TRL Marantz Sa-14

Jes45

I'm expecting the Sa-14 back on the 13th. Brian emailed me to give me the good news/bad news scenario. :-)

Bad news: Another 500 hours before break in.

Good news: The SA-14 ALREADY sounds better than it did when when it got to TRL in it's previously modded, fully broken in state!

Needless to say, I'm anxiously awaiting it's arrival back home! :-D

Does anybody know why TRL mods take 500 hours to break-in? Thats 21 straight days of playing! What is it they do that requires this? I'm not really complaining because mine is sounding better every day - I'm just wondering.

I'm guessing 500 hours is about the time it takes you to forget what the machine sounded like in the first hour. :)

BTW, this is not limited to just the TRL...

La45, could you go into more specifics about the TRL 2000 tweaks?

Other than putting the unit on a DIY Symposium Ultra style isolation platform and mating it with a very good power cord I have so far resisted the temptation to open up the unit. Also using QuickSilver as recommended by other TRL fans.

I have tweaked lesser units with Dynamat Xtreme for damping, Stillpoints ERS for EMI/RFI attenuation, Auricap across the IEC inlet for AC noise filtering.

Although I haven't looked inside the unit, I am guessing that they already employ ERS in the mod. Scroll down to the bottom of this link and you will see TubeResearchLabs/CableResearchLabs as users of the ERS product.

http://www.stillpoints.us/1Pages/ers_products.html

No 500 hours break-in isn't normal. I've had a number of mods done by other companies on amps, preamps, cds, etc and after a couple hundred hours they usually reach their potential. The caps and transformers should be fully cooked by that time. I'm guessing they use a special kind of solder or leads.