Marantz Reference Series
PM-10 Integrated Amp $8000 (200×2)
Brand new is Marantz’s stunning, big boy integrated amp. I’ve always been a fan of Marantz’s Ref Series, made in its top factory in Japan. PM-10 just arrived and has pounded the high striker weight all the way to the top!
Packed with TNT, PM-10 can wake up the hungriest of our loudspeakers and deliver bass in spades. PM-10 pushes REAL SPEAKERS like GoldenEars, Maggies and Brystons as well as more expensive separates.
Up to now, Marantz Ref amps have been about half this power. It’s a pleasure to finally hear the Marantz quality with gigundo octane. The power does matter. We can’t kid ourselves.
Further, purist snob that I am, I shamefully admit I really like having the Marantz remote operate PM-10 and companion SA-10 disc player.
SA-10 SACD/CD Player $7000
We’ve had SA-10 for a few months now. What a great disc player! There’s none better. If you load up your favorite CD and compare it with a streamed Tidal {CD quality} version of the same disc, SA-10 wins hands down.
The perfect test case is something very sparse and clean. Rosanne Cash “Ten Song Demo”- which happens to have eleven songs. The clarity and overtones provided by SA-10 beat streamed CD quality. Yep, it’s worth the trouble to have CDs of music like this that you love.
There are still reasons music lovers should have a fine CD player!
Tidal is a fine service. I love it for MQA. I like it for CD quality. But I still need CDs.
On my short list of the finest piano players in the world is the roster from Hyperion.
It includes Marc Andre Hamelin. Stephen Hough. Angela Hewitt. Leslie Howard. Denis Matsuev. Nikolai Demidenko. Daniil Trifonov. I have multiple CDs of all these performers. Tidal doesn’t provide this music. I want it.
NODE-2
Bluesound Node 2s Are Hot!!! $500
I don’t brag about how much of anything we sell. I remember the days when we would run into fellow dealers at trade shows and they would all brag that they were the biggest, most successful dealer for XYZ in the state, if not the Midwest, if not the stinkin’ country. I knew it wasn’t true, and always found the bragging unbecoming.
I’m not about to do the same thing here.
What I WILL tell you is, we’re having very strong success with customer after customer buying Bluesound’s Node 2 for $500 and LOVING IT.
There are so many people above a certain age that grew up loving the Warner Bros catalog of music, among many. Carly Simon. James Taylor. Eagles. Joni Mitchell. Fleetwood Mac. Doors. The list is long. You can now STREAM all of these WB albums in MQA. Now!
If you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon yet, no sweat. There’s lots of room. It’s the biggest band wagon our industry has had in many years. Don’t let it pass you by while you’re sweating silly tweaks to try to make your system sound better. If you don’t have MQA, you’ve not heard how good your rig can sound on this music.
And of course, the library is expanding by the day. The goal is to have all of WB and Universal music be available, streaming, MQA, by Jan 1, 2018.
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
While Dvořák lay dying in his deplorable home in Prague, violinist Fritz Kreisler visited to pay his respects. Dvořák had already sold his compositions for a pittance. Kreisler tried to cheer him up and asked, “Do you have anything further for me to play?” Dvořák said, “Look through that pile” pointing to a disorganized stack of papers. In it Kreisler found what was to be one of Dvořák’s most famous works, “The Humoresque.” We’re lucky it didn’t go out with the trash!