break-in for Marantz SA-7S1

at this time my favorite cd player is the audionote cd2. i thought i liked the original lector 7, the two chassis version.

i also liked the first zanden dac, not the current version,the sony scd 1, the cal tempest and first aria player.

these are the players that come to mind. most players i audition do not impress me. i find that they annoy me because of errors in reproducing timbre and an analytical presentation.

in fact most stereo systems sound more focused than live music.

i find the marantz 7s1 and 11s2 balanced in its frequency response. however, it exhibits a level of clarity that is not heard when in the presence of live unamplified music.

these players are ruthless in their revelation of flaws in a recording. unless one listens to cds which have no "problems", the assault on one's ears may cause one to turn off either player, after a short while, or make sure it feeds a preamp and amp which is subtractive in its coloration. fortunately, i own such a preamp.

"it exhibits a level of clarity that is not heard when in the presence of live unamplified music. these players are ruthless in their revelation of flaws in a recording. . ."

I agree with you this time MRT, that's one of the very reasons why I enjoy SA7S1, my own X-01 LE, MPS-5, and a few other players. . . . but it is not so much that they exhibit a level of clarity greater than live unamplified music. . . it is that to hear the same level of detail you would need to place yourself in socially unacceptable proximity to the performer or the instrument. . . ah, marvels of technology! G

In the mod process I've always aimed for increased resolution and transparency(clarity) for RBCD. I've found that what is described as "ruthless" or "analytic" clarity is invariably some deficiency in the engineering of the CDP that when resolved, obtains both higher resolution AND increased sense of warmth, liquidity, smoothness, refinement, relaxation, and realism. The effect is to make both well-recorded and less well-recorded RBCD more realistic & listenable-- not to exaggerate the "flaws" of RBCD. In fact, things have evolved to the point that treble of RBCD is more resolving and sweeter than vinyl in my system.

Mrtennis, we are not too far apart geographically. If you ever feel the urge to test your paradigm about coloration, feel free to bring either Marantz player by for a comparison. I have both modded and stock versions of SCD-1/777ES on hand, and it's easy to compare them to each other and to Marantz and also to swap from active to passive analog sections on the fly in the modded unit, in order to demonstrate how much is lost when you soften the treble and bass by switching out active SS buffers to reveal the "purer" signal path of passive transformer outputs. A demonstration such as this decisively shows the importance of PRAT in making RBCD convincing. I made a direct comparision awhile back to an SA-1, and determined that what was most missing with that Marantz was a sense of dynamic sweep and macrodynamic scale. It's a listenable but merely polite player. I have not heard the SA7S1.

hi dgarretson:

i would welcome the opportunity to compare cd players. i own a stock 11s2. i live in nassau county. how far are you from manhattan ?

thanks.

i agree that subtraction = loss. however, a slightly out-of-focus presentation sounds more like the real thing, as compared to most stereo systems.