Marantz CD6007 Review (CD Player)

[Vlad Soare]

I've just remembered that there's an option in the menu to turn off the digital output ports if they're not used, presumably to keep them from picking up (or perhaps generating?) interference. I wonder if this may have something to do with the anomalies you're noticing at very high frequencies (unless you did actually turn them off, in which case never mind).

 

[NTTY]

I've just remembered that there's an option in the menu to turn off the digital output ports if they're not used, presumably to keep them from picking up (or perhaps generating?) interference. I wonder if this may have something to do with the anomalies you're noticing at very high frequencies (unless you did actually turn them off, in which case never mind).

I tested indeed, and no differences. This is an effect of the oversampling filter only.

 

[Iani]

I have some new info that I found on the Marantz website; in the 'Features' section there's written that the CD 6007 has this 'Marantz Musical Mastering'. It seems like an upsampling to DSD 11.2 Mhz, but there's no clear info. Others Marantz players, the more expensive ones, have a proprietary DAC, so they say at least. What do You think?

 

[Scytales]

I have some new info that I found on the Marantz website; in the 'Features' section there's written that the CD 6007 has this 'Marantz Musical Mastering'. It seems like an upsampling to DSD 11.2 Mhz, but there's no clear info. [...] What do You think?

The Marantz CD6007 uses an AKM AK4490 DAC chip that oversamples incoming PCM data to 256 FS. That's 11.2896 MHz with FS=44.1 kHz (CD data rate) or 12.288 MHz with FS=48 kHz. Of course, with incoming FS=88.2 kHz or 96 kHz (double the base rate), oversampling is only half 256 times, ie 128 times, to get the finale conversion rate of 256 FS. And so on with PCM at rate higher than 88.2 or 96 kHz. That's the usual way to convert PCM in analog in this day and age and has been for decades. Some D/A converters operate at lower rates than 256 FS, some at higher rates.

Most probably same thing with DSD data, except DSD is already closer to the final rate of the conversion stage and thus, the oversampling ratio is only 4 times with DSD64 input, 2 times with DSD128 input and no oversampling with DSD256 input.

Marantz's words, that I have not read, are probably fancy words devised by the marketing department to described this processes in non-technical commercial add.

 

[NTTY]

I have some new info that I found on the Marantz website; in the 'Features' section there's written that the CD 6007 has this 'Marantz Musical Mastering'. It seems like an upsampling to DSD 11.2 Mhz, but there's no clear info. Others Marantz players, the more expensive ones, have a proprietary DAC, so they say at least. What do You think?

You have beginning of answers here Marantz SACD 30n and here Marantz SA-10.

You can see the same type of filter response and the same negative effects on attenuation at 20kHz and noise generated out of audio band (with 44.1kHz sources). This is due to the upsampling to DSD, and is obviously common to these players as you spotted.

 

[Vlad Soare]

There's something I don't quite get about the way you tested the digital interface.
I'm looking at the graph below, which is supposed to prove that the player doesn't modify the bit stream. But how does it prove that?

Marantz CD6007 Measurements - Optical Out

Last but not least, I measured the digital output of the player, from my test CD, for those who'd like to use it as a transport. The below view shows what's on the CD:

Note this is only 4 averages when I measured, compared to 32 averages I usually apply. It does not change the final results though. THD is basically non existent and rest is limited by the dithered noise of the test CD.
This is very good and I confirm this player can act as a very good transport, not modifying the bitstream.

This looks like an analog signal to me. It's not a digital one. What did you actually measure here? Is this perhaps the output of an external DAC to which the digital output of the CD6007 was fed?

Also, I'm not sure how to read this graph:

And about the digital output quality, I already suggested here to use an undithered 1kHz sine at -90.31dBFS to verify the quality of the drive, should we have doubts about it modifying digital data. With 16bits, the signal should appear (on a scope) as the 3DC levels of the smallest sign magnitude digital signal, which is what we get with the Marantz:

What exactly is it that tells us whether it's good or bad? How would it look if the player did modify the bit stream?
Thank you.

