Solid SACD player
Written: Mar 19 '05 (Updated Sep 28 '06)
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Pros: No unnecessary frills. Good headphone section. Excellent sound quality and value.
Cons: Bulky and heavy. No SACD digital-out. Limited SACD availability outside classical music.
The Bottom Line: A great CD and SACD player, probably unmatched in its price range.
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| majid's Full Review: Marantz SA8260 SACD Player |
This is actually a SACD player. If you are not familiar with SACD, it is a high-resolution format designed by Sony and Philips to supersede the CD, so far with limited success. SACD carries 4 times more data per channel than regular CDs. There are two other competing audiophile formats, DVD-Audio (DVD-A) and Dual-Disc. SACD plays in special SACD players like this Marantz unit and most recent SACDs have a lower-quality CD layer for compatibility with CD players. DVD Audio plays in newer DVD players but not in CD players, DualDisc is essentially a CD and a DVD-A stuck together. SACD is currently leading handily for classical music, which is handy since that's all I listen to, but that's not saying much because the number of releases in hybrid SACD format is a small fraction of conventional CD releases, even if it dwarfs DVD-A.
I bought this player as an upgrade from my Pioneer DV-45A, a "universal" player capable of playing CD, DVD-Video, SACD, DVD-A and DualDisc. The Pioneer has actual 1-bit delta-sigma 2.8MHz DSD circuitry in it, rather than converting internally to 24bit 96kHz PCM audio (the DVD-A format) as some of the less reputable universal players do, but unfortunately, it does not make the most of the format and there is not that much difference in quality between its SACD and CD outputs.
I listened to a number of players, including the $2600 Shanling T-200 and the equally pricey Consonance before opting for the Marantz, which has the same level of reproduction (minus the softening effect of tubes) for a significantly lower price. You are not going to find better sound quality for less than three times the price. I won't bore you with pseudo-aesthetic considerations about warmth, brilliance, musicality, sibilance and other equally subjective and meaningless terms.
I went to the shop with some records I have in both SACD and CD versions and did an A/B test with them, and the difference is clear, which was not the case with the DV-45A. Violins specially sound much smoother and less grainy or raspy on SACD. The enhanced resolution is not necessarily always a good thing, though - with good transducers, it also reveals every wart and noise in the recording.
The only way to know whether the sound restitution is accurate would be to compare against the studio recordings or a reference system, neither option being available to me. Two SACD players may well sound different, and you may subjectively like one presentation better than the other (many people like the gentler, less revealing sound of tubes), but that does not prove anything per se - just like a man who has two watches is never sure what time it is... For whatever it's worth, the 8260 obtained Stereophile magazine's "Class A" award.
I did my listening with a pair of top-of-the-line Sennheiser HD-650 headphones, my intended listening device (the player is going in my bedroom), so I did not evaluate the multi-channel sound. It is very hard to place multi-channel speakers correctly in a room, and my neighbors would definitely complain about the noise if I played music at late hours on speakers. Very few multi-channel SACD recordings are mastered to the same level as the stereo mix, in any case.
The 8260 has a headphone jack with a 1/4" jack, and a dedicated volume control. I was pleasantly surprised to find it has no problem driving my HD-650s, which are notoriously inefficient and normally require hefty headphone amps to power them. I guess Marantz's HDAM high-power op-amps were put to good use in the headphone circuitry.
The 8260 has the standard complement of Toslink and Coaxial SPDIF digital outputs, as well as 6 RCA outputs for SACDs. As with most other SACD players, there is no digital output, presumably to prevent piracy, although the fact there is no standard digital transport for DSD audio does not help. Pioneer does use a proprietary DSD over Firewire connection, it would be a good thing if others would follow suit, but I am not holding my breath.
The 8260 uses Cirrus CS4397 DACs, their flagship part until it was replaced by the CS4398. I have a CS4398-based standalone DAC I use with my PowerMac G5 as a virtual CD transport, and there is little difference in quality, at least not that I can observe with my relatively paltry $300 headphone amps. The 8260 plays regular CDs very well, which is not a given with all audiophile SACD players (the Shanling T200 sounded terrible with CDs, for instance).
Physically, the unit is a hefty 12 lbs, apparently due to heavy-duty transformer coils inside, and has the kind of thick brushed aluminum faceplate that audiophiles love even though it increases weight and price without improving sound quality. The top, rear and sides of the unit are more conventional Japanese gear of thin metal, serviceable but not particularly fancy. The remote control is also fairly basic. In short, you are not paying a lot for frills or video features unnecessary in an audio device.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 999 tax
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Epinions.com ID:
majid
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Member: Fazal Majid
Location: San Francisco
Reviews written: 53
Trusted by: 5 members
About Me:
I'm the CTO of an Internet startup
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