TRL Marantz Sa-14

I've got about 60 hours on the SA14 now and it is doing well. It continues to be smooth, focused, clean, and coherent. But it is a bit bright on some recordings. Given that it is said to need 500+ hours of break in, I am confident that it will be excellent given how it sounds already.

Jack, I will give the Quicksilver a try just before a short business trip this coming week so that it breaks in while I am away!

Quick update on the break in process-

The TRL Marantz SA14 now has about 140 hours of break in time as I was gone for the holiday weekend and just got back this evening.

The TRL modded Musical Fidelity A300 integrated now has about 200 hours (9-10 days) of break in on it.

Both units will reportedly need at least 500 hours and/or a month or more of break in but I think the character or signature is there at this point.

At this point, the sound seems to be maturing quite well. The lower midbass and lower bass that I was waiting on is now developing a nice physical/visceral quality to enhance it's already extended clean musical nature.

The overall sound of this setup is very very natural and opening up quite a bit.

Jes45- In answer to your question...I had a pretty open mind about expectations. I guess I was hoping for a nice incremental upgrade from the TRL Sony 595 which is a quite wonderful unit itself. I am of the opinion that there is a law of diminishing returns in this crazy hobby and the SA14 plus mod is not cheap, at least for me.

Well, let's just say this appears to be all that I was hoping for and more at this point. Money well spent IMHO at this pretty early point in the break in process.

Will post more as it evolves. This is a very musical unit.

Lkdog
I'm glad to hear that your expectations of the TRL SA-14 are being met. I'm sure that the more you listen the more you will thoroughly enjoy your new player. :-)

paul

Guess whose coming to Dinner?

Over the weekend here is the lineup:

Mark Levinson 380s, Mactone preamp, Meitner Switchman II,
Full Image preamp. The total retail is $40,000 when new.

Guess what was in front of all these great preamps?

No one laid any criticism on the Sony 2000es. Considering these guys have over 15 years in this hobby, I feel good that the Sony presentation was lucid for all to enjoy.

As for the pre shootout, each pre had a define sonic signature albeit there was a problem with the Levinson not having suitable warm up time (1 day) for it to smooth out.

Overall an enjoyable day for the 6 of us in my listening room. In my opinion the clear winner is the Sony and a CDR disc burned from an original LP copy of the "Modern Jazz Quartet Live at Carnegie Hall".

Hello guys,
It is good to see a bunch of TRL users grouped here to share and discuss. I just have a Gold Color DV9500 FedEx to Paul for mod. Yes, it is an Asian Version rather than the black US version. Hopefully it will be ready by next week or so.

By the way, what SACDs and CDs do you guys use to burn in your player?

Thanks,
-Howard