Measurements can reveal engineering faults that may or may not be audible but music is experienced psychoacustically. Therefore it can be argued that "good sound" is subjective. Marantz understands this through decades of experience and produces some of the most pleasing sound available due to their tweaks to sound signature via HDAM and current feedback tech. - It's a mistake to judge audio equipment by measurements alone since our subjective interpretation is what really counts. As long as a product does not introduce unwanted sound it's good enough. Further tweaking to taste. Some companies have figured out how to produce a sound signature that the great majority of listeners will appreciate. Marantz is one of those companies. Even their low-end products are excellent. (Sounding, not measuring). - However I am the first to admit that I did buy a Topping D90SE DAC solely on measurements alone and it does sound excellent. :)

Another excellent presentation Sir Amir Your methodology of testing and transparency helps so many people and will do so in the future as well to examine and test equipment It would be one of my goals to emulate your ways, if I have the opportunity and access (including but not limited to finances) to the required equipments. Though I only possess a mere fraction of your knowledge, I will keep learning and try my best. Thanks so much, for your work is truly inspiring

Thanks Amir, I remembered my friend bought over an Accuphase cd player weighs tonnes, and hook up to my system, Accuphase is about 15 years older at that time, I thought why on earth you need to overbuild this cd player, when the new light weight cd player outperforms the Accuphase in every way. It cost 1/10 of the price as well. Your review explains most of my unanswered questions.

4 a.m. here in Montreal Canada... you're becoming my defacto audio channel! Thumbs up for your work... 👍👍

7500 dollars!! You could set yourself up with a nice pair of active monitors and a great DAC/streamer for that sort of cash! Wow

I’ll keep my OPPO, it not only plays SACD flawlessly, but movies too! Win Win! And it wasn’t $7000+, not even close.

At the end of the day, it's the ear that tells us how good a product is. I would take signal measurement with a pinch of salt.

Loving the higher frequency of posting videos lately! And speaking of high frequencies, would be interesting to see how much additional power is drawn when playing that ultrasonic garbage from sacd in a typical home amplifier setup vs a regular cd, maybe with a kill-a-watt or something more precise

For those interested in SACD ripping: It actually is easy to rip SACDs. Last month I bought a $40 Bluray player off eBay, and used the usb script to rip my SACDs to DSF and ISO. There’s an article at PSAudio that documents the whole process and has a lot of explanation and fluff. I use Foobar2000 to play the DSF file, and convert to 192/24 5.1, and HDMI to my JBL SDP-55

Always used Marantz equipment, just love the sound :) Had a pm 80 and cd 80 for yearssss. Currently an av8003, bit heavier ;-)

Amir, can you please explain why your test of the dac with the usb input has anything to do with the performance of this player with SACD discs? Does an SACD player have a separate DAC or just additional circuity to handle decoding DSD? My understanding is that there are separate lasers for each format but beyond that I confess I don't know what the processing chains are like.

Another overpriced device with mediocre performance,

After listening to Dire Straits BIM in 5.1 SACD, going back to stereo is like going back to a Coke gone flat, no fizz. Thus, my OPPO-205 has replaced my Sony DVP-S9000ES and I am now having all sorts of good times from 5.1 SACD finds out there.

Great job as usual, informative and educating. Once again this proves that bad measuring is not equal to bad sound. I have done listening tests of several DACs and SACD players and for me the Marantz SA-10 and also the SA-12 (Ruby) sound so amazingly good, 3D, sweet, and natural. All the others were more or less tiring But, with Marantz, I relaxed and enjoyed the music. My hearing is quite good, from 18Hz to, 17700kHz My equipment: Pre amp; Topping PRE90 Power am(s); Audiophonics MPA-M400ET Speakers; Audiotronic Megatrend Mk1 Headphones; Sennheiser HD820

You’ve been on a roll lately, love the uploads!

Panther with no pants. Great video. Wonder how my 20 year old Rotel SACD (corrected HDCD) player would fair but I am not sending it in for testing as I use it all the time. Keep up the great work.

Love your work sir, love the website as well. I know your busy and already did review on the Emotiva MC1 on website, would love to see that on KZfaq if possible… BOOM!!

