[Crumhorn]

Originally Posted by Dilettante

Sorry to hear that your turntable is also out of commission.

How did your Esoteric transport break into pieces? How old was your Esoteric? If I was given a choice between the Esoteric, DCS, MSB & EMM Labs I would not go with the Esoteric, it would be my least favorite sound profile wise.

If you can find a used Modwright Oppo 205/105 (fully modded) somewhere I highly recommend that. I have heard the Modwright Oppo 105 (fully modded version) in my own system few years ago and was highly impressed. The newer Modwright Oppo 205 (fully modded) would sound even better than the Modwright Oppo 105. The Modwright Oppo 105 is probably one of the most analog sounding digital device I've ever heard for under $15k. Even many much more expensive DACs or CD/SACD players costing much more than the total costs of these fully modded Modwright Oppo 105 lack analog or organic qualities in musical reproductions and fail to capture the musical emotions the way this Modwright Oppo 105 (fully modded) did. they just excel on details and resolutions. The fully modded Modwright Oppo 105 that I listened to few yrs ago was spectacular in all areas. Music simply blooms to the fullest and all musical elements possess full body. It's like listening to a live performance. The Modwright Oppo 205 would sound even better but I had never heard one.
Dan Wright of Modwright claimed that the Modwright Oppo 205 is the best modifications he's ever done. it's his masterpiece. Both Oppo 105/205 disc drive transports are solid and very reliable and last forever.
Either fully modded Modwright Oppo 105/205 (both used) can be had for way less than $7k original new retail price of the SA-10 and would mosl likely trump the SA-10 as I've heard both the SA-10 and the Modwright Oppo 105 (fully modded version). The SA-10 is great but the fully modded Modwright Oppo 105 takes musicality to another level altogether IMO and was cheaper than the brand new retail price of the SA-10.

In regards to DACs getting better over time. It's true but the overall sound quality of disc players or standalone DACs aren't soly determined by the DAC chips & digital filyering. there are many other determining factors that contribute to overall soubd quality of your digital front end components. The power supllies and their implementation and regulations of them, voltage regulations, analog output buffer and most importantly the analog audio output stage (analog audio circuitry). All these don't really improve much over time.

I wished that Marantz put in the three-way prong AC inlet on their SA-10 and its other Reference series products.
It makes it hard for us to get a good quality upgraded aftermarket power cables to use with the SA-10 and other Marantz Reference series gears in order to optimize performance.

To answer your questions in order: The "disc clamp" that clamps the label side of the CD in the transport snapped completely off as the disc was spinning, jamming the mechanism & causing ancillary damage to the gears & other mechanical components of the transport. It wasn't pretty! There was nothing unusual about the CD I was playing, & I have been scrupulous about ensuring that every disc I play is in immaculate condition, so I am at a loss as to why this happened. I purchased the player in 2010, but it was a 2008 model.

If the DCS, MSB & EMM Labs players had been within my budget, I definitely would have considered them before the Marantz, & possibly the Esoteric. These days there are slim pickings for SACD players between $3,500 & $!3,000...

As for the Modwright mods, I have reached the (gasp!) age where reliability, low-maintenance, set-it-&-forget-it has to come first, over absolute sound quality. That is why I transitioned from an all-tube system to what I have now. All too often, I would forget to turn my tubed gear off after a listening session, sometimes returning from a week-long trip only to find it was still on, burning through the tubes & electricity. So a tubed 2nd-hand mod of an out-of-print model is the wrong road for me, no matter how good it sounds...

Yes, I completely agree that the DAC alone is no indicator of the sound quality of a player. And some components of all kinds possess a "magic" that allows them to transcend their age. But for most high-end companies, when comparing apples-to-apples, the DACs/players being made now, with newer, more powerful & sophisticated chip sets, are better than their predecessors.

As to the lack of a grounding pin in the Marantz units, I, too, wonder why. Neither their literature, or reviews, make any mention of it. Are they trying to avoid ground loops? Did the units sound worse when grounded? I can't imagine that omitting it saves them much money. But as to using aftermarket cords, the IEC socket is the standard 15-amp shape & size - it's just missing the ground pin. Any aftermarket cord should work just fine in terms of fitting the socket & supplying juice to the player. The only question is whether the sonic "sauce" of any particular cord would be compromised by the lack of the ground connection at the player end. I just started a new thread in the Shunyata forum to ask that question, as that is the PC I am currently using. I'll ask Shunyata the question by phone, if they don't answer it in the thread. Since the Denali power conditioner has a "Chasis Grounding System" built-in, I'll eventually run a wire to it from the Marantz & see what I think...


SOTA Cosmos TT (vacuum, Electronic Flywheel), SME V, Koetsu Rosewood Signature
Marantz SA-10 SACD player, Alesis ML-9600 mastering CD burner, Nakamichi 700 ZXE Cassette Deck
Pass Labs XP-15 phono stage
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 SCs
Revelation Audio Labs 'Passage' CryoSilver Reference DualConduit DB-25 umbilical cables for Pass XP-30
Shunyata Denali 6000T power conditioner (on BBA platform), Shunyata Alpha NR, Delta NR, & Venom HC PCs. Also PS8 & 2 Venom Defenders.
Audio Magic Ultimate SHD Bees Wax Fuse, Synergistic Research Blue & Black fuses, Hi-Fi Tuning fuses
Klaudio LP200 ultrasonic RCM