TRL Marantz Sa-14



After speaking to Paul at TRL I am very curious to hear from those who own this unit what improvements do you hear with the player before and after the mod.

The SA-14 sounds weak in the bass and has no dynamics in comparison to some players like the Sony Scd-1 in stock form. Has anyone compared the TRL Sa-14 to the Sony Scd-1?
la45


Well, when Paul and Brian said they had been doing continued analysis and evaluation of the SA14 and had uncovered additional exciting upgrades to the existing mod*****they wanted to do for free*****I couldn't get to Fedex quick enough. They told me they were going to offer it to all SA14 past mod customers, but I would get to be one of the first if I wanted.

I just got it back this week.
Yes, the music jumps out of blackness. It is faster and handles transients and dynamics easier now. The midrange is more fleshed out and has more authority than before. Music simply sounds more real.
I only have my unit a little over halfway broken in so I can expect some continued changes.

This thing was already very very special before I sent it back to Summer Camp at TRL. I was happy as hell already. Appears to be a very exciting and not subtle upgrade and the fact they are doing it for free is quite a statement about them.

Will keep you posted as it breaks in fully.

Regards
hello Men.

Yep. Mine is headed back on Monday. It is amost unbelievable to think that the TRL guys are updating their modded SA-14s free of charge. Customer support and customer loyalty! - the TRL guys are special, and a pleasure to do business with. Brian said that I'm "in for a real treat". I can hardly wait. :-) I'm building a special box for shipping.
It's also interesting how they find new ways to improve their work - through medical equipment testing. Wow!
I got an email from Brian earlier this weekend. Its very nice of them to give a free upgrade. Too bad shipping from Hong Kong is ~$320 round trip!

My SA14 has been burning in for a month now. I would imagine that the redbook section is fully burned in now (I have played red book 95% of the time). But, the CRL Silver power cord is a big thick beat with lots of metal in it so I think it still has a bit to go before it fully settles in. The refinement has improved in the past few days.
Jsala -
Yikes! And i thought the shipping from NJ was bad. ;-)

I was goint to try the CRL Silver cord, but I've read that it is really difficult to maneuver and takes forever to burn in. So, for the time being, I'll stick with my Signal Cable High Current Digital power cord. It seems to do the job very well.
Oldpet: I understand your concerns, I use the CRL Gold cable on my SA-14, which is significantly larger than the Silver. I've found that the cable takes about 2 to 3 minutes of bending to get it configured to where it will stay put. The good news is that once it is bent, it stays where it should.

All: My SA-14 is still very fresh and even though I know that it is going through its' dirty stage of break in, I find it hard to leave the listening room. This player is so dynamic!

Back to the new toy.

Jack