About a year and a half ago, I purchased the Marantz SA-8001 SACD player. I had an interest in the purported sonic superiority of SACD's over redbook CD's, but wasn't interested in multi-channel (my listening room and budget prohibit expanding to multi-channel). I only wanted an SACD player if it also upgraded the sound of my 1,800 or so CD's, as I certainly wasn't about to throw them all away, and buy all new SACD versions of them.
The 8001 fit the bill nicely, and that which clinched the deal was the glowing review it received in Stereophile, resulting in its receiving Stereophile's top accolade, a "Class-A" Recommendation, something usually reserved for equipment costing tens of thousands of dollars. At a "mere" $900, the 8001 sounded like a steal. A hearty recommendation from Jack Renner that I would appreciate the sonic benefits of SACD's in 2-channel stereo helped too.
That which is most telling in the Stereophile review is that when the 8001 was used as a transport, and connected to the Benchmark Audio outboard DAC (another "Class-A" recommended product, costing almost twice that which the 8001 alone did), they weren't able to discern any difference between that combination, and the 8001 as a stand alone CD player. After convincing my wife that my need for a new SACD player was a matter of life or death, I finally bought one.
The very first disc I played on it was the Robert Shaw/Telarc CD of Brahm's "Ein Deutches Requiem," which had been very troublesome on my previous setup (an Adcom GCD-600 CD player with the Adcom GDA-600 DAC - a pretty decent combination), resulting in annoying "tick, tick, ticking" on most tracks. Not only did the disc play flawlessly on the 8001, but the sound was simply glorious. From the opening of the second movement, the string basses sounded better than they ever had, but as the violins appeared off to the left of the soundstage, it was as if they were coming straight from heaven. In short, the sound was nothing less than stunning. And subsequently, I began many hours of listening to all of my favorite CD's and marveling at how much better all of them sounded.
I didn't have any SACD's yet, and my initial order of 12 Telarc discs arrived several days later. The first Telarc SACD that I played was that of Britten's "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra," along with Elgar's "Enigma Variations." I was VERY disappointed! I expected to have my socks blown off with the sound of an SACD, especially one from my most respected label, and yet despite the power and depth of the soundstage, and the wonderful sonority of trombones, horns and bass drums, there was just no sparkle at all to the top end, and the recording sounded like it had been made with the percussion placed behind heavy drapes.
Fortunately, other discs sounded quite a bit better, especially the DSD-remastered Soundstream recordings of old. Ultimately, I found that the culprit in those recordings I found so lackluster wasn't the SACD medium, but the choice of principal microphone - the Sennheiser MKH-800 - a mike not all Telarc personnel cared for very much.
I've since expanded my SACD collection to about 60 discs, and would have purchased far more if more material were available (a common complaint we all have). Still, on the well mastered SACD's, the sound from the 8001 is truly exceptional. Moreover, "ordinary" CD's have a new life to them too, with much of the "digital glare" so many listeners hate, all but eliminated.
So why am I bothering to say all of this, much of which I've said before, and especially since the 8001 is no longer available? Well, when a product is THIS good, I think one needs to stand on the rooftops and shout about it. Also, its successor - the SA-8003 - from what I've read so far, is at least as good - maybe even a little better - and has a USB port on it too, and costs "only" an additional $100.
$1,000 for an SACD player is far from cheap, but when one considers that that's what the early CD players in 1984 cost, $1,000 becomes a far more reasonable price point, especially when considering inflation and what a dollar is worth today, some 25 years later. Add to that the fact that those 1984 CD players sounded pretty awful, and had very few features that are now commonplace on even the cheapest units, $1,000 for a new SACD player sounds less and less expensive.
I don't want to come across as snobbish or boorish, but when one is listening to a $400 SACD player, or a $400 combination SACD/DVD-A/DVD player, and makes "authoriative" comments about how "horrible" CD's sound, or how awful non-DSD-mastered SACD's sound as well, I think it's time that person (or those people) save up some hard-earned cash and plop down the bucks necessary for a piece of truly good equipment in order to make more informed criticisms.
I've had quite a few good friends who are musicians, conductors and even recording engineers listen to my system, and all of them are dazzled by the performance of the SA-8001. I suspect they would be equally impressed (as I probably would be too) with the performance of the SA-8003. Neither is the very best SACD player available, but both certainly seem to deliver the best "bang for the buck."
If one here, or elsewhere, comments on the recording quality of ANY medium, be it LP's, CD's or SACD's, and isn't using equipment of a very high order of quality, then those comments really can't be taken very seriously. It's really not much different than someone offering a critique of an audiophile LP while playing it on a Magnavox console stereo.
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