Thanks very much for explaining each variable, and how we might sonically experience, during your video. Would you consider performing assessment of Marantz ND-8006 CD Streamer? It's price is well below $7K+ USD (around $1K+ USD I believe); but, more people could afford this option for playing standard CDs and be curious how it compares with similarly priced players. Thanks again from San Francisco.

check the way the disc is seated in the tray. The tray has a slightly raised edge making it easy to have the disc loaded incorrectly, resulting in “no disc”.

I wonder how a technics SLG-700 measures for MQA and SACD? I measured standard CD performance and it measure exactly the same as my Reavon X200. I didn't measure hi-res audio, but I will have to in the future.

Amir explains complex issues in a way a layman like me can understand. I love listening to music via cd, or mp3 player. If Amir could be proven wrong im sure these big companies would challenge him, on the whole they dont. Great work Amir, best wishes. (rob).

Can anyone recommend a good SACD and/or red book CD player in current production?

Hi all! I like playing CDs. It’s nice to be able to look through my collection and pick out something to play. Streaming leaves me cold because I have to think of what I want to hear. The content versions on Qobuz aren’t the same as the record snd CD versions I know and love. I do rip CDs apple lossless and play them with my phone. That’s great too.

Thanks for another thoughtful and well explained video!

Ah excellent. I was hoping you were going to examine the analog outputs of a SACD player to respond to the people in the last video.

What a great review! Is there a similar review on the Denon 110 anniversary sacd-player?

Well, reality is the format is alive and taking back, with more players and mídia on the market… 😎

Out-friggin'-standing. Can't thank you 'nough, Amir! I'm sure the DSD pill-pushers over at Octave Records are thinkin' ..... "oh FAWWWWCK .... not again !! " LOL ;)

The problem is that the disc is multi channel. Multi channel sacd discs must be DST compressed, both the stereo and multi channel files and since that is a a stereo player it has no dst decompressor. That's a scam for 7 grand.

Science and HiFi... 😐🙄 As he casually demolishes one of the finest CD players ever made.... 😕 Tell me Mr Measurements, I can work out a great deal about somebody by their taste in music - please share the music which gives you the greatest pleasure. No? Not so interested in music then? Just a clue... music is art. Music is truly one of mankind's greatest achievements. Some of the most gifted musicians in the world did not make perfect music, nor was it always perfectly recorded. Strangely we can't measure why Janet Baker was sublime but sadly Renee Fleming isn't. So what is that really all about if it can't be measured? 🤔🤫 The trouble is that when we listen to recorded music - we have the music, the listener and the equipment. Which presents us with a rather more mysterious kind of equation. I'm off to listen to Jay, he's a clever lad, he's made that journey beyond his scientific background...

“Transports” 🤣 Out of all audiogeek terminology, as an engineer I find this the most hilarious

Thanks for your review Amir My question is what are the data that cannot be measured and it affects the sound quality ; how is the data that can be measured and affects the sound quality. Not all the equiptments that sounds good to our ears measure good and viceversa . I think a review must contain and being correlated both the objective ( measurements) and subjective (listening session) in order to have the whole picture. You know that two gears that measure the same as thd, itmd power and other numbers don't sound the same this apply for any kind of gear speakers amps sources. To me the human ears capture many features that the microphone and audio analyzers can't . Best test is both number and listening . I cannot buy a gear base my decision only in measurements these can give you an idea but the listening experience gives you the real picture even though we know that after certain age our ears can not listen the same range frequencies . To me a good review is using a young person with huge range abilities and experience listening different equipments and correlating with the measurements, and I think that s the way stereophile did its reviews. One more thing when Sony and Phillips developed the cd and the digital formats they thought if measures good equals sounds sounds good but that is not 100% correct even these days.Thanks my 2 cents

I have over 1000 CD's and continue to buy thank you! Yes I have vinyl as well.

quick question: you say that we cannot hear anything below -115 dB, which is fair enough. But if there is a signal (jitter, for instance) that is, say, -120 dB - with actual music content, would that not potentially constructively interact with some of the music frequencies, and so change the volume of those frequencies, and thus have an effect?

Fortunately people don't listen to measurements. We listen to music. I'd much rather listen to any R2R DAC than a D90. I do own a Topping DAC for my TV rig.

