Will do!

I seem to have bad luck with SACD players. Before I had the Esoteric X-05, I had a Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista SACD player. They had designed it around a Phillips transport that turned out to have a fatal design flaw that caused the drives to fail after a few months. I had to send it back twice to have the defective drives replaced. When it failed for the 3rd time, Phillips had pulled the mechanism, so there were no replacements left. Unlike EMM Labs, which had also used that drive in their player, Musical Fidelity was unable (unwilling?) to find a substitute drive that would work, so the player couldn't be fixed & I was screwed.

So I replaced it with an Ayre C-5xeMP, which arrived defective, so I replaced it with the Esoteric. And now I received a defective Marantz. That's 3 out of 4 defective $7K SACD players in a row from 4 different well-respected brands! $7,000 may be chump change compared to the top-of-the-line from Esoteric, CH Precision, DCS, MSB, et al, but in my book it should, at the very least, ensure the kind of quality control that would catch a defective unit BEFORE it is shipped...

As I have seen nothing but positive reviews about the SA-10, I'm crossing my fingers that the replacement will live up to its reputation!

Sorry to hear about your experience. Any update on your SA-10 unit?

My dealer has received the replacement unit, but I'm still working on a safe way to receive it due to the rampant package theft problem in my city & building, & the unwillingness of the delivery services to honor the "signature required" option since Covid-19 began. So they leave ALL of my packages in the public lobby, & they are often stolen before I can get downstairs to get them. :sigh:

I'll post an update once I've received it.

Can you do a "hold for pick-up" and use Uber to retreive? I do that with most of my gear deliveries to be on the safe side (even though we live in a very safe area).
Good luck with all.

Thanks for the suggestion! I didn't know Uber would do that. My only concern would be, if the unit "disappears" after it reaches Uber's hands, would they be financially liable? (Without a prolonged court case...)

— John

My replacement SA-10 is *FINALLY* in my system, breaking in. :banana: It already sounds way better than the first one I received, but I'll wait a few more weeks before I give it my final assessment...

However, it still had the same problem playing files from a USB flash drive as the original. After a lot of detective work, & a happy coincidence, I came up with a fix.

Here it is, in case any SA-10 owners run in to this problem:

Marantz SA-10: Fix for USB Flash Drives (Mac users only)


There is an SA-10 issue that affects people attempting to play music files saved on USB flash drives by Apple Mac computers.

As the Marantz manual states, “This unit is compatible with USB memory devices in “FAT16” or “FAT32” format.” Those are both Windows-only storage formats – they are not native to Apple Mac computers. But the Mac can easily format a flash drive to the “FAT32” format using the “Disk Utility” app that is pre-installed on all Macs.

The problem arises when the Mac copies music files to a flash drive formatted in the Windows “FAT16” or “FAT32” formats: the Mac creates additional, hidden files, with identical filenames, on the flash drive in order to maintain Mac compatibility. These hidden files are called “AppleDouble” files. When you plug the flash drive in to the SA-10, it “sees” these additional hidden files, which are not music files, and malfunctions.

Unfortunately, even turning on the “see invisible files” setting on the Mac will not reveal these “AppleDouble” files, so there is no direct way to see or remove them.

The solution is to download a free Mac app called “Onyx” https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html . Note that there are separate versions of Onyx for each version of the Mac OS – you must download the correct version! There may be other Mac utility apps that provide the same functionality, but I can confirm that this one works.

Each time you copy music files to the flash drive, open the Onyx app, select the “Files” tab at the top of the window, & then select the “AppleDouble” tab from the tab bar below the main one.

Click the “Select” button in the lower right corner, & choose the USB flash drive in the selection window. The “AppleDouble” files will immediately be deleted from the flash drive.

As the very next step, eject the thumb drive from the Mac before leaving the app.

The “AppleDouble” files that cause the SA-10 to have problems will be gone, and the flash drive will now play properly on the SA-10.

(Warning: DO NOT use any of the other functions of the Onyx app unless you know exactly what you are doing: it is not designed for casual users, & you can create serious problems on your computer if you mess around.)


SOTA Cosmos TT (vacuum, Electronic Flywheel), SME V, Koetsu Rosewood Signature, Pass Labs XP-15 phono stage, Klaudio LP200 ultrasonic RCM
Marantz SA-10 SACD player, Alesis ML-9600 mastering CD burner, Nakamichi 700 ZXE Cassette Deck
Pass Labs XP-30 (SS) & Hovland HP-100 (tube) preamps
Edge G8+ laser-biased monoblocks & Classé M-700 monoblocks
Rockport Atria & Infinity IRS Beta Speakers
Audience AU24 SX Phono cable, MIT Shotgun ICs, Shunyata Alpha v1 SCs
Revelation Audio Labs 'Passage' CryoSilver Reference DualConduit DB-25 umbilical cables for Pass XP-30
Shunyata Everest 8000 power conditioner w/Sigma v2 XC (on BBA platform), Shunyata Alpha NR v1, Delta NR v1, & Venom HC PCs. Also PS8 & 2 Venom Defenders.
Audio Magic Ultimate SHD Bees Wax Fuse, Synergistic Research Blue & Black fuses, Hi-Fi Tuning fuses

Well — my replacement Marantz SA-10 sure took a long time to break in! I've been playing it pretty much 24/7 since Sept. 2 (split between CD, SACD, & files on a USB flash drive), and it wasn't until a few days ago that the sound took a giant leap in quality. Just about every aspect of the sound improved significantly, & it finally sounds like the unit everyone has been praising so highly here & elsewhere! I'm hearing new, musically relevant, details on discs I've listened to for decades. Until now, I had been disappointed & underwhelmed. No more! It's now hard to end my listening sessions. Thanks, everyone, for the advice & encouragement!


SOTA Cosmos TT (vacuum, Electronic Flywheel), SME V, Koetsu Rosewood Signature, Pass Labs XP-15 phono stage, Klaudio LP200 ultrasonic RCM
Marantz SA-10 SACD player, Alesis ML-9600 mastering CD burner, Nakamichi 700 ZXE Cassette Deck
Pass Labs XP-30 (SS) & Hovland HP-100 (tube) preamps
Edge G8+ laser-biased monoblocks & Classé M-700 monoblocks
Rockport Atria & Infinity IRS Beta Speakers
Audience AU24 SX Phono cable, MIT Shotgun ICs, Shunyata Alpha v1 SCs
Revelation Audio Labs 'Passage' CryoSilver Reference DualConduit DB-25 umbilical cables for Pass XP-30
Shunyata Everest 8000 power conditioner w/Sigma v2 XC (on BBA platform), Shunyata Alpha NR v1, Delta NR v1, & Venom HC PCs. Also PS8 & 2 Venom Defenders.
Audio Magic Ultimate SHD Bees Wax Fuse, Synergistic Research Blue & Black fuses, Hi-Fi Tuning fuses

Glad to read you're enjoying it!

Happy for you!