Marantz SA7S1 owners - stock or modded

hi phillyb:

i own a marantz 11s2. it has about 500 hours of signal fed through it, including 3 hours of the purist audio design break-in disk.

i find the sound of the marantz very precise, focused, somewhat mechanical and definitely unnatural. perhaps, it needs a tube analog stage or a replacement of some of the caps. it deininitely has a "hard" sound to it, rather than a nautural sound. i concur with masilu, re his observations. it is currently up for sale.

Compare the yin to the yang. If the AA cd players represent the yin, then the Esoteric's represent the yang, I would agree that the AA cd players are smoother, sweeter and the Esoterics are detailed and defined. I find that even the sweet, smooth AA cd players cannot compare to analog for pure musicality. I also feel that Marantz cd players, though more articulate than the AA players, are not as sweet as the AA players.....they are closer sonically to the AA camp than the Esoteric camp though.

If you are truely looking for musicality though, you will not find it in a CDP, IMHO. Get a turntable.

Cheers,
John

hi john:

it's not the turntable, it's the cartridge. i have a cd player, the naim cdx, circa 1994, sound better than any turntable/arm/cartridge combination i have ever heard.

many cartridges are frequency unbalanced. some of the older players, e.g., cal tempest and aria, and a few others, are worthy of ownership and can provide satisfaction to anyone, including digiphobes.

Hi Jgwilson

Since you have a mod marantz sa11s1 why dont you listen to an esoteric in your system (if you have not done).

I have a marantz sa11s1 and AA Capitol Ref se.
Marantz is really good for rock music too - excellent timming.
AA dosent do rock music as good as marantz - timming not as good as marantz.
I dont listen to rock much. But this timming thing was very well evedent in metallica "nothing else matters" song.

When it comes to musicality, AA far superior marantz.
MAY BE AA is a bit slow sounding than marantz,that makes AA more musical .

I have not listen to an esoteric. May be esoteric fills the gap, with excellent timming and musicality

good luck Wilson

Marantz cd players use Electrolytic capacitors on the output. Last time I check, they also used HDAM (high-definition audio modules)as the ouput stage. The resulting sound is fast transients and a "harshness" to vocals. One experience with Marantz cd players was enough for me.