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In Reply to: Re: Marantz SA-15S1 SACD Player posted by l2sasm on June 14, 2005 at 05:38:50:
I have now owned this for one week. I was practically forced to purchase it after discovering that wife and daughters had moved to our country house the Pioneer AVi767 (I am unable to recall what this is in the U.S.) Universal player for their DVD viewing.Retail price for the Marantz in the EU is 1,600 Euro (about 1990 USD) with slight changes depending on country. I expect this will somewhat go down in the next few months.
My original idea was to get the SA11, but after some comparative tests I felt that the price difference was not mirrored by a true difference in performance.
The SA15S1 is a two-channel only CD/SA-CD player with rather impressive sturdy outlook and considerable weight, which may represent a real asset based on my past experience of strong sensitivity of SA-CD players to vibrations. Both the front and side panels are rather thick profiled panels and not mere metal sheets. The transport is quite silent with a regular opening/closing movement. Control buttons are located vertically at both sides of the drawer, lit up with light blue lights that facilitate operation even if the player is operated in complete darkness. One factor one has to pay attention to is that discs are not to be simply laid on the drawer but rather somewhat inserted into the drawer by gently sliding the "distal" end of the disc under the upper edge of the drawer opening.
Throughout the short experience made so far, the only tweaking I quite succesfully attemped was substituting TOAC's for the original feet (which can be easily done as the screws of these feet perfectly match the axial bores of TOACs) plus placing a small slab of marble (about one kilo - roughly two pounds for oversea readers) on the top panel in order to quench low frequency vibrations (the back portion of the top panel has cooling grilles that must not be obstructed).
Performance is unquestionably very good when reproducing redbooks, and quite impressive in the case of SA-CDs. I would be tempted to define the sound as a bit analytic, which may sound a trifle dry for someone, but I definitely much like it.
Some listening impressions concerning some specific recordings. Kindly note that these are based purely on memory, and some captions may be inaccurate.
- Art Pepper plus 11 - SACD
Great - I simply have no other words- Gil Evans 12 - SACD
Ditto, but the AP is one step beyond.- Gil Evans - Old Wine/New Bottle - Redbook
Again a great rendition. This is the first time I fully appreciate the interplay betweeen Gil's piano 3/4 right and the guitar full left at the end of track 1.- Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain SACD
The high-rez format highlights the flaws in the original recording.- Frank Sinatra - September of my years - Redbook
This remaster always sounded a little bit shrill in the strings with all previous player I had. Now it is alright, silky but not sugar coated.- Weather Report - Heavy Weather SACD
Very good. The sense of spatiality in comparison with the Redbook is impressive.- Giuliano Carmignola - Concerto Veneziano (DG)- SACD
This is quite a revelation. I am rather familiar with how Mr. Carmignola sounds live: a somewhat "small" yet penetrating sound. This is the first time I hear a recording rendering proper justice to his way of playing.- Debussy - Ravel et al. - Vocal works (Ensemble Vocal de France EMI) - Redbook
This is one of my benchmark recordings. Absolutely amazing, you can tell the second soprano on the left is presumably slighlty taller than the lady on her right.- Bach Motets - Ausgburger Kantorei Kammler - Deutsche HM - Redbook
This is another of my benchmark recordings. Again truly amazing: how many boys in the choir left: six or seven?- Schubert - Impromptus opus 90 and 142 - Brendel - Redbook
This is the first recording of these AB made for Vox in 1962(?).I ran a one-to-one comparison of the three versions I own. An American Vox pressing purchased in Washington in 1987, a Turnabout pressing made by Dureco in Holland for Turnabout around 1992 and a recent remastered version manufactured by Regis in England. I used to consider these roughly equivalent in terms of sound. The Marantz easily defeated the Regis as a poor item, with overblown basses and emphasized ambience noise. The American Vox betrays being an early, slightly hazy CD version. The Dureco is simply outstanding, and I was considering offering some coffee to Mr.Brendel at the end of his performance in my room.- Mahler - Des Knaben Wunderhorn - Forrester/Rehfuss/Prohaska - Vanguard - Redbook
This is, in terms of both performance and sound, simply one of the very best recordings ever made, but for the voices that tend to be slightly dominating over the orchestra. Too many people in my room to consider offering coffee to all of them.- Strawinsky - Pulcinella/Dumbarton Oaks/Miniatures - DG Redbook
An overly dry recording perhaps, and this is somewhat emphasized by the player. The sonic image is quite analytical and pleasing.- Bach - Violin Sonatas - Szeryng-Walcha (Japanese Philips) - Redbook
Another benchmark. Mr.Szeryng's opening high B must be piercing but not shrill and the vibrato quite detectable. In my experience, a very few players pass this test. The new Marantz does.Let me stop here.
To sum up, quite a favorable evaluation on my side. Highly recommended.
L.
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Follow Ups
- Re: Marantz SA-15S1 SACD Player - Short review - Luciano,IT 12:47:51 06/14/05 (0)
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