Thinking about grabbing this marantz SACD player

[peterS]

I do have some SACD's so I may use that feature but I primarily listen to CDs, lossless itunes files or Pandora one. I do own a few DVD-A disks but most are 'Dual discs' with exception of one. This unit has a dac that can accept usb so it seems like a good choice in that regard. I dont watch blu-rays so I haven't really looked at universal players because in the past I just felt that the load times were noticeably slower than a dedicated CD player. Any suggestions for other units I should consider at this price point?

https://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=MASA8004

[wkhanna]

I do not know the details of the specs vs. the Marantz.....

But a friend who got one of these recently loves it.

[peterS]

I was looking at that one and the OPPO BDP - 105 too.

I will look into it more

[madmac]

Honestly.....I would go with the Marantz. The Oppo has great specs......especially from a video point of view, but I had problems with my Oppo unit and cannot in good conscience recommend them for a long haul. I have a Marantz 67SE CD player that sounds fabulous and has vastly out-lasted my Oppo DVD unit. Still works and sounds great 10 years after I bought it. My Oppo DVD player pooped out after around 4 years after I bought it. Loved the picture..... but common'........4 years??.......NOT acceptable!. Oppo fixed it for free and then it pooped out again less than a year later!. Marantz makes VERY musical players.......so if music is your thing.....go with Marantz......especially this unit..... It sounds like a sweet unit!.

[peterS]

Thanks, I think reliability is an issue with DVD players in general

[Hdale85]

Well some people have had some issues with Oppo, and others have had zero.

[Kal Rubinson]

Honestly.....I would go with the Marantz. The Oppo has great specs......especially from a video point of view, but I had problems with my Oppo unit and cannot in good conscience recommend them for a long haul.

I have had 6 Oppos and none has failed in any way.

[Ovation]

Disc player failure has been exceeding rare for me (of any brand). I've owned about 2 dozen disc players since 1985 (still have 8 of them) and only one ever failed--after 16 years of use. On the other hand, I've had almost half a dozen hard drives fail on me.

[madmac]

I have had 6 Oppos and none has failed in any way.

Could also be a qty of usage issue as well. I used mine quite a bit and it was left on 24/7 in most cases. But then again, my Marantz CD player is also left on 24/7 as well. I also suppose that with any brand of gear, you can get a lemon unit.

[peterS]

I got the marantz

[Chris D]

That deserves a banana! :banana:

[Kal Rubinson]

Could also be a qty of usage issue as well. I used mine quite a bit and it was left on 24/7 in most cases. But then again, my Marantz CD player is also left on 24/7 as well. I also suppose that with any brand of gear, you can get a lemon unit.

Amen.

[peterS]

unless the components are military grade something is going to fail statistically

[madmac]

unless the components are military grade something is going to fail statistically

I'm sure you are going to be very happy with that unit and odds are, it's going to not fail you.

[peterS]

I hope not
I forgot to mention that using overrated components (voltage wise) also negates a lot of premature failures- probably a lot more difficult to squeeze in when there are a lot of features like a blu-ray player

[Johnloudb]

I hope not
I forgot to mention that using overrated components (voltage wise) also negates a lot of premature failures- probably a lot more difficult to squeeze in when there are a lot of features like a blu-ray player

The more complicated the more there is to go wrong of course. But, if a component is well designed it can last a long time. I've owned a high end Oppo bluray player for years and had no problems with it. Still very much enjoy it.

[madmac]

I might give Oppo another try sometime in the future. But, One more premature failure and I'm done with them for sure. They do make excellent performing products however. No argument there!.

[JonMarsh]

Like most companies, Marantz SACD players in my experience have a "house sound"- not a bad one, but something to keep in mind. (I own a couple, SA-11 and SA-7, so I speak from experience). they favor a lush midrange with good to great detail and a slightly soft top end. Not a bad set of tradeoffs. Imaging is typically a weak point.

I've owned a couple of Oppos, but I use them with special cards from a Czech company for SACD extraction to high res PCM. So, light duty use- in this they've been quite reliable.

Something else to remember, for any disk player, there's a limited operating life to the optical pickup laser, and blue lasers (as are used for BD) have the shorted life of all. I actually had an optical sled on a Sony ES player replaced under warranty because I'd worn out the CD optical pickup just by sheer number of hours (that was close to the end of the 5 year warranty on ES components).

Enjoy your Marantz- it's a good player for the money.

[madmac]

Like most companies, Marantz SACD players in my experience have a "house sound"- not a bad one, but something to keep in mind. (I own a couple, SA-11 and SA-7, so I speak from experience). they favor a lush midrange with good to great detail and a slightly soft top end. Not a bad set of tradeoffs. Imaging is typically a weak point.

I've owned a couple of Oppos, but I use them with special cards from a Czech company for SACD extraction to high res PCM. So, light duty use- in this they've been quite reliable.

Something else to remember, for any disk player, there's a limited operating life to the optical pickup laser, and blue lasers (as are used for BD) have the shorted life of all. I actually had an optical sled on a Sony ES player replaced under warranty because I'd worn out the CD optical pickup just by sheer number of hours (that was close to the end of the 5 year warranty on ES components).

Enjoy your Marantz- it's a good player for the money.

By and large you are correct about the Marantz sound. I do love their players forward, punchy midrange performance however. Oppo's midrange performance is much more laid back (With the band) which is a bit of a deal breaker for me. I like the vocals in my music nice and forward of the band (As they should be in my opinion!) I find the concept of 'Imaging' a little over rated since I play most of my music in 5ch stereo anyway. Give me depth, transparency and detailed sound over imaging any day. Not to say that having both wouldn't be nice as well!.

[peterS]

If its good enough for Osmo Vanska its good enough for me