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Review and Measurements of Marantz SA7001 CD/SACD player

pma

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Marantz SA7001 CD/SACD player

Marantz SA7001 is a nicely built unit of the year 2006 that was capable to play CD and SACD discs. As now, it only plays CD discs for me, so it is only tested as a CD player.

Photos of the front and rear view

SA7001_front.jpg


SA7001_rear.jpg

SA7001 has detachable 2-pin IEC mains cord

Photos of inside

SA7001_inside.jpg


SA7001_trafo.jpg

Note very nice and quiet mains transformer

THD at 1kHz and 0dBFS
SA7001_1kHz_0dB.png

THD = 0.0039% and SINAD (24kHz unweighted) is 87dB. Noise floor below 1kHz is clean without PSU mains induced spectral lines.

THD at 1kHz and -60dBFS
SA7001_1kHz_-60dB.png

THD = 0.084% and SINAD = 35dB at 1kHz/-60dB. This makes 95dB usable dynamic range for 16 bit CD data. Note very low noise level.

THD at 5kHz and 0dBFS
SA7001_5kHz_0dB.png

THD = 0.0097% and SINAD = 80dB at 5kHz. Clean spectrum below 5kHz with one negligibly small spurious line at 4kHz.

THD at 5kHz and -60dBFS
SA7001_5kHz_-60dB.png

THD = 0.028% and SINAD = 34dB at 5kHz/-60dB. This makes 94dB usable dynamic range at 5kHz.

CCIF IMD 19+20kHz
SA7001_ccif.png

H2 difference tone is about 95dB below full signal amplitude and H3 skirts are 102dB below full signal amplitude. This is almost excellent result of a CD player.

Digital zero
Noise measured was -106dBV(A) which makes S/N = 113dB. Excellent result.

Multitone
SA7001_multi.png

Multitone result is very good.

HF noise measured to 10MHz (added on December 2,2019)
SA7001_10MHz_noise.png

This is an excellent, stellar textbook result. I have not measured any other DAC or CD player with such clean HF output.

Conclusion

Marantz SA7001 CD/SACD player was a nicely built unit with good parameters. Unfortunately the SACD mode does not work anymore in my unit, because parameters in SACD mode were significantly better, especially usable dynamic range. I have some older measurements but they are not compatible with my new ones because of different HW used.

In CD mode, SA7001 are at least respectable, with a little bit higher distortion at 0dBFS, however noise is very very low and enables to use CD format S/N completely. Cleanliness of spectrum and absence of PSU lines and digital spuriae is stellar.

Another plus is excellent cleanliness of HF output spectrum. Both this and low audio band noise is a result of excellent analog design with discrete components used.
 
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JohnYang1997

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Just one small question. Do you like Kaiser5 that much? Why not rectangle for multitone(better low frequency resolution) and hanning for everything else(lower noise floor)?
 

jeffbook

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I am curious as to what test disc you used for this series of measurements.
 
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pma

pma

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Just one small question. Do you like Kaiser5 that much? Why not rectangle for multitone(better low frequency resolution) and hanning for everything else(lower noise floor)?

Because signal source is CD disc and CD clock and ADC clock are not synchronized and when you use rectangle window, the noise bottom accelerates upward and there is no usable resolution. I tried Hanning, Blackmann, Kaisers and Kaiser5 gives me the best resolution for the multitone test, with Arta. I will not repeat the measurements to bring the proof, this is just the fact. If the measurement was in DAC/ADC loop from same clock, like a soundcard loop test, then you are right and rectangle window is the best.

I am curious as to what test disc you used for this series of measurements.
For this series of measurements I used exclusively my own test discs with all signals dithered.

If I used the Philips disc with 16-bit undithered test signals, I would have measured a result as follows:
SA7001_1kHz_0dB_undithered.png
which is highly undesirable and incorrect. 16/bit data and music must be dithered.

One more measurement with 1kHz dithered signal at -90dBFS shows excellent purity and resolution of Marantz SA7001 in the CD mode.
SA7001_1kHz_-90dB.png
 

LTig

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Two questions:
  • which hardware do you use for the measurements?
  • Can you post the details (frequency, amplitude, phase) of the multitone signal?
    The one I'm using (from @amirm) is for 192 kHz samplerate, not sure if I can use for 44.1 kHz.
 
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pma

pma

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Two questions:
  • which hardware do you use for the measurements?
  • Can you post the details (frequency, amplitude, phase) of the multitone signal?
    The one I'm using (from @amirm) is for 192 kHz samplerate, not sure if I can use for 44.1 kHz.

1) my measuring hardware is based on this scheme:
MSYS.png

I made the analog interface that you can see before the ADC myself
msys_rearview.jpg


As for ADC I use a modified USB soundcard. I will not tell the type because the modification has significantly changed the original parameters.
This MSYS analog interface allows me to make balanced measurements even on power amplifiers without introducing ground loops, because of the balanced inputs.
For noise measurements and low level measurements (-60dBFS, -90dBFS), I use an additional low noise measuring amplifier with 30dB gain, which allows me to measure noise down to -125dBV(A) and to extend significantly sensitivity of measurements.
THD is limited to something below 0.001%, as you can see from the further plot
msys_thd_freq.png


2) re your question to CD multitone test, please feel free to download my CD test multitone wav and analyze it to answer your questions in the best way
http://pmacura.cz/multi.zip

1575273330055.png

This signal was generated by ARTA software.

