACD/CD player ($3599.99), I said that "buying [an SACD] player in 2009 necessitates an act of faith similar to the one turntable buyers faced back in 1992." The negative reaction to this from the besieged SACD community was as intense as it was irrational. If they're angry with me, I can only imagine how they feel about Stanley Lipshitz and John Vanderkooy, who presented a white paper at a 2001 Audio Engineering Society convention that claimed to prove that SACD doesn't qualify as a high-fidelity format (footnote 1). How many…
A look inside the Pearl reveals a quality of construction that's almost opulent, given the reasonable price of $3000. The exterior build quality—including a copper-plated rear panel with a pair of machined-brass RCA jack outputs, coaxial and TosLink digital outputs, and TosLink digital input—is equally impressive, as are the front panel's clean layout and design; and the two vertical stripes of blue LEDs add a dramatic flair.
Features
The SA-KI-Pearl's default playback mode is SACD, but you can switch to the CD layer—and, of course, it plays standard CDs, as well as data discs…
Groove Note has recently issued on SACD/CD its excellent original recording of the Jung Trio's performance of Dvorak's Piano Trio 3 in F Minor, Op.65 (GRV1043-3). Previously available only on 45rpm vinyl, it's one of the few new classical music performances recorded live to analog tape (at 30ips). That it hasn't sold well on vinyl, according to the producers, is pitiful—the recording is gorgeous, and the playing by this award-winning trio of sisters does for chamber music what the Everly Brothers did for vocal harmonizing. These gals are locked in.
The SACD wasn't available for my…
You don't need an SACD player to hear the excellence of Alan Yoshida's XRCD transfers of classic Blue Note albums, sumptuously presented by Bob Bantz's Audiowave label. The Pearl delivered Sonny Clark's Cool Struttin' (CD, Blue Note/Audiowave AWMXR-0003) with a fine balance of air, warmth, and detail. Art Farmer's trumpet and Jackie McLean's sax, both in the left channel, were timbrally vibrant and impressively airy and transparent, but without harshness. On the right, Philly Joe Jones's drum kit sizzled and popped cleanly, and the pluck of Paul Chambers' bass was well defined and…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Single-box, fixed-output, two-channel SACD/CD player with remote control. Formats played: SACD, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA, MP3 (MPEG-1). Analog outputs: 1 pair RCA (unbalanced). Digital outputs: coaxial S/PDIF, TosLink S/PDIF. Digital inputs: TosLink S/PDIF. Maximum analog output level: 2.4V RMS, SACD/CD. Frequency responses: 2Hz–50kHz, –3dB (SACD); 2Hz–20kHz, –0.015dB (CD). Dynamic ranges: 112dB (SACD), 100dB (CD). Signal/noise, A-rated: 110dB (SACD, CD). THD at 1kHz: 0.0010% (SACD), 0.0015% (CD). Channel separation: not provided. Jitter: not provided.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn, Cobra, Castellon turntable, tonearm, stand; Graham Engineering Phantom II tonearm; My Sonic Labs Eminent EX, ZYX R1000 Sigma 2 cartridges.
Digital Sources: Playback Designs MPS-5 SACD/CD player–DAC, Camelot Roundtable Anagram Technologies DAC, BPT-modified Alesis Masterlink hard-disk recorder, Sooloos music server.
Preamplification: Manley Audio Steelhead, Einstein Audio Turntable's Choice, Abbingdon Music Research PH-77, Boulder Amplifiers 1008, Vitus Audio MP-P201 phono preamplifiers; darTZeel NHB-18NS…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
To measure the Marantz Reference SA-KI-Pearl, I used the magazine's loaner Audio Precision SYS2722 system. (See www.ap.com and "As We See It" in the January 2008 issue.) For some tests, I also used my Audio Precision System One Dual Domain and the Miller Jitter Analyzer.
Measured with the "provisional" Sony test SACD, the SA-KI-Pearl offered a lower maximum output level for SACD than for CD: 1.9V RMS vs 2.52V, a difference of 2.5dB. For CD playback, the maximum output level is a very audible 2dB higher than the CD standard's 2V RMS. The player's output…
Before last year, I had no more than a professional interest in the products of Wilson Audio Specialties. But before last year I hadn't experienced Wilson's Sophia Series 2 loudspeaker ($16,700/pair)—which, like the wines I tend to order when my wife and I go out to dinner, is the second-cheapest item on their menu. Within weeks of the Sophias' arrival, respect had turned to rapture, like to love, and an entirely new appreciation for Wilson Audio was mine (footnote 1).
I was also impressed that the people of Wilson seemed willing to say, more or less, "Yes, we know there's…
All four drivers in the three-way Sasha W/P are proprietary Wilson designs; each has been either upgraded from its own predecessor or brought in from the next most expensive model in the Wilson line. Among the latter is the Sasha's 1" inverted titanium-dome tweeter, sourced from Focal and developed for the Maxx Series 3 ($68,000/pair), and described as the fruit of Wilson's best efforts to prevent rear-firing energy from creating high-frequency distortion. The tweeter's second-order high-pass filter is tailored to approximately 1.8kHz, below which Wilson's 7" midrange driver, also developed…
From that day forward the Sasha distinguished itself as an open-sounding and exceptionally wide-bandwidth loudspeaker much like the Sophia Series 2. Yet whereas the two Wilson models sounded superficially alike overall, the Sasha W/P distinguished itself as a device of greater clarity and resolving power. Months before, the Sophia had surprised me by bringing unexpected timbral color and texture to the world of high-end speakers, as well as degrees of nuance and dramatic contrast that, while not in the same league as those of a very good horn, were well above the norm for a speaker designed…