Further Thoughts

Regular readers of our site know that I’m an avid silver disc fan. If you want to stream or play vinyl, that’s fine with me too. But you likely have a collection of silver discs that you haven’t heard to their finest.

First of all, what a concept! Buy a disc. Put it in a machine and hit play. It plays for well over 70 minutes which encompasses LVB’s 9th. There are no clicks and pops. There is no cleaning or maintenance process. Dynamic range can be downright scary. You can hear the innermost feelings of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Lark Ascending” without mechanics getting in the way. You can play music whether your wi-fi is working or sputtering away. It’s pretty clever if you ask me.

Surely you don’t believe that nonsense about silver discs being extinct, do you? Did you think that of LPs in the 80s? Really? You can’t believe everything you hear, even if a certain hot air seems to be blowing powerfully in a particular direction.

If you’re a fan of classical music in particular, you know that streaming metadata is often absurdly mislabeled. It is often SO inaccurate that you can’t find an album. They dub Mozart an artist and Largo is considered “a song.” I’m fine streaming the Pointer Sisters for putting some jump in my step when I’m doing KP. But when it comes to playing Chopin’s iridescent masterpieces, no thanks.

Marantz’s SACD30n is a superstar SACD and CD player. Marantz makes its own transport like a brick outhouse. Marantz does NOT buy a generic transport from China.com. SACD30n is made with TLC in Marantz’s top factory in Japan. SACD30n is a rock solid TRACKER.

There are many competitors that cost tremendously more, that won’t track their way out of a wet paper bag. Why? It’s because the company selling the player bought a generic transport for their player and slapped some fancy electronics around it. It still won’t track any better than a $200 player that uses the same mechanism.

Marantz’s iconic designer, Ken Ishiwata, designed a DAC system that is more sophisticated than buying a chip from a vendor. Chip houses like AKM, Wolfson, Sabre, Burr Brown and others make fine chips. But Ken knew he could attain superior immediacy and transparency if he worked assiduously to create his own D to A protocol- and not start with a chipset LIKE VIRTUALLY EVERYONE ELSE.

Ken named his new baby, MMM, Marantz Music Mastering. It is employed in SACD30n and is a large part of, but not the only reason, Marantz delivers air and space like a master tape instead of a commercial recording.

In SACD30n you get a battleship of a player that plays CDs, and yes- SACDs. You might recall that SACDs came out in 1999. SACDs are 24b silver discs. Did you think 24b began when HD Tracks started selling files for $25 a crack? You never needed to buy Hotel California (yet again) on a computer file. Shame on us audiophiles for not embracing SACDs more aggressively with our wallets. But guess what? SACDs are still quite available, and in many corners THRIVING. While you hear about Spotify 24/7 these days… for us music lovers, there’s much more going on.

Please bear with me on this story. Mike, a recently retired long time customer visited to shop for his “last CD player.” He has an extensive collection of CDs including loads of opera music. This music often doesn’t play well with metadata, so he knew to keep his CDs. I recommended the SACD30n to him. He auditioned the player and loved it. He said he wanted to check around to see what else was out there. No problem. I understand. It’s a competitive market and you can look under every rock for something better. It’s fun to beat the bushes a bit.

Mike returned about a month later with his head down and a sack of CDs. Mike said he had gone to Chicago and was talked into a fancy Naim CD player that sold for $6k. He liked the sound and assumed because it was $6k, it had to be better than SACD30n for $3k. What he found when he got the Naim home, is that it wouldn’t track many of his beloved CDs. How could that be? It cost six thousand bucks. Mike pulled his CDs out, that wouldn’t play on the Naim, and we ran them all through the SACD30n. The Marantz recognized and played every single disc without hesitation.

What Mike realized is that the tracking proficiency of SACD30n is unassailable. His twice as expensive UK built box didn’t track well at all. On the discs it could track, it sounded good. But Mike had just proven the SACD30n would read over 20 CDs, all in pristine condition by the way, that the $6k player WOULD NOT. Mike bought the SACD30n and was headed back to Chicago with his Naim.

This goes back to my point about Marantz building its own transport like a tank. Marantz does NOT buy a transport from somewhere.com and then slap a few circuit boards around it. Philips, Sanyo, Sony and many other vendors make transports. They’re not good enough for Marantz.

Oh, and a word about the pricing. The big buck guys charge through the nose for making one unit at a time on a bench in Europe. Please don’t hold it against Marantz that it is an international MANUFACTURER making and selling thousands of players! Economies of scale help Marantz produce better and more consistent products than well meaning guys cobbling together a few pieces as they can.

The other guys start with a transport from a vendor. Some brag that they beef it up. That’s fine. But if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck… it still won’t track like SACD30n.

The other guys start with chipsets from vendors. As well meaning as they are, many audaciously priced players use the same chips as cheap to mid level players. It’s common. Here are some examples of expensive players and the chips they use.

  • CH Precison $46k: Wolfson
  • Gyphon Ethos $41k: Sabre
  • Linn CD12 $20k: Burr Brown
  • McIntosh MCD600: $7k: Sabre
  • Naim CDX2: $5k: Burr Brown
  • Regas: Wolfson

Now, I’m not saying everyone else sucks. These competitors aren’t bad players. They sound good. But I am saying that SACD30n is a smarter purchase!

Marantz wins straight up on tracking alone.

The other guys can argue that they make a chip right out of a bin sound better with magical electronics. The electronics DO in fact, influence the sound. But it’s crazy not to recognize that every chipset has its own sonic signature. Marantz doesn’t want to start with that ball and chain.

Please consider buying a Marantz SACD30n from us. It will make your CDs sound more translucent and spacious than you knew they could.

Oh, and before I forget, SACD30n has INPUTS as well. Yep, you can run your streamer or server into SACD30n and take advantage of its MMM for that music as well!

It will also allow you to buy at least a couple dozen SACDs that will take your performance to a higher echelon. Sure, not everything is available on SACD. But I’ll bet there is plenty of music in your favorite genre that IS available on SACD. Hunting for them… is great fun and rewards you with musical treasure.