Marantz SA-10

I don’t know about your Modwright player but I own a Marantz SA 10 and my previous player was an Esoteric KO1. The Marantz is better in about every perameter which really surprised me. A great value for the $.

I had Marantz SA-7003 which I don’t like. It uses similar D/A converter (CS4398) and output stage like the SA-8005. Now I have 2 units of Marantz SA-10 in different systems.

SA-10 is not SA-8005 with expensive case. There is no D/A converter from other makers. Instead, Marantz developed their own FC-PGA based Marantz Musical Mastering (MMM) which up samples all signals to DSD 4x and sent to analog output stage after passive filters. The designer, the late Ken Ishiwata, said DSD 4x is already an analog signal.

The SA-8005 Modwright mods do not change the D/A inside.

After having SA-10 for few months, I stopped using my analog rig which costs 4x of SA-10. SA-10 can also be used as a DAC. It’s XMOS-based USB audio interface implementation is very good and has USB ground galvanic isolation.

SA-10 can compete with much more expensive SACD players. SA-10 excels with SACD/DSD files. To the poster, I suggest you give a try. There is no need to modify the SA-10. However, please take note the SA-10 needs long time to break in.

hamr

Thank You for the SA-10 vs. Esoteric KO1 comparison. I have not auditioned the SA-10 (on my short-list), but have spent time with the Esoteric DV-50/DV-60 players and enjoyed their SACD playback only.

Happy Listening!

anwar

Thank You for the follow up on the SA-10. I know that you were an early adopter of this Reference spinner. Impressive, in that, you own 2 now. I own a Marantz SA-11S2 reference player 1 generation back. I can only imagine how good the newer SA-10 sounds.

Happy Listening!

Cmach,

I have owned and listened to a Marantz SA-8260 from 2003 to 2020. All the Marantz entry level players were about the same up to and including the SA-8005. They all benefitted from a new analogue output stage. I had my own unique design gathered from diyaudio, and it was very very good. Dan's output stage features a bit of the tube sound and is also very very good.

In July 2020 I bought a Marantz SA KI Ruby player. It took about 3 seconds to determine that this player right out of the box was a huge improvement over the SA-8260. And then it got better the more it played.

I am an sacd guy with 3/4th's of my 2000 disc collection being sacd. And most of those are high rez recordings, not reissues. All of the new generation Marantz players are worth every penny.

So, if you can afford the SA-10 and feel you need the fully balanced output stage, go for it. Otherwise the SACD N30 player offers the same package with a single ended output stage, at a far reduced cost. 

Steve