Someone recently said CD’s were making a comeback. What a funny thought. Certainly my intention and final result after my search, all my existing and ’new to me’ cd’s have come alive like never before.
My first find about what they are doing:
"Internally, Marantz has a unique way to handle the digital signal. Marantz calls their technology Marantz Musical Mastering (MMM) which replaces a conventional DAC. The MMM circuit converts PCM (CD 44.1 kHz) to DSD 11.2 MHz and uses two system clocks to provide what Marantz calls the most accurate sampling possible, up to 384 kHz."
The Sony xa5400es is upscaling CD PCM by 8x, I don’t fully understand the numbers, but it certainly sounds better to me than the other 8 I tried.
Sony has made one ’filtering’ decision. Marantz evidently has ’optional filtering’.
"The sound of the Marantz is tunable, from the designers’ warm and mellow sound to a drier, more analytical sound."
Someday I’ll get to listen to the Marantz, and let’s hope more competition comes back into the CD/SACD world.
Two sets of Outputs: Fixed and Variable. My first Onkyo DX-7500 had this, simultaneous outputs: you could go straight to your amp(s) with one set; thru your preamp with the other. Marantz may be either/or, or both, not sure.
http://www.hifi-classic.net/review/onkyo-dx-7500-430.html