Should I declare my aversion to this. Marantz SA-KI-Pearl-Lite SACD PLAYER. The Equipment. 24 Australian

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Arnold Mosley
5 years ago
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I don t like Lite milk or Lite cheese and especially not Lite wine because in all cases they ve taken out the very things that make these products good: the fat and the alcohol!

1 O N T E S T Marantz SA-KI-Pearl-Lite SACD PLAYER Should I declare my aversion to this Marantz SACD player right at the outset? Not to the model itself, as will shortly become clear, but to the model name. First, there s the matter of the concept of a Lite product. I don t like Lite milk or Lite cheese and especially not Lite wine because in all cases they ve taken out the very things that make these products good: the fat and the alcohol! Then there s the spelling. The correct spelling is light! Right now, you re probably thinking that I m making much ado about very little, but rest assured that this is a serious side to this rant. Most readers will already be aware of that the Marantz Pearl SACD player is one of Marantz s top-line SACD players, and so would assume that this Lite model is a stripped-down version well that s most certainly the assumption that I made. However, when I looked more closely into it, I really couldn t see that there are sufficient differences between the high-end Pearl and this so-called Lite version to justify Marantz putting the word Lite in its model name. In terms of cosmetic appearance, there are almost no differences at all. The dimensions are exactly the same, and the weight is also identical. Even operationally the two are identical, offering all the same features. Internally, the Lite uses the same Xyron transport as the original Pearl and, perhaps most significantly, the DAC is identical too: a Cyrus Logic CS4398. And to give you an inkling of how good this particular DAC is, it s better much better! than the CS4397 which preceded it, and was used in the justifiably famous Marantz SA700I KI SACD, which was the very first SACD to be hotted up by Ken Ishiwata, Marantz s resident goldeneared guru. (Sorry, that was a bit irreverent. Ishiwata s official title at Marantz is, I believe, brand ambassador. ) It s only when you get into the minutiae of differences and look at some of the individual resistors and capacitors that are used inside the Lite version that you ll start seeing some differences, but even so you ll find that the Lite still uses far better resistors and capacitors than you ll find in most other SACD players, still has a double-shielded transformer and has a discrete current feedback output stage, rather than standard operational amplifiers. A very good example is that the Lite uses Elna Cerafine electrolytic capacitors, which many audiophiles believe are almost identical to the fabled Black Gate capacitors. (It uses Elna s top-line Silmic capacitors as well, so it would seem that Ishiwata is tuning the sound of the Lite to suit his purposes.) The Equipment To state the obvious, just to get it out of the way, the Pearl Lite will play both SACDs and CDs. The only difference in playback (other than the obvious immediate improvement in sound when playing back SACDs) is that you can port the digital output from a CD from the rear of the Lite and send it to an outboard DAC if you want, whereas if you re playing an SACD, the digital output is disabled, so you have to use the Lite s analogue outputs. However, to look at the less obvious, the Lite has SPDIF digital inputs (both coaxial and optical), so you can actually use this player as a DAC, in which mode it will handle linear PCM data up to 192kHz. There s even a USB input, so you can connect your computer to the Lite and play back digital files from your computer. In fact, there are two USB inputs, one on the rear which uses a USB-B connector, and one on the front panel that uses the more-familiar USB-A socket. This is a great call by Marantz, because if you leave your computer connected to the player permanently, as would most likely be the case if you were making use of this feature, you ll always have a neat installation, with all the wires hidden from sight, while the front port makes it really easy to quickly connect and disconnect your ipod or iphone. 24 Australian