I love these videos, hope to see more. :)

Sorry, I don't understand a lot of tecnic things and english language, but I have a Marantz sa10. My question is the following: the defects that you find with your apparates are audible or not audible? If they are not audible (I mean: if nobody can perceive them), this means that, from the "fidelity" point of view, every cd player from this level on, is exactly the same for the listener. Probably the price differences are due to materials, reliability of construction, precision of the mechanic and optic parts, durability over time, cost of the components used, and so on...

Hey Amir, I started looking into possible SACD players--obviously this one is way out of my price range--but you mentioned in your review that you have some SACD's. I was curious what player you currently use/suggest. I know not many people are interested in this sort of thing, and I didn't see many reviews for them on the Audio Science Review forum, but was curious if you have any recommendations

The R2r dac modules and mp audio lt3035 regulators ,plus usb i2s converter costs around 1200 us,and sound just amazing,analogy with incredible sound stage and clarity. cheap dacs like you prefer newer use proper regulations.

I wonder if the added noise could possibly be pleasing to our brains whereby it trick us that something sounds better than it does measurably? I think AC regeneration falls under the same circumstances. Lastly I’ve never based a recording on bit depth over 16/44.1 to determine the best sonic quality. The sonic quality lies in the mixing and mastering process. I’ve got tons of redbook CDs that slay these 24/192 or ridiculous 32/384 nonsense.

audio fidelity / acoustic sounds and Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs still are putting out sacd's that are stuff besides classical for people interested in the format. personally i'm still in to cd's. so i don't mind the reviews. but just like some people like listening to records, some of us like cd's (as long as they aren't victims of the loudness war). it's nice to be able to stream whatever you want but if it's something i really like i buy the cd so not only do i have a lossless copy that will survive a computer crash or hard drive failure but i'm also supporting the artist.

If price were not mentioned, one would assume that a $100 player was being reviewed. What's up with the quality of Marantz (these days)?

Did you turn off the dithering? I can't even listen to mine with it on.

I'd love to know how this compares to their bog standard CD player.

My pleasure with 5.1 means a new stereo only SACD Player is not for me but for those interested in stereo get a Sony UBP-X800M2 and connect to a cheap Marantz NR1200 via HDMI to get lifelike sound from stereo SACDs like you've never heard. I suspect that double blind listening comparison to SA-10 would reveal indistinguishable performance between systems.

More good stuff from Amir! I would buy this if it was like $2K. I just love the look of Marantz products (I only have one - a tuner). For now I stick with my Oppo 205.

uhhh, now I'm curious. Have been looking for a proper CD player for quite some time now. I miss the commitment to just one album because I am too lazy to get up and change CDs before it has finished ;-)

Great review Amir! Way overpriced for the level of performance. I'm glad I jumped on the last Oppo UDP-205 in town back in 2017. It's a universal disc player that plays just about every format for a fraction of the cost of this Marantz and it measures much better as your review of the 205 showed on ASR. Marantz gear isn't what it used to back in its heydays. I own a marantz AV8801 processor and after a couple of years of use, I realized that lacked transparency.

7k+ ????!!!!! They have lost their minds. I say that as someone who has what was their top multi format player at approx 2k at the time and had their 6006 streamer at one time. Streaming ended my interest in CDs, much less SACD the minute I heard good streaming with almost and endless library of music.

How does the SA-KI "Ruby" player compare with this SA-10? Would it be pretty much the same review?

But the price in France NOW for the Marantz sa10 , is near 4800 euros ( with tax ! ) and not 70000...the value is diffetent , i bought the Marantz ruby limited for 2800 euros ( 4000 € in the AD) last sacd player from Ken Ishiwata before is death...quite the same that the SA10 ( but not balanced) but with same drive ! A fantastic machine for the price ....i have since 2019 , always a pleasure

Much appreciated :)

Topping, SMSL, Matrix owners are under the impression their products are resolving 120db SINAD from redbook CD playback. A big reason for this is the CD playback test here showing 91db SINAD was not performed on the top tier SINAD DACs. Is 91db also the limit of the top tier DACs when fed a signal from a 16 bit CD? I was under the impression 91db was the MINIMUM needed for CDs to be dithered, that appears to be misleading if it's also the maximum SINAD any DAC can produce from a CD. For someone who only streams 48k music and plays redbook CDs, is there any value in a 120 SINAD DAC?

