TRL Marantz Sa-14

Paul Weitzel and TRL offer the highest level of commitment to the customer I have ever experienced from an audio vendor. I just recieved an email from Paul regarding my SA14 which will ship on Wednesday.

I'll just say this: Paul is extremely concerned about the quality of his product. He is always evaluating his work, and his procedures, for the benefit of his customers and his products. It refreshing to see this kind of commitment to excellence.

BRAVO!!!!!! Paul

:-)

I got the impression from Paul that the Marantz universal players were a good platform for mods and that they had similar but not quite as much potential as the SA14. I am not sure if he has seen the 9500 specifically since it is relatively new but one advantage the 9500 has over all previous Marantz (including the SA14) is that it has a better/new DAC (the 4398 by Crystal; the other models used older Crystal dacs).

What kills me about the 9500 is that is best used with a monitor. It is critical for initial set up (e.g. to set the digital output on or off) but is also handy for more mundate tasks like putting a disk on repeat. Assuming that the modded 9500 sounds pretty darn close to the modded SA14, then I think the choice would boil down to whether you have an AV system or an audio-only system. When I started this journey I had a (2 channel) AV system now. Just recently, I separated them and my living room system is now audio only. Hence, the 9500 is less user friendly and an audio-only player like the SA14 makes more sense.

Do let us know if you learn more about the mod potential of the 9500.

If so then this is great news

No idea on color - my SA14 v1 is black.

I just received an email from Paul stating the so far he has not found a good sounding Universal Player that he likes. However, he did not rule out the possibility of applying his mod to the Marantz 9500.

The question is does this player even need a mod. I love the Crystal DACs and the early reports say that this player sounds very analog.

I have about 120 hours on my Marantz 9500 (its been playing 24hrs/day since I got it) and should have an answer for you in 2 weeks when I am closer to 500 hours. I am burning in both the analog and digital outputs and will evaluate both.

At the 100 hour mark the 9500 had a noticeably smoother top end than it did when new but I still hear glare and the midrange is not as fleshed out as I would like (even with a tube dac noted for a full midrange). The speakers don't yet disappear either. It is making progress, though, and I expect to hear better at the 300/500 hour mark.

That said, to be realistic about expectations, I would not hope for the broken-in 9500 to sound world-class, though I do think it will sound smooth and enjoyable. A simple mod like a SuperClock 3 may make a significant impact.