Re SW, I use ARTA, Multi Instrument, CoolEdit and several other programs.
 
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pma

pma

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HF noise to 10MHz

I have added HF noise measurement, when SA7001 is playing 1kHz/-60dB signal. The result is stunning. This, together with very low audio band noise, is a clear benefit of competent analog circuit design, based completely on discrete components. I have never measured another DAC or player with such clean HF spectrum. And I believe it is one of the keys to excellent sound.

SA7001_10MHz_noise.png
 
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pma

pma

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Marantz SA7001 playing 1kHz/-90dB not dithered sine. LPF filter 20kHz with slow steepness -12dB/oct

1575325741664.png



Marantz SA7001 playing 1kHz/-60dBFS dithered sine. No filter. +30dB amplified by a measurement amplifier to enable reasonable scope plot.
SA7001_1kHz_-60dB_time.png



As a comparison, DacMagicPlus playing 1kHz/16bit/-60dBFS dithered sine. No filter. +30dB amplified by a measurement amplifier to enable reasonable scope plot.
dacmagic_1kHz_-60dB_time.png



This shows excellent job on Marantz analog output LPF design, based on fast discrete CFB. On the contrary, DacMagicPlus analog output filters with NE5532 opamps are unable to filter steep edges and all the digital rubbish continues to the following amplifier. 30dB measuring amp used here has similar gain as a power amplifier, so this is what the power amp is to deal with.
 

maty

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This shows excellent job on Marantz analog output LPF design, based on fast discrete CFB...

It reminded me of the famous Marantz HDAM modules.

http://www.marantz.eu/ruby/index.html

PM-KI Ruby

Marantz-PM-KI-RUBY-HDAM-SA3.jpg

The HDAM® SA3 circuitry offers the cleanest signal path and optimal dynamics through the amplifier, which delivers 100W per channel into 8ohm speakers, or 200Wpc into 4ohm. The audio signal path is made entirely from discrete components for optimal quality, with the RIAA equalization split into passive and active components: RIAA correction is carried out by a Marantz HDAM, while the all-discrete amplification runs in minimum-distortion Class A.


SA-KI Ruby Super Audio CD-Player

Marantz-SA-KI-Ruby-inside.jpg


http://www.my-hiend.com/vbb/showthread.php?12136-HDAM運放模組(Ver-2018)升級紀實與測評

Marantz-HDAM-SA-SA2-SA3.png
 
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pma

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This SA7001 player uses different HDAM modules

1575365728708.png
 

maty

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Something off topic or not.

At the top of the picture we can see a little copper box, under which are the HDAM-SA2 module(s) of the Marantz SA-11S3.

https://www.ukaudiomart.com/details/649443552-marantz-sa11s3-cd-dac-sacd-usb-stick/images/1914874/

Optimized and...

Marantz-SA11S3-inside.jpg


It is clear that in the more expensive Marantz models, it does care about interferences, external and internal. Of course, it is assumed that whoever buys these devices is to reproduce high quality recordings on audio system that allows them to be discerned from those of the rest, you know, modern commercial recordings.

It is true that we can get enough protection without spending so much money but it is not so apparent!

PS: I can see three white ferrites.
 
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pma

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The player is now a fixed part of my "bedroom system" ;).

SA7001_soundsys.jpg
 
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pma

pma

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I think it is very important to measure parameters of the complete audio chain and not to restrict to a single component only. So I am posting measurements of the complete system that you can see in the picture in my previous post. Compared to measurements in the 1st post of this thread, we can see that the CD player almost completely defines parameters of the complete audio system - in this case.

SA7001_1kHz_0dB_all_desc.png

Distortion of the complete audio system when SA7001 is playing 1kHz/0dBFS sine and power amplifier output is 10Vrms into 4ohm, which makes 25W.

SA_7001_all_-60dB_desc.png

Distortion of the complete audio system when SA7001 is playing 1kHz/-60dBFS. Measured at power amplifier output, so the peak level to be reduced of 36dB (63x) to get voltage reading at SA7001 output. One can see that the main noise source is the inherent redbook 16-bit dithered residual noise. Note its rapid decay above 20kHz. This was measured at full volume, i.e. unrealistic listening conditions.
 
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pma

pma

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Some new measurements on this SA7001 CD player ....

SA7001_1k_0dBFS.png


SA7001_5k_0dBFS.png


and 16-bit Dunn jitter test ...
SA7001_jittertest.png
 

CowperPowys

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Does anyone know how the SA7001 compares to the later iterations - i.e. the SA8005, or the CD6006/CD6007? Just wondering if they have the same basic architecture as this model.
 
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