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Marantz SA-10 arriving Monday!

I've been hearing and reading all I can about this player during this last year. I have a 6005 right now and it's a nice player but not as good as my analog rig (10k) so it's not a fair comparison. Elizabeth mentioned that her SA-10 is better than her analog. I will be comparing the 2 SACD players side by side. I have at least 3 CD's in which I have duplicates. I'm fascinated about how the circuitry upsamples to DSD SACD. Well not exactly but somehow an improvement over Redbook CD. I have a 2" thick maple block coming in the same day for it. It's going to be a long weekend. I know it can't work miracles on all CD's. If there is jitter in the recording then supposedly you will never get that out. Speak up if I'm wrong about that.
blueranger
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
My go to Classical composer is Beethoven. He is clearly the top dude of all Classical composers. If I could only play the music of one guy, it would certainly be Beethoven. After that it becomes more personal, Bach vs Handel vs Brahms vs Debussy vs Stravinsky vs Mahler. All different styles for different tastes. Then there is Opera.
goose
364 posts
 
For newer classical listeners the "Living Stereo" sacd of the Brahms and Tchaikovsky violin concertos with Heifetz and the Chicago Symphony is hard to beat.  An old recording with the classic three neumann microphone technique.  It sounds wonderful and Heifetz is my favorite violinist.  
d2girls's avatar
d2girls
641 posts
 
not sure if the same can be said for the other regular living stereo cd releases, but i have a living stereo cd release for dvorak new world symphony and it sounds amazing to my ears. is sacd really all that much better?
goose
364 posts
 
I usually purchase the sacd's if the price gap isn't too great.  They do sound better, not vastly better, but noticeable.
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
d2girls, I would say the difference between SACD and CD is all in the player.
With the Marantz SA-10 the difference is made even smaller than usual. Since the decoding of the CDs is done with DSD also.One of the main reasons I BOUGHT the $7000 Marantz SA-10 is to play a LOT of regular CDs. (I only own a few SACDs, but own over 2,500 CDs)I never liked SACD due to the strange effect of they have no ’background’. As if the music flows out of a Black Hole... Instead of a room. Some folks love that effect. I do not. So I stayed away from SACD. The Marantz SA-10 playing regular CDs does not ’do’ that to the CDs it plays. So IMO the effect is in the mastering? not the playback.And not the playback of CDs using DSD.So for the few SACDs I own that are dual disc, no difference worth shouting out about. And I have no plans to buy any SACDs. CD is fine by me.
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