Marantz SA7003 CD-player
Marantz SA7003 player was designed for high-quality playback of a wide variety of media. It plays SACD (stereo), regular CDs and CDs with mp3 or WMA music files. SA7003 uses a new Zylon mechanism, created specifically for the above mentioned media and to be less sensitive to external vibrations. At the same time, the chassis has also changed - it is more rigid and stable than the previous one, a high-quality headphone amplifier appeared. The analog output part causes respect: it is implemented according to the symmetric scheme on the latest proprietary micro-assemblies HDAM-SA2, has a higher speed, less noise and lower output impedance. These measures, plus the use of high-precision 24-bit CS4398 DACs from Cirrus Logic, allowed engineers to significantly reduce all types of distortion introduced by the audio path. According to the passport characteristics, SA7003 looks very attractive and can easily compete with expensive high-end audiophile sources. Such a player simply does not have the right to sound bad.
And it really sounds great! Bass is impressive, has a living dense energy, well readable structure. I also liked the scene - correct in all respects, well-focused. There is absolutely no binding of apparent sound sources to loudspeakers. But the more we listened to music on this player, the stronger the feeling was that this player was not Marantz. Technique of this brand has always sounded emotionally, melodiously, with deep natural articulation, and SA7003 gave a different musical interpretation, with an emphasis on the information content, dynamics and transparency of the sound image. Such a manner of reproduction - clear, refined and somewhere even detached - is more characteristic for top Denon sources. However, something from the old school Marantz SA7003 still has. It reproduces the middle warmly and openly.
The transition to SACD made it absolutely clear that we have an extraordinary source. Many songs recorded on SACD, unlike the PCM version, sounded much more interesting - the finest details immediately appeared, a powerful effect of presence arose, in the middle band the images literally came to life. It seems that this device, like many built on the CS4398 chip, is better optimized to work with the DSD data stream. And if you are not satisfied with the sound of usual discs, you can always use the Marantz SA7003 SPDIF outputs for connecting an external DAC or for listening through the digital path of an AV receiver.
