Well, they listed another open box Marantz Ruby KI CD player at Music Direct for $800 off list, so I took the plunge. Hopefully it will sound significantly better than my Marantz SA-8005. I was checking on the price of the Luxman D-05u, but Music Direct had it listed as no longer available, so I took another look at the Ruby KI on their site.. The 20% off on the Ruby’s list price was simply too hard to pass by. Now I’ve got to figure out how to sell the SA-8005. Thanks for all your help and sharing a lot of good ideas, And so abruptly ends another hi-fi shopping adventure, hopefully my last for a while. I wonder how long it will take for the Ruby to burn in and show it’s true colors. Any guesses? Pettyofficer said it took quite a while. My Magico A3's are only now starting to reveal their true identity and I've had them since this past Spring. Take care all and again thanks so much. I'm still going to to find one of those R2R DACS to listen to as they piqued my interest too.
Mike |
Congrats skyscraper, sounds like you got a good deal. I'm interested to know how the Ruby compares to your 8005 as well |
skyscraper
Nice score! I am looking forward in reading about the comparison between Ruby and 8005. Happy Listening!
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Thank you sebrof and jafant. Once the new Ruby CD/SACD gets burnt in a bit I'll let you all know how it's doing in contrast with the 8005. I sure hope it sounds better.
Mike |
Hello Skyscraper,
I would say from a 100-150 hours of burn in. Later on, you can still get an R2R Dac and have multi-options of 11.2 Mghz up sampling of SACD, Multi-Channel SACD, same with CD, plus the Ruby digital out to your new R2R Dac. You would have on board and separate dacs. Why be mutually exclusive if you could play a wide range of formats? The optical drive on the Ruby is very robust and one of the best ones that Marantz makes. I know that I should turn off those long blue lights on each side of the facia, but they look so damn cool. Even with them on it still sounds great to me. Okay, back to being an audiophile, I will turn them off. Let me know how it works out for you. I am certain that you will be pleasantly surprised.
I should mention a word about universal players ( SACD, BLUE-RAY AUDIO, DVD-AUDIO ). It is well known that audio noise is generated by the video processor. This happens even when the VP. isn't receiving a signal. Even DVD-AUDIO and BLUE-RAY AUDIO project HD images onto the monitor for album cover, song selection, etc. Some of the more recent Pioneer universal players have a function for shutting off the video processor, while playing audio disks. Does it help? I leave that up to everyone else's experiences. HDMI still combines the audio and video signals into a tightly wound cable. Does the audio only HDMI output help? I am certain that all of these considerations went into the design of the Ruby, by making a multi-channel audio only SACD, CD Player. A display screen is a far cry from the extreme high frequency hash of a full blown 4K BLUE-RAY Video Processor. I have heard this issue mntioned by a few other high end audio designers. However, I am certain that there are many who don't consider it a problem. I have heard many great tunes from various universal players. Maybe the difference is miniscule, and based on subjective preferences. |
