Marantz 8001 SACD Player mods?


Looking for input. I have a Marantz 8001 CD/SACD player. I'm either thinking about replacing it or having one of the modifier shops have at it. Is it worth up to $2000 to modify this unit or would I get better sound if I just replaced it with a used unit around $2000? Anyone have any experience with a modified 8001? Might I get better sound just by upgrading to a Marantz SA-11 or SA-15? I'm more interested in the best Redbook sound, as I only have a handful of SACD's.
tube540

Showing 3 responses by sharri

Just happened to browse the threads here, and saw this one, although it's nearly two months old. I have a couple of reengineered SA-8260's, essentially the same machine as 8001, and they are fantastic.
If you like the looks and feel of the 8001, and want to keep it, it can be made into something that's as good as anything out there. But you have to go for a complete reengineering of the player - new clock and psu, and a new output stage. Parts swapping modifications and other minor tweaks really don't get you much, performance-wise.
VSE and RAM are good modifiers who will get the most out of the player.
FWIW, at RMAF2006, RAM was showing a fully reengineered 8001 that had sound nearly identical to the top Esoteric player that they had for comparison.
As for resale value of a modded player, well that's somewhat irrelevant as you will want to never part with a fully reengineered player.
Tvad,
You know all about taking a bath on getting money back on modifications!
That's why you need to be sure you want to keep the player.
BTW, there's not too much Marantz left in my players.
Steve
Some times it's a hard call, to be sure.
I've done well. But I had to work at it.

I started just swapping parts, not much gain.
Then I went to a new clock, small gain.
Then I added a power supply for the clock, big gain.
Then I installed a complete new output stage from the dac chip onwards, near SOTA.

I did all the work myself, working only off information found on the web.

Can't do that with many players, but you can with the entry level Marantz players - 8001, 8260, and 8400.

Steve