Hello Everyone,
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Marantz CD-73 stereo player.
In my previous review of the Marantz CD6007, I said I was into older CD players, here is the proof
Marantz CD-73 - Presentation
Do I really need to present this one? Let's be quick, there's already so much on the web about this player.
Released in 1983, it was my first CD Player, and I must say I still love the look 41 years later! Of course, it's still spinning CDs, and it reads burnt CDs too, which allows my to share this review with you. The Marantz only required fixing the power supply to be as good as new. So let's torture a bit this vintage dinosaur.
It hosts two mono DACs from Philips, the TDA1540 that some believe to be magical, if not legendary. They run at 14bits only, when Sony went 16bits DACs at the same time. But, but, but, Philips (and therefore Marantz) had a trick in their hat, a 4x oversampling filter including noise shaping! The noise shaping is what restrict quantizing noise when going from 16bits to 14bits. Much later, this technique was used to save the 1bit DACs from generating too much quantizing noise in the audio band. It's still the same today.
Back panel has only analog outputs:
At it is so much fun to see the CD spinning though the top window:
In terms of utilization, it’s really obsolete and relatively slow. It's possible to skip forward a track, but not backward, and it's really annoying. Beyond track 15, it goes blind (there are only 15 led to show the current track being played), so on my 44 tracks test CD, I had to stay concentrated on what track it was possibly reading.
The specs of the time were the below:
Time has come to verify.
Marantz CD-73 - Measurements (Analog out)
From now on, I will be consistent with my measurements as I described them on the Onkyo C-733 review. So over time, this will help comparing the items I reviewed.
The Marantz CD-73 outputs 2.09Vrsm, no surprise here.
Here you go with the standard 1kHz sine @0dBFS (dithered) from my test CD (RCA out) :
Both channels are represented but only one gets evaluated in that window. Left channel is a little less performing, but both are very similar, which is not always the case with mono DACs from separated chips.
You see that despite the 14bits resolution of the DAC, and thanks to noise shaping, the dashboard reports an ENOB 14.9bits. Distortion is low, for the format, at -92dB (0.0025%), but real limitation is the noise floor which is raised because of the 14bits/noise shaping and so THD+N is only -87dB (0.0044%), below its published specs, though.
You probably already noticed too, this is a relatively quiet CD player, with minimum power supply–related spuriae in its output (below -120dB at 50Hz) :
There's little spike at around 640Hz but I don't what's causing it. It's at -110dB, very unlikely to be heard in the raised noise floor. In the end, this is very good.
Now, let's have some fun with the bandwidth :
First, the two channels are well matched, which is always a plus. What you see, at the frequency end, is the oversampling filter ringing because of lack of power (at the time).
And I thought it'd be funny to compare this result with the Philips CD 104 which hosted the same technology:
Don’t mind real values, I split the two traces on purpose. You see that the Marantz adds some gentle roll off at both ends. This comes from the final analog filtering and was probably intentional. Check out Cambridge Audio CD1 CD player Measurements from Stereophile, you will find resemblance between the filters selection that this player offered.
Staying the oversampling filtering effect, let's have a look at wide band (up to 96kHz) :
This an overlay of periodic white noise (pink) and triple tomes (9kHz, 19kHz and 20kHz). It shows the ringing of the filter. Out of band attenuation is only 55db (see the green spikes of images form the triple test tones), but better than what the Marantz CD6007 achieves with CD Audio, if you ask me.
Let's continue with multitones test (1/20 decade) :
Both channels are shown and again left one is a little noisier. We see it's difficult for the Marantz to clear more than 80dB of free distortion range. But being nice, we could consider overall 85dB of free distortion. It's not too bad for 14bits DAC as it is its theoretical maximum.
The CD-73 showed reasonable amount of Jitter:
The red trace is what is recorded on the test CD, it can't be better. The Marantz CD-73 adds little amount of Jitter which you can find at around 7kHz and 15khz, so that are sidebands at +-4kHz. Hopefully, they are at very low level, impossible to hear way below -100dB. One day, I'll published my measurements and hearing tests about jitter.
With a 14bits DAC and despite oversampling + noise shaping, I wondered what would happen with an undithered 1kHz sine at -90.31dBFS. With 16bits, the signal should appear (on a scope) as the 3DC levels of the sign magnitude smallest digital signal, and it should look like this (digital output of an Onkyo C-733) :
But now, what if we have to drop 2 bits in the DAC. Is our signal completely gone into the noise? Here you go :
Wow, we can still recognize it. I honestly thought it'd be completely buried into noise. We can see lack of linearity here though. The lower part of the signal is not at the correct level.
And by the way, the CD-73 loses linearity at -80dB which again is not so bad considering its DACs runs at only 14bits and it is R2R architecture, less linear than 1bit by design.
And I forgot to add other measurements:
There you go with a massive difference. This shows 20 years of DAC evolution in a CD player. That is 15 to 18dB better THD, which is huge. Well, now, -80dB harmonic distortion, I know I can't hear. So I'm not really concerned, but I'm happy to witness this evolution over time.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed reading this review as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Why are these old players so praised? Because they generate a lot more distortion and noise than newer ones? Maybe, but I doubt.
What I don't doubt about is fact that this player knows how to respect enough of what's on a recording for me to have real pleasure listening to it. What else?
I hope you enjoyed the review, and again let me know how to improve and if you have questions. I have recorded all the 44 measurements and if you want me to publish others or run one of your choice, feel free to ask.
Thank you.
--------
Flo
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Marantz CD-73 stereo player.
In my previous review of the Marantz CD6007, I said I was into older CD players, here is the proof
Marantz CD-73 - Presentation
Do I really need to present this one? Let's be quick, there's already so much on the web about this player.
