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Marantz SA-1 SACD player Page 3

Tasting and Judging
"The Compact Disc was a good idea," proclaims a booklet found in Sony SACD recordings. "This is even better." I smiled wryly, like Chairman Kaga on Iron Chef. In any case, SACD is obviously a maturing format, from the evidence of the 20 or so SACD-only discs on hand, not to mention a goodly number of dual-layer discs.

Auditioning made it clear that the SA-1's sound was extremely transparent. For instance, the player showed very little sympathy for any playback chain anything less than stellar. Only the right cables (Cardas Golden Reference balanced or TARA The…

Marantz SA-1 SACD player Page 4

Listening to the SACD version of Mighty Sam McClain's "Too Proud," from Joe Harley's BluesQuest, I noted a very special illumination from the midrange up, a subtle openness that moved my soul (according to my effulgent notes). Vocals, both male and female, were entirely open, palpable, and captivating on SACD. As a format, it never missed.

Now what?
There was some kind of metaphysical change that came over me every time I listened to the SA-1. Call it relaxation, an inner acknowledgment that, yeah, that's music. It wasn't just my intellectual self that recognized it; there was some…

Marantz SA-1 SACD player Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Two-channel Super Audio CD player. Frequency range: 2Hz-100kHz. Frequency response: 2Hz-50kHz, ±3dB. Dynamic range: 109dB. THD: 0.0012%. Analog outputs: single-ended RCAs at 2.2V RMS; balanced XLRs (pin 3 hot) at 3.9V. Digital outputs: 75 ohm S/PDIF on RCA and optical on TosLink (44.1kHz, CD only). Power consumption: 33W.
Dimensions: 18" (458mm) W by 5.25" (133mm) H by 14.375" (365mm) D. Weight: 39 lbs.
Serial number of unit reviewed: MZ000015040055.
Price: $7500. Approximate number of dealers: 500.
Manufacturer: Marantz, 440 Medinah…

Marantz SA-1 SACD player Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Digital source: Accuphase DP-75V CD player (upsampling to 24-bit/192kHz), dCS 972 D/D converter and dCS Elgar D/A processor at 24/192.
Preamplifiers: Mark Levinson No.32 Reference, Krell KCT.
Power amplifiers: Krell 350MC, Cary CAD-1610-SE, and Linn Klimax Solo 500 monoblocks, Forsell Statement.
Loudspeakers: JMlab Utopias.

Cables: Digital: XLO The Limited, RCA and AES/EBU. Interconnects: TARA The One/Air One, Cardas Golden Reference, Linn Silver. Speaker: TARA The One, Cardas Golden Cross, XLO The Limited. AC: Synergistic Designer's…

Marantz SA-1 SACD player Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

I performed a full set of measurements on the SA-1 using CD data, then repeated a select few of the tests using Sony's "tentative" test SACD. The Marantz's maximum output level from CD was 2.363V unbalanced and 4.72V balanced, both above the CD Standard's 2V RMS. From SACD, the maximum level from the balanced outputs was lower, 4.41V. The XLRs were wired with pin 3 hot, the opposite of the AES standard, and so inverted absolute polarity. The unbalanced outputs did not invert polarity. The output impedance was consistent over most of the audioband, at 99 ohms…

Marantz SA-1 SACD player Measurements part 2

Fig.4 shows a 1/3-octave spectrum of the SA-1's balanced outputs while it decoded CD data representing a dithered 1kHz tone at -90dBFS. Level error is minimal, while the noise floor is low. The linearity (fig.5) is also excellent. As a result, the player's reproduction of an undithered 1kHz sinewave at -90.31dBFS (fig.6) is essentially perfect; the three discrete voltage levels and the band-limiting Gibbs Phenomenon "ringing" are easily discerned.

Fig.4 Marantz SA-1, 1/3-octave spectrum of dithered 1kHz tone at -90dBFS, with noise and spuriae, 16-bit data (right channel dashed…

Marantz SA-1 SACD player Measurements part 3

Turning to SACD playback, fig.9 shows the SA-1's frequency response at -3dBFS, with the back-panel switch set to Standard (bottom traces) and Custom (top traces). Both traces feature extended ultrasonic response, but this was more extended at the Custom setting: -3dB at 45kHz vs 36kHz.

Fig.9 Marantz SA-1, balanced SACD frequency response at Custom (top) and Standard (bottom) settings (right channel dashed, 0.5dB/vertical div.).

DSD encoding also offers greater dynamic range and resolution than CD's 16/44.1kHz LPCM encoding. This is shown in fig.10, the spectra of low-…

Selling the Benefits

"Ever wondered how the snowplow driver gets to work?"—Doyle Dane Bernbach TV ad for Volkswagen, 1963

"At 60 miles per hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock."—Ogilvy & Mather print ad for Rolls-Royce, 1957

For 20 years, I have had a love-hate relationship with advertising. It was on October 2, 1982, that I took the editorial helm of the English magazine Hi-Fi News & Record Review. Since then I have both cursed advertising for interrupting the articles, columns, and reviews I want to publish, and praised advertising for helping provide…

Sony ES SS-M9ED loudspeaker

The occasion was the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show, and I had sought out the Sony suite at Bally's—the word in the Las Vegas bars where audio journalists hung out was that Sony was demonstrating the production version of their SCD-1 Super Audio CD player. I was glad I'd made the trek along the Strip: As I reported in the May 1999 Stereophile, the sound of a DMP recording—of unaccompanied choral music recorded and mixed in DSD by Tom Jung—was breathtaking, I felt, with an exquisite sense of space. It was definitely the best sound at the CES.

The playback system consisted of two new Sony…

Sony ES SS-M9ED loudspeaker Page 2

The pyramidal cabinet, constructed from 1" MDF and beautifully finished in gloss-black lacquer, is equally complex. Extensive use is made of damping and bracing to minimize panel resonances, and the 1.6" front baffle is constrained-layer-damped; ie, it is made of a sandwich of two MDF panels with a layer of high-loss thermoplastic damping material between them, and has profiled edges to optimize high-frequency dispersion. The midrange units have their own internal chamber, and the twin flared ports that load the woofers are dimensioned and placed so that the natural pipe resonances are more…