Opinions on Marantz SA-7S1, Nagra CDP

The Nagra is of interest because of its build quality and attention to detail. Features and being user friendly is unimportant. Larryi, although the Naim is a very impressive machine, as you said, it is in a completely different price category. Hamr, thank you for your comments on the Marantz.

I too like a compact player with front/drawer type of loading. But, the Philips mechanism that Nagra employs is really meant for top loading, so Nagra had to engineer a drawer to move the whole transport in order to convert it to front loading. The key question is whether they can successfully manage vibration dampening/isolation with such a mechanism.

The bottom line is the success of such implementation. I like the sound of that player and I also like its unusual looks.

I've seen and heard the Marantz, though only in a dealer's system. It is very well built and operates very smoothly. I've always been impressed with what they offer for the money in digital source components.

I own a Nagra CDC, soon will change to a CDP, as I prefer to use a preamp than going direct to the amplifier. Some people do not agree with me on this aspect.
The Nagra is an amazing CD - the most detailed and 3D I ever had. Depth and soundtage are outstanding. Read the recent review at Soundstage. I also own a CD7, and Marc Mickelson did a very fair review. In Europe both players cost the same price so the cost analysis is different.
Very recently I heard my Nagra with a friend Dartzeel's - it is a fantastic match.
BTW, it is true what people say - the unbalanced output sounds better than the balanced.