These tests, how can you relate or identify the distortion when you are listening to music? Maybe you can do a review or test where you match the distortion to the distortion or imperfection in the sound when playing music? Low bottom end, weak mid range, soundstage imperfection or narrowness, treble that is flat? Thanks

This component was after the merger I think. Marantz quality after Philips exit is questionable.

the reason i think they succeeded with hacking is because they failed to get it adopted, if there was enough motivation and reason for it to be cracked it would have been broken wiiide open with a simple way to access it.

I really hope you keep your transparency approach in the future also, highly informative and science proof over your content. Would you do a review to Bakoon/Enleum products? That would loose a bit the curtains on this premium, yet unusual designs, curious how will stand next to Benchmark amp.

As always, thank you very much mr. Amir!

As a HiFi nut for over 30 years, the CD is my favorite source of music. I have owned this CD player, along with the PM-10 dual mono amplifier. They are some of the most beautiful audio equipment I have ever owned. The Japanese craftmanship is definitely high-end. They sounded very good. Marantz is always known for their detailed, warm sound. Long story short. I sold this CD player, and currently own Denafrips Venus II DAC + Jay's Audio CDT2-MK3 CD Transport. They sound even better than the Marantz SA-10. So the $5500 Chinese built DAC+CD transport sounds better than the $7500 Japanese CD Player.

high end audio is a scam

whats the best dac/sacd player you have tested?

When Philips and sony introduced SACD, it was magically when the CD patents where running out, after like 17 years, Philips held most of the patents for optical discs, record able and RW etc. SACD was their attempt at extending patents royalty INCOME , to license to all the ones making players, discs etc. since CD patents running out, meant no more royatlys to Philips, they used to get like $700-$800 MILLION in royalty for every disc made, sold and player etc by all the licensees ..heck, at one time Marantz was a Philips company, long sold off

Noise noise noise! Can we even hear these noises?!!! No mention about how this unit sounds! How about the sound stage of the DAC?!!

Well it was on my shopping list with matching amp x.

It costs how much? Give me a break!

Did dca let you keep the stealth's? Well played

Sa10 fit and finish is excellent, remote is good. Now on to the sound quality, do yourself a favor and buy the Denon 110 anniversary and save 4k for a disc player that is way better in sound quality. The marantz has filters that no matter what setting it’s in filters the music and makes everything rounded off both on the highs and the lows. If you want superior sound to the Denon 110 and have a hi end dac already, buy the jays audio cd transport for about 2500 dollars, it is vastly superior to both.

Wow, spending $7,500 buy so much of supersonic “noises” ? However, that’s a special niche of audiophiles overflowing with huge disposable income so MARANTZ don’t have headaches selling them !

Thanks !

I feel like your user rating bar graphs always just make a bell curve that mirror whatever sentiments you’re presenting in your review. Surely that many users don’t own these products or am I mistaken? I don’t quite understand the point of the user ratings tbh.

Amir seemed to Purposely avoid speaking of the unique allformat to 1 bit dsd upsampling design which warrants the slow roll of filter. It almost seems like he’s bought off by the Chi-fi industry

im very interested in transports. whats the point of sacd if theres only 2 channels..cant play Pink Floyd. no good then..lol

SACD is amazing for music like Bruckner's symphonies. Disappointed in the performance of this $7,500 player.

Tests like these raise the question, "Do audioligarchs with lots of cash deserve to be fleeced by snobby badges?" And another question: "Does spending $50,000+ for a stereo generally get you 10X (or even 2X) better music playback than spending $5,000?" Of course, there are similar questions. "Why would someone buy or lease a Hummer or an Escalade to commute to work?" Perhaps there will always be a market for genuine alligator shoes.