 

[NTTY]

Hi,

It’s not analog. These measurements are from the CD player digital output, fed to my interface via its digital input.

These results are similar to those performed from the source WAV files directly.

Have a look at the Moondrop Discdream 2 ULTRA or the Fiio DM13 to see devices modifying the digital stream and what difference it makes.

Cheers

 

[Vlad Soare]

It’s not analog. These measurements are from the CD player digital output, fed to my interface via its digital input.

I see. So the interface reads the digital signal, converts it to analog (or maybe interprets it digitally without an actual hardware conversion), then displays the characteristics of the result. I mean, it tells you that the digital signal that it receives encodes a 1kHz sine wave at 0 dBFS, plus some noise. And this proves that the bit stream was not modified, because you know that your CD does indeed contain the PCM encoding of a 1kHz sine wave plus some noise.
So we're not actually verifying the bit stream itself, but just checking if the sound that that bit stream would produce will meet our expectations.
Am I right?

Have a look at the Moondrop Discdream 2 ULTRA or the Fiio DM13 to see devices modifying the digital stream and what difference it makes.

Yes, those look much uglier, indeed.
But what exactly are we seeing in that graph? What does that crankshaft shape, which is so beaufitul in the Marantz and so ugly in the Discdream, actually represent?

I apologize if this is a silly question and these things should be obvious to me. They aren't (yet). But I'm doing my best to learn.

 

[NTTY]

I see. So the interface reads the digital signal, converts it to analog (or maybe interprets it digitally without an actual hardware conversion), then displays the characteristics of the result. I mean, it tells you that the digital signal that it receives encodes a 1kHz sine wave at 0 dBFS, plus some noise. And this proves that the bit stream was not modified, because you know that your CD does indeed contain the PCM encoding of a 1kHz sine wave plus some noise.
So we're not actually verifying the bit stream itself, but just checking if the sound that that bit stream would produce will meet our expectations.
Am I right?

All correct. No "bit perfect" transmission verification here, only that I see the same when playing the original WAV file.

Yes, those look much uglier, indeed.
But what exactly are we seeing in that graph? What does that crankshaft shape, which is so beaufitul in the Marantz and so ugly in the Discdream, actually represent?

I apologize if this is a silly question and these things should be obvious to me. They aren't (yet). But I'm doing my best to learn.

Have a look at my post "More than we hear", it explains the tests I perform.

 

[hitmanx]

I am looking to purchase a cd player. This one seems to fit the bit. How is the headphone amp? If in the future I wanted to add a dac/amp to it for headphones. Would that be easy?

 

[Scytales]

I am looking to purchase a cd player. This one seems to fit the bit. How is the headphone amp? If in the future I wanted to add a dac/amp to it for headphones. Would that be easy?

As for the second question: it will be straightforward to add a DAC. You will just have to link one of the two digital outputs, S/PDIF or Toslink, to the corresponding digital input of the same type on a DAC.

 

[hitmanx]

As for the second question: it will be straightforward to add a DAC. You will just have to link one of the two digital outputs, S/PDIF or Toslink, to the corresponding digital input of the same type on a DAC.

Could I use the audio out to a headphone amp? Like the schiit magni?

Schiit Audio: Audio Products Made in USA

www.schiit.com

My apologies for asking basic questions.

 

[Scytales]

Could I use the audio out to a headphone amp? Like the schiit magni?

Schiit Audio: Audio Products Made in USA

www.schiit.com

My apologies for asking basic questions.

No apologies needed!

Yes you can!

 

[Down South]

I am looking to purchase a cd player. This one seems to fit the bit. How is the headphone amp? If in the future I wanted to add a dac/amp to it for headphones. Would that be easy?

The headamp is excellent. I've had the original CD63, next the 63KI and for me the 6007 is better than both.