TRL Marantz Sa-14
Hi, I am new here; but now that I have a Marantz SA-14 v.2 myself, I think I'll give my opinion. I bought my (ex demo) SA-14/2 over the Internet from SaleHifi; a Hong Kong eShop. It arrived a week ago. So right out of the box -- with to cold of transport at 10kms above Siberia still in its bones -- I hooked it up, and had a listen. Yes... beautiful rich sound; but the low highs put quite some pressure on my ears. After 24h in the cosiness of my home, and Zappa on repeat, that was almost gone: everything was more in balance. I have been breaking it in for a week now: Mahler V (Concertgebouw orchestra), Zappa 'Hot Rats' and Cathy Berberian (Berio; Folk Songs and Kurt Weill) on repeat. That aught to tame the beast! It is getting better every day; not as spectacular as the first few days, but still... If there is one CD that justifies buying the SA-14, then it is 'Sure thing' (the Jerome Kern Songbook) by Sylvia McNair and André Previn. Ah... listen to track 10: "All the things you are" Splendid. No... wait: listen to that phrase at 1:05 min: 'you are the breathless hush of evening...', how tender and fragile that 'hush'. Yes folks: piano and female voice; the Marantz excels with that! The SA-14 is a perfect RBCD-player, that -- by the way -- also plays SACDs. The other day I hooked up my old CD-player again: Tjoeb '98. And yes: all the things that are on the CD are shown by the Tjoeb as well. But you really have to listen quite carefully. The SA-14 presents the music, the emotion with a sovereign ease. It has a quietness over it, that is hard to explain. It is by far the most inaudible player I've ever heard. And that is only on plain vanilla RBCD! Hmmmm.. I love this machine! Even my wife can hear the difference with the old Tjoeb. Oh... you all know that the SA-14 is out of production. But SaleHiFi.Com still has it on their price list; maybe they still can get hold of one. So if you are interested: drop them an e-mail. But please note: it might be a 230V / 50Hz machine! Question: Is anyone of you guys using it as a SACD player? |
Question: Is anyone of you guys using it as a SACD player? Sounds like you really love the SA14 v2. I know TRL thinks the build quality is very very good and it is a great platform for modding. I listen to 95% Redbook. Huge range of quality of recordings and mastering. The SA 14 makes all of them listenable and the well mastered ones are stunning. SACD can be even better depending upon the mastering. The SACD's that Paul engineered I have heard are wonderful. Other SACD's are not so great, but that comes with the territory. |
I didn't buy it Joe. Whomever did has 50 hours less break in ... :) BTW, did you guys see Clio09's review of the TRL/Audio Mirror DAC? http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1130770464&read&3&zzlClio09&& I wish that the pro reviews were this well written and had as much useable detail as to the sound ... Well done, Clio09! Jack |
