Masrantz Sa-11S1 /w RAM Full upgrade?

would agree with lawyerman...

Lawyerman wrote,

"Why would you spend almost double for the SA-11 s.1 when it could never reach the pinnacle of the Marantz SA-1 or Esoteric X-01 Limited Edition players."

With all due respect...How do you come to this conclusion?
Based off listening? IMHO, the SA-1 is simply different from the SA-11 in it's stock form. The SA-1 being overly warmish and tubey while the SA-11 offering better pace and resolution though a bit colder. Your pick depends on taste and system matching. Both players may be heavily modded to sound superb. After hearing both machines in stock and heavily modded form I feel your statements are absolutely wrong and misleading. Listen first then decide.

Best regards,

Kyle Takenaga

Flye
We've done so much comparing over the past year. I am part of a large Audio Society up in Boston. That the conclusion is a Marantz SA-1 can never be matched by a Marantz SA-11 regardless of the secondary mods.

It's almost like saying your modified Chevrolet Camaro is going to be better than my Austin Martin V12 Vanquish -which I do own too. The Camaro is cut from a lower cloth to begin with.

Not taking anything from a Marantz SA-11 or the mod. but the SA-1 is in a much higher league of performance.

Again there is a reason why Marantz SA-1 was $7500 and very limited and not discounted. Verse the Marantz SA-11 $3500 and highly distributed and discounted to street price to about $2250 average. Marantz wanted to make there statement when introducing the SA-1 since Philips their parent company did C0-invent the technology with Sony. More or less the Marantz SA-1 was released to put the Sony SCD-1 to shame. If you looked insided a Sony SCD-1 there is nothing really special about it. Verse the Marantz SA-1 is like a work of art and best of the best in parts.

Dear Lawyerman,

Again, soooooo wrong. What is it inside the SA-1 do you understand/feel is so superior electrically versus the sa-11 or even the SCD-1 for that matter? Again, I like both machines in modded form and possible even prefer the SA-1 thus I am not biased toward the SA-11. My whole point here is that the (modded) SA-11 kills the SA-1 (stock) hands down, without any questions...something your grandma will hear.
Some Points:
-Parts quality for both machines are very equal
-Dac chips: SA-11(SM5688's) SA-1(TDA1547's) Both are nice
The problem with the SA-1 is the "fancy" multiple dac
mixing circuit which they implemented with 4 TDA1547's.
Looks good on paper though mutes resolution and
transparency.
-The SA-11 contains a far better clocking circuit over the
SA-1.
-Output Stage-SA-11 has the edge here. Much better HDAm circuitry with reduced number of coupling caps. Simply more transparent and resolving.
-Power Supplies- Equally average at best. Both use discrete voltage regulation circuits for the analog HDAM circuits. Nothing great.
Drive- Edge goes to the SA-1. Only based off the mechanical side. It is more heavy duty.
Chassis- The SA-1 weighs more.

One more point- The modded SCD-1 also kills the stock SA-1 hands down.

Best regards,

Kyle Takenaga

Don't take offense Lawyerman,but the SCD-1's construction is beyond reproach,even better than that of the SA-1.It might not be as pretty inside,but nothing on the market is better built than the SCD-1.And I've never heard that there was a consensus one was better than the other.The SA-1 having a warmer sound and SCD-1 a more detailed sound.The SCD-1 transport is still one of the better on the market and puts the SA-1's to shame,unless you consider that one of those inconsequential parts.Gary.