TRL Marantz Sa-14

TRL Family & friends-

First off I love my Sony TRL 2000es player.

My persuit of the Marantz SA-14 V2 stems from my listening to the Marantz SA-1 player at my friends place. Its a great machine!! No I did not compare it to my TRL 2000es but what I heard made it very clear to me where the strengths of the expensive Marantz is compared to the modestly priced Sony player. It had more body, air and defined bass.

Folks I must say in defense of the TRL Sony 2000es, the player is no slouch. It overachieves in areas that expensive players fail. It has terric tonal balance. Above average bass performance considering the modest power supply and its very tunable and responsive to isolation and power cords. Its more defined in characterless fashion than some players. It reproduces music in a convincing fashion when you have it dialed in properly.

No complaints just a yearning to satisfy my growing appetite for better music and in my opinion the SA-14 will soon be my reference.

Cheers

Update on my TRL Marantz SA-8260. The sound hasn't changed in the last month so I think its fully broken-in. I have some where around 650 hours on the mod. It still sounds a little "hyped" in the midrange/treble areas. Its not bright or forward it just isn't relaxed and coherent like I have heard in other players. But let’s put it in perspective. A new SA-8260 modded by TRL is about $1,500 depending on how much you pay for the player. If you buy a used player and have it modded the cost goes down to about $1,000 total. So the question is how does the TRL SA-8260 match-up in its price range? - IMHO nothing can touch it. The best SACD player I've heard is the Sony SCD-1 which is still about $2,000 used and the TRL SA-8260 easily beats it.(Please no flames. I readily admit this is based on memory after having a SCD-1 in my system for only a few days over a year ago) I have not heard a TRL SA-14 but I assume that will be my next purchase based on what others have said in this thread. Thanks again to all who sent private emails concerning the progress of my player.

"Your the greatest" as Jackie Gleason would state in his unique profound manner. Jack Seaton falls into this category hands down. My understanding is his level of expertise far outruns those professionals who claim to have the ears of a bat. His equipment, sound reproduction and network within the industry is second to none. Keep up the tremendous lines of communications. I tried to find out where things are with the SA-11 mod but the thread was expunged. Yes, Jack I am the old owner of Jerry's TRL phono stage and the new owner of the battery operated unit. Be well and keep fighting the good fight.

Sbayne, what power cord are you using? If you've got the CRL silver series then based on my testing a VenHaus Airsine will provide a slightly more relaxed and organizc sound (all things being equal).

Jsala - I'm using a ZCable Red Lightning with an Ultra ZSleeve. I will check out the VenHaus Airsine.