The SA-1 was Marantz’s answer to the Sony SCD-1, and
although it does not command the grand appearance of the SCD-1, the SA-1 had a
few cards to play of its own. First there is the matter of load time, the SA-1
is quick to load CD/SACD without any of the long delays associated with the
Sony. Then there is the sound quality, while it could be argued that the Sony
gave as good as the Marantz on SACD, this is not the case with Red Book CD. The
SA-1 was one of the few players, and to date still is, that manages to put in a
high-end CD performance to match its price while losing nothing when offering
Super Audio CD.
Having given the SA-1 several weeks alongside the Sony
SCD-1, the crown from the Sony was stolen, the SA-1 was the new king! Of
course, like the modifications we had unleashed on the Sony player, it was not
long before we set about looking at ways to further the sound of the new
Marantz, which although exceptional in its class, was not perfect. Certainly
compared to stand-alone players from Wadia, Krell, and even Marantz’s own CD-7,
the Marantz was clearly not on par when it came to unearthing all that can be
had from compact disc.
The external and internal design, construction of the
SA-1 shares very much with the CD-7, two players released on to the market at a
similar time for two different markets. Having already extensively modified the
CD-7, the upgrades for the SA-1 were met with a natural flow, albeit the CD-7’s
TDA1541A S2 chips were out in favour of the bitstream TDA1547 and required a
reworking of parts and values.
