emaidel
04-27-2008, 03:46 AM
It's been over a week or so that I haven't posted yet another thread gushing all over the place about how marvelous sounding my new Marantz SA-8001 is. That's not because I've changed my mind, but because I've been busy doing other things.
I spent some time listening to it over the last couple of days and have discovered something else about it that I find quite startling: it not only makes everything played on it sound better, but does an amazing job of noticeably increasing dynamic range - and I'm not talking about SACD's, but regular CD's!
I don't understand why this is so, but I can most readily attest to the fact that this is yet another very real attribute of the 8001. While listening to a few of my favorite Telarc classical CD's, I found myself actually turning the volume down, as the loud passages had become so much louder than they were before. I know that the SACD medium has a greater dyanmic range due to its storage capacity, but have no idea why "ordinary" CD's should experience this improvement, and so prominently too. Perhaps someone can enlighten me...
And while my favorite musical choice is classical, I thoroughly enjoyed the SACD versions of "Tommy," and "The Dark Side of the Moon" too. Playing a couple of Enya discs proved quite revelatory, in hearing more and more of the unique and unusual sounds of her instrumentation, as well as the amazing clarity of her overdubs. I guess I just never paid attention before, but to learn that she not only sings every note of her discs herself, but that she plays all the instruments too indicates how supremely talented she really is!
So, yes, I'm still awash in sonic nirvana with the Marantz SA-8001, save one truly annoying, and frankly, quite ridiculous feature: the fast forward time. Every CD player I've owned since 1983, including a couple of real cheapies, has had a very fast fast forward. That on the 8001 is about twice as fast as normal playback, and that's it! Trying to scan through a long track (such as the final movement of Mahler's 2nd) can take as long as 15 minutes!
I sent an email off to Marantz, asking whether or not my player was defective, and was simply told that "that's the way it is," and that they've received a number of complaints and "are working on it." How a player that is so good in so many respects can have this one truly annoying and stupid design goof is something I'll never understand.
Still, I've rarely ever purchased a piece of electronics that has made such a dramatic improvement over that which it replaced as the 8001. I guess Stereophile really knew what they were doing when they gave it a "Class-A Recommendation!"
I spent some time listening to it over the last couple of days and have discovered something else about it that I find quite startling: it not only makes everything played on it sound better, but does an amazing job of noticeably increasing dynamic range - and I'm not talking about SACD's, but regular CD's!
I don't understand why this is so, but I can most readily attest to the fact that this is yet another very real attribute of the 8001. While listening to a few of my favorite Telarc classical CD's, I found myself actually turning the volume down, as the loud passages had become so much louder than they were before. I know that the SACD medium has a greater dyanmic range due to its storage capacity, but have no idea why "ordinary" CD's should experience this improvement, and so prominently too. Perhaps someone can enlighten me...
And while my favorite musical choice is classical, I thoroughly enjoyed the SACD versions of "Tommy," and "The Dark Side of the Moon" too. Playing a couple of Enya discs proved quite revelatory, in hearing more and more of the unique and unusual sounds of her instrumentation, as well as the amazing clarity of her overdubs. I guess I just never paid attention before, but to learn that she not only sings every note of her discs herself, but that she plays all the instruments too indicates how supremely talented she really is!
So, yes, I'm still awash in sonic nirvana with the Marantz SA-8001, save one truly annoying, and frankly, quite ridiculous feature: the fast forward time. Every CD player I've owned since 1983, including a couple of real cheapies, has had a very fast fast forward. That on the 8001 is about twice as fast as normal playback, and that's it! Trying to scan through a long track (such as the final movement of Mahler's 2nd) can take as long as 15 minutes!
I sent an email off to Marantz, asking whether or not my player was defective, and was simply told that "that's the way it is," and that they've received a number of complaints and "are working on it." How a player that is so good in so many respects can have this one truly annoying and stupid design goof is something I'll never understand.
Still, I've rarely ever purchased a piece of electronics that has made such a dramatic improvement over that which it replaced as the 8001. I guess Stereophile really knew what they were doing when they gave it a "Class-A Recommendation!"