Which Marantz is best???

[RochaCullen]

Hi,

I've been toying with the idea of getting an older japanese player. The ranking of Sony CD players is pretty obvious; Marco and the boys making it pretty easy for any noob to understand which Sony is going to give you the best results.

However, I am interested in the Marantz players, and I have absolutely no idea which Marantz CD player is a great CD player and which is a bog standard player. If anyone could give me the lowdown and perhaps a ranking of the best second hand marantz players you can get, I'd very much appreciate it.

Regards,

Nathan

[Spectral Morn]

Hi,

I've been toying with the idea of getting an older japanese player. The ranking of Sony CD players is pretty obvious; Marco and the boys making it pretty easy for any noob to understand which Sony is going to give you the best results.

However, I am interested in the Marantz players, and I have absolutely no idea which Marantz CD player is a great CD player and which is a bog standard player. If anyone could give me the lowdown and perhaps a ranking of the best second hand marantz players you can get, I'd very much appreciate it.

Regards,

Nathan

Hi Nathan

I have a collection of Marantz CD players so in my very humble opinion I would say you should look for the following (all unmodified).....

Marantz CD94mk2, Marantz CD12 (expect to pay silly money), Marantz CD10, Marantz CD 85 (not as good as the 94mk2 but still very good), Marantz CD95 (rare in the UK) Marantz CD16, Marantz CD7

Rating them.....

1 Marantz CD7 (very good but does have a noisy transport)
2 Marantz CD95 (similar looking to the CD94mk2 and CD12)
3 Marantz CD94mk2 joint with CD12 (some will disagree with me on this)
4 Marantz CD10
5 Marantz CD85

I have never heard a CD16 so I am not sure where it should go.

Ones to avoid (imho): Marantz CD94 mk1 (great build quality but average sounding) CD11 and CD11LE, SA 1 (good on SACD but not so good on CD and yes I have compared it to the above), SA11 (very noisy transport) SA7 (excellent but very noisy transport/I have one, my second as the first was so noisy I could not have used it in my room)

Hope that is of help.


Regards D S D L

[RochaCullen]

Hi Nathan

In my very humble opinion I would say you should look for.....

Marantz CD94mk2, Marantz CD12 (expect to pay silly money), Marantz CD10, Marantz CD 85 (not as good as the 94mk2 but still very good), Marantz CD95 (rare in the UK) Marantz CD16, Marantz CD7

Hope that is of help.


Regards D S D L

Thanks Neil,

This info definitely helps when keeping an eye out for a potential bargain. Now I know what to look for

Regards,

Nathan

[Tweedle-Dee]

Having a few (too many) classic Marantz CD players, I'd agree with the earlier comments. Personally, I prefer the CD80 to the CD94II and the CD16 is quite special as well - different presentation completely to the TDA1541A-based machines. The CD12, in my view, is better than the others mentioned here (I have never heard a CD7 or CD95, however). The above is of course system-dependent.

Cheers,
TD.

[UV101]

Ah!! My speciality!!!

IMHO, any of those early TDA1541(a) players will sound fairy shut in and wooley out of the box. They will all be due a PSU cap refresh and will benefit massively from some PSU and regulation work. However, if you throw a handfull of regs and caps * and some output stage mods *at say a CD50, it absolutely will outperform a std CD80, CD94(I or II).

My philips CD960 is the same as a 94MKI (94MKI TDA1541A and 960 TDA1541). I like the more analogue sound which is why I looked to bring the most out of this chipset. I have a hatfull of low noise regs throughout the player and multiple PSU's. The player is quite something now. If you are looking at this chipset, the best std implimentation I have ever heard is the Meridian 207 (I have a couple 1 std and 1 modified) The output stage is discrete which I think helps somewhat.

The later Marantz models like the CD63 tend to sound much more details at a 1st listen and may well suit your taste if you want a more forward sound out of the box.

I've had to keep this fairly short as I'm at work but I'll keep and eye out and post some more detail later

[Spectral Morn]

Having a few (too many) classic Marantz CD players, I'd agree with the earlier comments. Personally, I prefer the CD80 to the CD94II and the CD16 is quite special as well - different presentation completely to the TDA1541A-based machines. The CD12, in my view, is better than the others mentioned here (I have never heard a CD7 or CD95, however). The above is of course system-dependent.

Cheers,
TD.

