Marantz sa11 S2 - upgrade to outboard DAC?

+1, Nonoise.

I also own SA-11s2 and absolutely love its warm musical sound. I have not tempered with stock fuses just yet. But I am definitely tempted to try an external clock before I mess with aftermarket fuses.

I own a pretty decent DAC but never felt the need to try it with Marantz but I am only using this player to spin SACD’s 😉

Stereophile measurements shows it is excellent for CD playback, except maybe Filter 3 as it has high IMD.

The SPDIF output for SA-11S2 only works for 44.1kHz 16-bit CD.  No output when playing SACD.

New stand-alone DACs support high res PCM and DSD.  You will need another digital audio transport/renderer to make full use of a new stand-alone DAC.

If your budget permits, please consider Marantz SA-10 instead.  It will allow you to enjoy high res playback as well.

i guess i will keep what i have as is.

I have a Modwright Marantz SA8005 and have made some tweeks along the way to improve things. As previous posters have mentioned, fuses are a great start and relatively inexpensive. My Marantz has hard wired fuses but the Modwright PS made a nice improvement with the Synergistic Blue Fuses. Also the ECT's do a nice job of lowering the noise floor and getting rid of hash in the system. The nice thing about Synergistic Research, if you don't like it send it back for a full refund.Good luck