Released in 1983, it was my first CD Player, and I must say I still love the look 41 years later! Of course, it's still spinning CDs, and it reads burnt CDs too, which allows my to share this review with you. The Marantz only required fixing the power supply to be as good as new. So let's torture a bit this vintage dinosaur.
It hosts two mono DACs from Philips, the TDA1540 that some believe to be magical, if not legendary. They run at 14bits only, when Sony went 16bits DACs at the same time. But, but, but, Philips (and therefore Marantz) had a trick in their hat, a 4x oversampling filter including noise shaping! The noise shaping is what restrict quantizing noise when going from 16bits to 14bits. Much later, this technique was used to save the 1bit DACs from generating too much quantizing noise in the audio band. It's still the same today.
Back panel has only analog outputs:
At it is so much fun to see the CD spinning though the top window:
In terms of utilization, it’s really obsolete and relatively slow. It's possible to skip forward a track, but not backward, and it's really annoying. Beyond track 15, it goes blind (there are only 15 led to show the current track being played), so on my 44 tracks test CD, I had to stay concentrated on what track it was possibly reading.
The specs of the time were the below:
Time has come to verify.
Marantz CD-73 - Measurements (Analog out)
From now on, I will be consistent with my measurements as I described them on the Onkyo C-733 review. So over time, this will help comparing the items I reviewed.
The Marantz CD-73 outputs 2.09Vrsm, no surprise here.
Here you go with the standard 1kHz sine @0dBFS (dithered) from my test CD (RCA out) :
Both channels are represented but only one gets evaluated in that window. Left channel is a little less performing, but both are very similar, which is not always the case with mono DACs from separated chips.
You see that despite the 14bits resolution of the DAC, and thanks to noise shaping, the dashboard reports an ENOB 14.9bits. Distortion is low, for the format, at -92dB (0.0025%), but real limitation is the noise floor which is raised because of the 14bits/noise shaping and so THD+N is only -87dB (0.0044%), below its published specs, though.
You probably already noticed too, this is a relatively quiet CD player, with minimum power supply–related spuriae in its output (below -120dB at 50Hz) :
There's little spike at around 640Hz but I don't what's causing it. It's at -110dB, very unlikely to be heard in the raised noise floor. In the end, this is very good.
Now, let's have some fun with the bandwidth :
First, the two channels are well matched, which is always a plus. What you see, at the frequency end, is the oversampling filter ringing because of lack of power (at the time).
And I thought it'd be funny to compare this result with the Philips CD 104 which hosted the same technology:
Don’t mind real values, I split the two traces on purpose. You see that the Marantz adds some gentle roll off at both ends. This comes from the final analog filtering and was probably intentional. Check out Cambridge Audio CD1 CD player Measurements from Stereophile, you will find resemblance between the filters selection that this player offered.
Staying the oversampling filtering effect, let's have a look at wide band (up to 96kHz) :
This an overlay of periodic white noise (pink) and triple tomes (9kHz, 19kHz and 20kHz). It shows the ringing of the filter. Out of band attenuation is only 55db (see the green spikes of images form the triple test tones), but better than what the Marantz CD6007 achieves with CD Audio, if you ask me.
Let's continue with multitones test (1/20 decade) :
Both channels are shown and again left one is a little noisier. We see it's difficult for the Marantz to clear more than 80dB of free distortion range. But being nice, we could consider overall 85dB of free distortion. It's not too bad for 14bits DAC as it is its theoretical maximum.
The CD-73 showed reasonable amount of Jitter:
The red trace is what is recorded on the test CD, it can't be better. The Marantz CD-73 adds little amount of Jitter which you can find at around 7kHz and 15khz, so that are sidebands at +-4kHz. Hopefully, they are at very low level, impossible to hear way below -100dB. One day, I'll published my measurements and hearing tests about jitter.
With a 14bits DAC and despite oversampling + noise shaping, I wondered what would happen with an undithered 1kHz sine at -90.31dBFS. With 16bits, the signal should appear (on a scope) as the 3DC levels of the sign magnitude smallest digital signal, and it should look like this (digital output of an Onkyo C-733) :
But now, what if we have to drop 2 bits in the DAC. Is our signal completely gone into the noise? Here you go :
Wow, we can still recognize it. I honestly thought it'd be completely buried into noise. We can see lack of linearity here though. The lower part of the signal is not at the correct level.
And by the way, the CD-73 loses linearity at -80dB which again is not so bad considering its DACs runs at only 14bits and it is R2R architecture, less linear than 1bit by design.
And I forgot to add other measurements:
- SNR : 94dB (1kHz @-60dBFS without dither)
- Crosstalk : -110dB (@1kHz)
- IMD AES : -86dB (18kHz + 20kHz 1:1 @-5dBFS)
- IMD DIN : -75dB (250Hz & 8kHz 4:1 @-5dBFS)
There you go with a massive difference. This shows 20 years of DAC evolution in a CD player. That is 15 to 18dB better THD, which is huge. Well, now, -80dB harmonic distortion, I know I can't hear. So I'm not really concerned, but I'm happy to witness this evolution over time.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed reading this review as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Why are these old players so praised? Because they generate a lot more distortion and noise than newer ones? Maybe, but I doubt.
What I don't doubt about is fact that this player knows how to respect enough of what's on a recording for me to have real pleasure listening to it. What else?
I hope you enjoyed the review, and again let me know how to improve and if you have questions. I have recorded all the 44 measurements and if you want me to publish others or run one of your choice, feel free to ask.
Thank you.
--------
Flo
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