As I said some will disagree. Personally I never rated the CD80 as being much of a step forward at the time it was new (sold them back in the day) and virtually all the reviews back in the day all said the CD 94mk2 was as good as the CD12, hence why I placed them side by side (quite happy to do a comparison some time if your game David)

Thing to remember about multi-bit Marantz players they need to be left on and it takes about a week for the sound to stabilize.


Regards D S D L

[Spectral Morn]

Ah!! My speciality!!!

IMHO, any of those early TDA1541(a) players will sound fairy shut in and wooley out of the box. They will all be due a PSU cap refresh and will benefit massively from some PSU and regulation work. However, if you throw a handfull of regs and caps * and some output stage mods *at say a CD50, it absolutely will outperform a std CD80, CD94(I or II).

My philips CD960 is the same as a 94MKI (94MKI TDA1541A and 960 TDA1541). I like the more analogue sound which is why I looked to bring the most out of this chipset. I have a hatfull of low noise regs throughout the player and multiple PSU's. The player is quite something now. If you are looking at this chipset, the best std implimentation I have ever heard is the Meridian 207 (I have a couple 1 std and 1 modified) The output stage is discrete which I think helps somewhat.

The later Marantz models like the CD63 tend to sound much more details at a 1st listen and may well suit your taste if you want a more forward sound out of the box.

I've had to keep this fairly short as I'm at work but I'll keep and eye out and post some more detail later

ummmm certainly not the way I would describe the sound of an original player but I would concur that they make an excellent basis for modding. Audiocom would be my first choice for doing so but I personally prefer to keep the players I have as is thus not modding them (its the collector in me original condition is all to me). However if I obtained a spare machine I would not hesitate in getting Audiocom to do the mods.


Regards D S D L

[UV101]

ummmm certainly not the way I would describe the sound of an original player but I would concur that they make an excellent basis for modding. Audiocom would be my first choice for doing so but I personally prefer to keep the players I have as is thus not modding them (its the collector in me original condition is all to me). However if I obtained a spare machine I would not hesitate in getting Audiocom to do the mods.


Regards D S D L

Hi Neil, definately a bit of an overzealous generalisation. I've definately painted a worse picture than I intended to!

My problem is that I have taken my machine much further than I intended to and to that end, the original sound is indeed, wooley and shut in!

I find the TDA very analogue sounding and much less edgy than later dacs. It is an excellent base for modification and when done right, it will be right up there with pretty much anything. I've played with several chipsets and I've yet to better a fully sorted, discrete regged TDA chipset.

There are plenty of fairly cheap CDM4 transport based machines with the TDA1541A that respond very will to a handful of well placed mods. Although the CD50 is not the best example for modding (plastic chassis), they are very cheap and can respond very well (I've done a couple now, lots of space for off board goodies), but as you say, you wouldn't start to mess about with a CD94 just for a laugh unless you planned to do something quite spectacular with it!!!

[Spectral Morn]

Hi Neil, definately a bit of an overzealous generalisation. I've definately painted a worse picture than I intended to!

My problem is that I have taken my machine much further than I intended to and to that end, the original sound is indeed, wooley and shut in!

I find the TDA very analogue sounding and much less edgy than later dacs. It is an excellent base for modification and when done right, will be right up there with pretty much anything. I've played with several chipsets and I've yet to better and fully sorted discrete regged TDA chipset.

There are plenty of fairly cheap CDM4 transport based machines with the TDA1541A that respond very will to a handful of well placed mods. Although the CD50 is not the best example for modding (plastic chassis), they are very cheap and can respond very well (I've done a couple now, lots of space for off board goodies), but as you say, you wouldn't start to mess about with a CD94 just for a laugh unless you planned to do something quite spectacular with it!!!

No problem at all.

Sounds like you have created something quite special. I agree about the TDA 1541 very special indeed. If you get a chance have a listen to the AMR Cd77, it uses TDA 1541s and a valve output stage...its very special imho.

Regards D S D L

[Beobloke]

I bought a CD74 at a car boot sale last week and, after chiselling off all the hardened grease on the drawer loading mechanism, cleaning it all out, fitting a new belt and giving it a general once-over, not only does it work a treat, it sounds superb.

OK, so it falls short of my CD94II/CDA94 combo, but I've heard a lot worse and I reckon it was still damn good for £8!