Marantz SA-10 arriving Monday!

@cool_jeeves Format the USB stick as FAT32, otherwise it will not get recognized. Also, USB stick or external SSD power consumption must be less than 5V 1A. I’ve tried Samsung EVO internal SSD as external drive (with SATA to USB adapter) and it does not get recognized.

Please organize the songs in the USB stick by folder, then from SA-10 remote, press the MODE button to browse the songs by folder.  Browsing folders can be done using the 4 arrow buttons + ENTER above MODE/TRIM.  Once you start playing song with ENTER button, skipping songs use the regular buttons.

I recommend you try listen to free DSD downloads (from the USB stick) as the SA-10 sounds the best with DSD.

https://dsd-guide.com/where-can-you-find-dsd-music-downloads#.XjPSLGgzZaQ

Use a better Power chord than the stock one and you will notice a big difference. The Luxman Power Chord on EBAY which sells for around $175 comes highly recommended by several on the SA-10

Hi Anwar. That is pretty good. I will certainly try. But my USB stick is only 32GB. Can only download limited stuff. I will need to burn DVD blanks for DSDs and listen to them. Which is what I have been doing. But interesting that USB can also be done.

What max capacity pen drive do you think will stay under 5v 1A?

@cool_jeeves As long as you use USB stick or external/portable SSD (such as Samsung T5 rated 5V 0.8A), it will stay under 5V 1A. The limit specified by Marantz is:

This unit can display a file structure with up to 8 levels, up to 1,000 folders and up to 2,000 files in 1 folder.

My recommendation is to use USB storage below 500 GB, otherwise SA-10 struggles (takes too long) when reading the folder structure after SA-10 input switched to iPod/USB.

Please also note that Windows 8 or 10 cannot format large USB storage as FAT32, need to use third party tools.

Hi Anwar, I followed your advice. It plays beautifully from my 32GB memory stick. But I have plenty of other old music (80GB) which are from my mp3 collections which I will never really be able to get on my CD. I occasionally listen to this, though the sonics are not really of the standard that the SA-10 deserves. But still old music has its own charm. So I purchased a 128GB memory stick, which I had to use a different formatter to format as FAT32. Once this was done, I copied around 700 folders with less than a dozen files in every folder. I stuffed it into the SA-10 and it played everything flawlessly, and taking no more than 30 seconds to read the stick. But when later it went into standby and i restarted it, it would almost get frozen in "loading" mode and i became a bit worried. So I pulled the pen drive out and reformatted it, and again loaded the files, this time fewer files. The same thing happened. Initially loading took 30 seconds, I played a full day of music, and next morning when I restarted it, the SA-10 took more than 5min before i once more became worried and switched to a different input. Now I dont use PC audio anymore,  after getting the SA-10 and cant live without my old MP3 music either. So regular CDs and SACDs apart, how does one carry on with the 80GB of old mp3 music? thanks a ton for looking.