2 O N T E S T Altogether, the Lite, supports 13 different Apple models, so it will most likely be suitable for whatever model you own, but if this is a make/break issue for you, check compatibility before purchase. The Lite supports MP3, WMA, AAC, and WAV digital file formats and also supports Metatagged files. It appears that Marantz has opted for form before function in terms of the provision of controls on the front panel, since the layout is so very obviously symmetrical. Still, it makes for a neat and uncluttered layout, and since all the controls you ll need most often are on the front panel, it s a forgivable sin. There s a surprising feature around at the back of the Marantz Pearl Lite that has nothing whatsoever to do with the connectors... Vertically arrayed to the left of the large and quite bright front panel display are (from top to bottom), buttons for: disc tray open/close; fast-forward/track skip forward; and fast reverse/track skip backwards. The matching buttons to the right of the display are for: Play; Stop; and Pause. (On most players, just the one button is provided to handle both Play and Pause, so you can see where insisting on symmetry gets you!). Other than the USB input already mentioned, and the large power button to the left, there s a Disc/Input button, so you can select between optical disc playback and the various digital inputs, a headphone socket (a full-sized 6.5mm phone jack, not the silly smaller version!) and a headphone level control. The front panel pushbuttons do not indicate the full extent of the Lite s capabilities, the remainder of which are accessed from the infra-red remote control. These allow the usual direct access to tracks, using the numeric buttons on the remote, plus the trick play modes, such as track repeat and disc repeat (but note that there is no A B repeat mode) and random. There is also an automatic music scan function that plays the first 10 seconds of each track, (supposedly so you can search for a specific track you want to listen to, according to the manual, but I can t imagine how you would ever not know a track you wanted to listen to!). Finally, you can also program tracks for playback in specific order up to 24 tracks. And for those who find moving displays annoying, the Lite lets you dim its front panel display or turn it off completely. If you are using the Lite with an external DAC, there s a neat feature that allows you to force the player to always play the CD Layer of an SACD, so you always get signal fed to the DAC. It s called Sound Mode or S.MODE, and can be set to force either the SACD layer or the CD layer. (Of course even if the player is set to force the SACD layer, it will default to CD if you insert an ordinary CD!) In the interests of being green, the Lite includes a mode that s becoming increasingly common: automatic standby. If you select this mode, the player will wait for 30 minutes after a disc has stopped playing, or after an externally input signal disappears, and then go into Standby mode, thus reducing power consumption. There s a very surprising feature around at the back of the Marantz Pearl Lite that has nothing whatsoever to do with the connectors. It s a little sign at the bottom right of the rear panel that proclaims Made in Japan. At a time when nearly all hi-fi componentry is being made in China, I was genuinely surprised MARANTZ SA-KI-PEARL-LITE SACD PLAYER Brand: Marantz Model: SA-KI-Pearl-Lite Category: SACD Player RRP: $2,499 Warranty: Three Years Distributor: QualiFi Pty Ltd Address: 24 Lionel Road Mt Waverley VIC (03) (03) info@qualifi.com.au It s also a great DAC! Superb sound with CDs Automatic standby mode No A B repeat LAB REPORT Two-channel SACD playback only Readers interested in a full technical appraisal of the performance of the should continue on and read the LABORATORY REPORT published on page 88. Readers should note that the results mentioned in the report, tabulated in performance charts and/ or displayed using graphs and/or photographs should be construed as applying only to the specific sample tested. Lab Report on page 88 avhub.com.au 25

In Use and Listening Sessions I am also pleased to be able to say that during the many months I was using the Marantz Lite it performed flawlessly, no matter whether I accessed it via the remote, or

