TRL Marantz Sa-14

Reb1208,

What phono stage did you have TRL modify? I have thought about sending them one of mine to modify.

As to ERS, I have spoken to Paul Weitzel and asked him if I should use ERS in my DAC. He said NO, further adding that they actually remove ERS from units that come in to them for mods. He indicated that ERS sucks the life out of the music. In looking at the DAC chips, while I believe they are dampened, it's difficult to say how as there is epoxy covering the chips. I have my doubts though that it is ERS, but if it is, it would have to be a tiny amount. The chips in my DAC are TD-1543s and they are pretty small.

As to Quicksilver, not sure about that, although Paul's brother Brian recommended I use it on ICs, RCA jacks and speaker terminations. Maybe Jack Seaton can weigh in on this as he has a number of TRL modded units.

I use the HRS damping plates, mainly on my speakers, and am anxious to try the Nimbus dampers under my amp and preamp.

I've owned Tube Research products for over 13 years and it has always taken a long period of time for them to break in and achieve the "TRL House Sound".

I don't like what ERS does, and I won't use it anywhere in my system. It kills the micro dynamics and life, IMHO.

Quicksilver is another story ...

FYI, I've applied Quicksilver everywhere I could on my SA-14 before sending it off to TRL. It returned sounding quite different.

Jack

However they are doing it everything on the TRL Marantz SA-14 is stellar. Its funny you mentioned the ERS cloth. Since the player just reached the 200+ break in mark, the addition of the ERS cloth elevated the sound especially in the midband to upper frequency area.

The sound is more refined with the cloth. No I have not opened the player to peak at the mods as I did with the Sony 2000es but I will say this, I don't feel the need to since the music is all I care about.

I am using the old Focal tweeter (made famous by the old Wilson Watt system) and its very unforgiving if the source is not balanced at the top. The TRL Marantz is very balanced.

ERS may be part of their tweak toolchest, but it alone cannot explain the dramatic improvements they can obtain on typical units. I have used ERS extensively in my own tweaking activities, but I could never get my old CD players to sound like my TRL Sony 2000ES.

Quicksilver only takes 72 hours to settle in so it is not a major contributor to the long break-in period.

My now modified Marantz SA-14 unit is being shipped back to me this week from TRL. I may pop the cover out of curiosity to see what it looks like inside, but in the end my interest is to just enjoy the music, so I won't obsess about what they actually did to the unit.