Upon installation, I only had one better cables silver serpent and one monster datalink 100. It sounded excellet without warm rich, yet detailed sound.
Tonight I tried the Marantz CD 5000 against the Sony SCD5400ES. I could not believe how the sound took a nose dive. Closed in, bright and forward.
I think the the combination of many things made this little player outclassed.
by comparison to the Sony, -toy construction, featherweight, captive garbage power cord, etc. it did have a nice silent transport. I do recall it having a very nice sound out of the analogue outputs years ago, but I guess my system has outgrown it.
I could not bear to listen to the marantz. I put it to the side to warm up for a couple of days on repeat as it hasn't been used in years to satisfy a friends advice. I'm not expecting miracles though. Sometimes you just know.....
After putting the Sony back into the system, I also found a forgotten second silver serpent in to use on the output of the DIP 24/96, getting rid of the monster data link. To my horror the monster sounded better. How could this be? I think because the new found old silver serpent hasn't been used in years and the monster was settled for days, the second silver serpent needs some settling and reacclimating. Yes, I know I could have given the same respect to the marantz, but, I just didn't feel it had enough going for it to even consider it. I look forward to hearing the second silver serpent settle in. Right now it's not as detailed as the monster. ....... I can't believe I just said that.