ahhh SACD another trick to extend tanking music sales hoping it would do a similar thing to when the CD was launched whereby many people re-purchased music they already owned and so extending sales. It was super interesting to see those response graphs which go to 1M! All that ultrasonic noise wow. Wonder what those old 1BIT MASH CD players look like as they push all that stuff in the high band range too. Personally as a end consumer format CD (44.1 16 bit) is superb in my opinion, DSD is a pointless pain in the ass. I don't know any major studio who records in DSD or DAW that natively works at those sample rates, most of the world still uses PCM. Recording at the higher bit depths and sample rates makes total sense in a studio environment but as a end consumer format rarely do you need 24 bits or that bandwidth after mixdown and mastering. Have a listen to most modern releases.. No dynamic range and aggressive equalisation.. All that technological advancement to play something that's made to sound good on a iphone lol

Absolutely useless review, based on wrong decision of using USB input for measuring performance of the great SACD player. Is anybody of the owners use it as standalone dac?? For what reason?! Wrong interpretation, incorrect results!!!

If you measure before listening, then you are biased. And you can't measure all aspects of sound quality.

so the model SACD 30N and the SA-KI Ruby are also shit?

@20:14 - you meant: "15/16 bit" not dB I think ;-). I would propose one more criteria: "price/weight ratio" as I can see it is very common in hifi audio and people pay for the weight although it brings nothing to the game ;-)

this is the strangest video I’ve ever seen he didn’t listen to the thing not once on the video anyway to give the old fashion, ear test, mined boggling!!!!

You were talking about high res in relation to high frequency above 20 khz these are different things....

Paying for the name and how nice it looks in an equipment rack I guess.

Hello, can you make review of Marantz pm8006?

I appreciate what you do, but I can't imagine anything 100db under of the fundamental is even audible.

did you compare other cd players (especially in regards to sound quality)?

Have a Sony ubx 700 using a Linn organic dac streamer , Sony just spins and dac dose all the work , don’t waste money on a machine like this

$7500 to play SACDs. I’ll stick with my $150 Sony Blu-ray player.

While I enjoy your reviews in both written and video form, I find most products reviewed are out of the reach of a common citizen. (IE A $7500 SACD player) While it is nice to know a zero to 60 time on a Ferrari, do I really care?

20:08 *bit

I wonder how my $200 Onkyo would do.

My basic receiver has "all channels stereo" 🤣

Amir thinks sacd is the same as mp3 . Measures the same as everything else he measures

Who cares about measurements if you can't hear the difference?

I'd read a lot of good things about Marantz's cheaper units (amp and CD player) and went ahead and bought myself a set for use with headphones. It wasn't great, but it was good enough. Then my circumstances changed and I plugged in two speakers. Yikes. Horrible performance. Since then I've had a low opinion of them. Still, I do have SACD, so have been curious about this unit, so thanks for covering it. Let's face it, there's not a huge range of SACD players these days. I went with a Yamaha SCD 1000.

Does anyone still listen to ASR and Amir!? You shouldn't! I have been working as a computer engineer in China and Japan for most of my life. I have meet audio engineers in Japan working for Fostex, Denon, Onkyo, Marantz, Rotel and Sony. I have met Ken Ishiwata. I understand Chinese and I am near native in Japanese. Audio Science Review is not to be trusted as they are too corrupted and fully bribed by cheap Chinese audio makers especially by Topping and cheap audio makers in Shensen. What they produce is not what you will enjoy as a critical listener and the quality is poor. What ASR focus on is THD, that as a coincidence, is what all Chi-fi makers are focused on totally neglecting what consumers enjoy. ASR is doing measurements to make Toppings look good but in the end you won't enjoy as a listener. I have hardly any Chifi gear, I use high end stuff from Rotel, IFI, Fostex, Rega, B&W, REL acoustics, Audeze, Denon and Marantz. One exception is SMSL D1SE which i use as a DAC. ASR is a total waste of time. I was a senior member there but I decided to fuck them badly because of their bootlicking of cheap chinese makers. If Amir stop licking their boots he will become a homeless beggar. ASR is irrelevant and as a consumer your listening experience won't improve by following what they say. ASR is declining and will vanish... RIP ASR.

Dang that’s not good

Correct me if I got it wrong but you claim to test a SACD player without even 1 SACD? That's the definition of 'fail' 😂😂😂 L-O-O-S-E-R 🤦🏻‍♂️🥳

Blah blah blah

Goof needs a real job