Marantz SA7S1 owners - stock or modded

I own a SA-7S1 I wouldn't modify it. Why don't you try a warm sounding IC ( gold has a nice full sound) and maybe a warm PC (Lessloss maybe) and see if that helps.

If not save your money and get a non upsampling tube dac.

I own a SA-7S1 for about 1 year.

IMO modding usually brings improvement but also changes in the sonic character. The pitfalls are that modding is not cheap & it's difficult to remove it if the change is not of your taste.

To furhter improve SA-7S1 's performance, why not consider utilizing its clock input ability? I purchased an used Apogee Big Ben external clock recently & the resulting sonic improvement is well worth the money spent.

Hooper, Just curious about what modded players & modders you're talking about, and what were the internal changes made. Did you hear them in a familiar system? IME there are some mods-- particularly improvements to power supplies-- that make decisive improvements in every way. Other changes may be more subjective.

i'm surprised that no one has tried to add a tube buffer stage to the marantz.

i am breaking in the 11s2. it sounds very good with nmy fisher 400. i suspect the player needs a very euphonic preamp/amp combination to avoaid an over-focused presentation.

if you are not completely happy then sell it as I did.

The marantz is built well and looks good and sounds very relaxed and
Not digital sounding but just did not have the detail and dynamics of the playback designs or emmlabs.

Pretty great for jazz and vocals but not good for rock