Marantz SA-10 Review (SACD Player & DAC)

[Deleted member 19122]

LOL,7k and no multichannel out...you gotta be kidding me

 

[poopy]

The greatest question is who buys this kind of incredibly unjustified overpriced products? And what for?

 

[juliangst]

The greatest question is who buys this kind of incredibly unjustified overpriced products? And what for?

A lot of people, especially in japan still listen to CDs all the time. Just look at the product lines from most japanese brands. They always have an amp and a cd player and rarely a streamer in their respective product lineup.

 

[Bleib]

Oh boy, where does the money go to?

 

[AndreaT]

Overpriced but not incompetent.

 

[firedog]

They are still being produced by smaller/independent labels. But yes, for the most part they have shifted to online distribution.

They are still signifcant in the classical music market and are still produced there. They also like SACD multi-channel in that market. Yes, that's a small market, but it doesn't look like it is going away.
The other market for SACD is Japan. It's still popular there and all formats of music are sold as SACD. New ones are regularly released.

 

[muslhead]

I came so close to buying this many times but just couldnt justify it.
Thanks for the review Amir, saved me $7k

 

[sarumbear]

They are still being produced by smaller/independent labels. But yes, for the most part they have shifted to online distribution.

They are for all practical reasons irrelevant. See my post here.

 

[levimax]

Why isn't the "piggy bank" panther on the list of choices? None of the others really apply here.

 

[KxDx]

Good one, if you need a SACD player and are an "oligarch"

You spelled “oilgarch” wrong.

 

[amirm]

Why isn't the "piggy bank" panther on the list of choices? None of the others really apply here.

Piggy bank means the device does nothing. This one plays and performs reasonably well.

 

[levimax]

Piggy bank means the device does nothing. This one plays and performs reasonably well.

OK I thought a "Piggy Bank" panther was for a product that "works" but is way over priced for what it does. I have a SACD player I just picked up for $10.00 at a thrift and it seems to work fine... I would love to see how it performs compared to this one. Are you interested in testing it?

 

[Sancus]

$7500 for a stereo-only SACD player is crazy. One of the main remaining uses for SACD is the back catalog has thousands of multi-channel albums which are not available any other way.

You can rip SACDs with bluray players that cost $50-$100 on eBay and then have a more convenient playback interface and use any DAC you want as well.

That said, old SACDs sometimes cost hundreds of dollars and people do collect them so I can see the rationale for a device at this price, it'd just make more sense to me if it had 5.1 outputs. Can't be that difficult to add support for that at this price.

 

[amirm]

I have a SACD player I just picked up for $10.00 at a thrift and it seems to work fine... I would love to see how it performs compared to this one. Are you interested in testing it?

Unlike this one, it won't accept input from my analyzer over USB so I can't test it properly. I also have a Sony SACD player some place I could dig up but can only measure it using a CD unless someone manages to locate the Philips or Sony SACD tests discs.

 

[testp]

Oh boy, where does the money go to?

SACD research and development

 

[beefkabob]

It'd be fine for 500 new. Not so fine for this price, though.

 

[restorer-john]

Look, if it's genuinely well made internally and uses a quality transport mechanism, it's pretty good value for money for a statement CD/SACD player. The top machines have never been cheap.

My TOTL players from Sony cost nearly $3k, 32 years ago and the best Marantz in my collection was $6k in 1991. Those machines all still function and test perfectly due to their absolute battleship build quality. So 40 pounds (18kg) may mean some thick steel plates to add weight and it may mean uncompromising componentry and build, attention to detail and hopefully (in this case for the reviewed Marantz) longevity.

 

[staticV3]

unless someone manages to locate the Philips or Sony SACD tests discs.

If I wanted to test an SACD player, could I just burn my own test disc with test tones? Or is there something special about those two discs?

Edit: Nvm, found my answer. SACD disks are watermarked.

 

[Doodski]

 

[Doodski]

If I wanted to test an SACD player, could I just burn my own test disc with test tones? Or is there something special about those two discs?

The optics on the proper test CDs are to spec and standard. There is a big difference in quality.