Dear all,
I called up my local Marantz dealer earlier today to find out about the new network player NA8005. Lo and behold, they have it in the store on passive display. So I trundled down to the store and brought it home. At $1199 retail, it was worth a calculated risk since the first network player, the NA11S was well received by JA. The NA8005 piqued my interest for 2 primary reasons - one, it could play dsd and hirez pcm files from a USB memory stick, and two, it has a coax digital output.
Once unpacked, set-up was a breeze for my primary objective of playing hirez files from a USB flash drive. So, no more computer and usb cables. It was simply connecting the 8005 to the K-01 coax input.
Fresh out of the box(I don't know if a network player would benefit from break-in), the sound emanating from the usb memory stick jacked into the front panel input, was in a word, glorious. If I was previously happy with hi-rez via the Esoteric's HRA player, I must say I am completely floored by what I heard in the first few minutes. It was incredible! I had this sudden epiphany of what hi-rez is all about. So, this is indeed how hi-rez should really sound. It is truly that jaw-dropping. All I can say is that with usb flash memory as source, coupled to the K-01's DAC section, there is detail and detail, and yet, oh so smooth and smooth. Not only that, the soundstage opened up while notes floated effortlessly beyond the speaker boundaries in width, depth and height. Bass is prodigious without being boomy, while highs are airier and more extended. As for the midrange, it's either "you are there" or "she is in your living room" sort of thing. Transient attacks are as impactful as they should be. Finally, it all has to be musical and indeed it is as musical as it gets - the total antithesis of "analytical". The 8005 is also not partial to any genre, serving out classical, jazz, blues or rock in equal measure. As the old cliché goes, it doesn't get any better than this. There is not an iota of dryness that might have been suggested of the K-01 in the past.
To all K-01/03 owners, do go out and bring an NA8005 home for an audition or, like me, just buy it. You can finally bid goodbye to jitter-inducing computer interfaces, hard disk drives, background noise, etc, etc.
Happy listening!
I called up my local Marantz dealer earlier today to find out about the new network player NA8005. Lo and behold, they have it in the store on passive display. So I trundled down to the store and brought it home. At $1199 retail, it was worth a calculated risk since the first network player, the NA11S was well received by JA. The NA8005 piqued my interest for 2 primary reasons - one, it could play dsd and hirez pcm files from a USB memory stick, and two, it has a coax digital output.
Once unpacked, set-up was a breeze for my primary objective of playing hirez files from a USB flash drive. So, no more computer and usb cables. It was simply connecting the 8005 to the K-01 coax input.
Fresh out of the box(I don't know if a network player would benefit from break-in), the sound emanating from the usb memory stick jacked into the front panel input, was in a word, glorious. If I was previously happy with hi-rez via the Esoteric's HRA player, I must say I am completely floored by what I heard in the first few minutes. It was incredible! I had this sudden epiphany of what hi-rez is all about. So, this is indeed how hi-rez should really sound. It is truly that jaw-dropping. All I can say is that with usb flash memory as source, coupled to the K-01's DAC section, there is detail and detail, and yet, oh so smooth and smooth. Not only that, the soundstage opened up while notes floated effortlessly beyond the speaker boundaries in width, depth and height. Bass is prodigious without being boomy, while highs are airier and more extended. As for the midrange, it's either "you are there" or "she is in your living room" sort of thing. Transient attacks are as impactful as they should be. Finally, it all has to be musical and indeed it is as musical as it gets - the total antithesis of "analytical". The 8005 is also not partial to any genre, serving out classical, jazz, blues or rock in equal measure. As the old cliché goes, it doesn't get any better than this. There is not an iota of dryness that might have been suggested of the K-01 in the past.
To all K-01/03 owners, do go out and bring an NA8005 home for an audition or, like me, just buy it. You can finally bid goodbye to jitter-inducing computer interfaces, hard disk drives, background noise, etc, etc.
Happy listening!