3 O N T E S T and, truth be told, quite pleased that Marantz is manufacturing the Lite in Japan. There are no more surprises around the back though: all the connectors are the standard for their signal type, and benefit from a layer of gold plate. In Use and Listening Sessions I am also pleased to be able to say that during the many months I was using the Marantz Lite it performed flawlessly, no matter whether I accessed it via the remote, or via its front panel controls. Everything worked perfectly and even better, everything felt right during use. Buttons felt solid, the tray wasn t flimsy and was certainly not noisy, and the drive itself was also reassuringly quiet. If I had a gripe, it s that track access could have been a bit faster, but that s something I only noticed when accessing particular tracks for the purpose of making review notes. When I was just listening for pleasure (which, for me, always involves putting on a disc at its start, then listening to it right though to its finish or a least in the usual track order until I run out of time, or get called away) track access times just weren t an issue. I did find that when I wanted to skip tracks, I found that for the first few weeks, I d press the wrong buttons, and skip forward when I wanted to skip back, and back when I wanted to skip forward. For some reason, I expected the back button to be above the forward one, when in fact the opposite is the case, as you can see from the photograph showing the front panel. There s no logic to my assumption: in fact I think Marantz s layout is more intuitive than my imagining of how it worked, but it still took me some time to become accustomed to it. SACD playback was outstanding, though I admit I established this by playing back only a few dozen SACDs, for the simple reason that I still don t have many SACDs in my collection and, to be frank, only a handful that I purchased because I truly enjoy the music on them: the rest I purchased simply so I d have SACDs on hand for review purposes. The reason I have so few is that, although I d be the first to say that the numbers of releases available in the SACD format are increasing, they re still tiny in terms of the available music repertoire. If you re an SACD fan for its multi-channel capability, rather than the improved sound quality, you should most definitely note that despite being an SACD player, the Lite is two-channel only! (It will play multi-channel SACDs, but only the twochannel down mix). Not that anything I have mentioned in the previous paragraph bothers me that much because, as I ve said on any number of occasions, the fact is that except for some high-priced exceptions, SACD players as a rule deliver superior playback with ordinary CDs than regular CD-only players. I don t know exactly why this is the case, but I have noted it on so many occasions that it has to be more than sheer coincidence. Maybe it s something to do with the way the laser and transport interact with the disc? Whatever it is, there s certainly a definite difference in performance! This is a superb SACD player; one that will bring you many years of listening pleasure... I ran though all my usual favourite CDs when auditioning the Lite and I was never less than deeply impressed by what I heard, whether it was the realism of the very lowest notes of a grand piano, the almost-visceral impact of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra during a crescendo or the almost-ethereal whistlings of the wind outside a church in which a David Hykes performance was taking place. One disc that started heavy rotation very late in the review process remained a favourite long after the Lite had been returned to the distributor, that disc being the debut album of Melbourne band Husky, whose greatest claim to fame up until now has been winning Triple J Unearthed. The release of Forever So certainly stakes Husky s place on the music scene, because it s a truly gorgeous album, lyrically, musically, and in terms of sound quality, with the recording of the acoustic guitars, in particular, being outstanding. The band takes its name from the lead singer and guitarist Husky Gawenda, whose cousin Gideon Preiss contributes keyboards and vocals. Both say their musical inspirations were the musicians they heard on their parents LPs: Dylan, Cohen, Fairport Convention, Joni Mitchell and The Doors. You can hear this in their music, with intelligent, thoughtful lyrics (Dylan/Cohen), sometimes strange chord progressions and vocal inventions (Mitchell), mystical orchestrations (Doors) and harmonies (FC). History s Door (Track 3) is the one getting all the raves and most of the radio airplay, yet it really only just makes my Top 5 of the thirteen tracks on Forever So. A stunning debut. Conclusion It was only when finalising this review that I finally discovered something about the Marantz SA-KI-Pearl-Lite SACD player that was truly an appropriate use of the word Lite and that was the price. The retail is was way under what I was expecting, particularly since this machine hails from Japan, bears the Marantz imprimatur and is, in essence, a Pearl in everything but name. This is a superb SACD player; one that will bring you many years of listening pleasure. The fact that you can also use it as a DAC as well and even as a USB DAC, at that makes it even more amazing value. greg borrowman 26 Australian LAB REPORT ON PAGE 88

4 L A B R E P O R T CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24 Test Results On test, the Marantz SA-KI-Pearl-Lite SACD player delivered the high level of performance I have come to expect from well-designed SACD players when tested using the disc drive, and the even-higher level of performance I have come to expect from state-of-the-art stand-alone DACs when tested through its digital input. Let s look at the quality of the signal delivered to the analog outputs when playing a standard Red Book CD. Available voltage was high, at a shade under 2.5V, and the balance between the left and right channels was excellent, with the difference in voltage between the two coming in at a vanishingly low 0.055dB (at 1kHz). Frequency response was incredibly flat and linear, as you can see from Graph 9. The graph starts about 0.02dB above reference at 20kHz, then gradually falls down to reference level at 1kHz, then continues out to 5kHz before rolling off about 0.05dB at 20kHz, after which the anti-aliasing filter rolls off response like the proverbial brick wall. Note that the small irregularities in the frequency response are only visible because of the hugely expanded vertical scale of this graph. If had graphed the frequency response using the usual vertical scaling, you d see a response that looked like it had been drawn with the aid of a ruler. Channel separation was superb, but at the same time not quite at the limits of what it s possible to achieve from the medium, with low-frequency separation coming in at 131dB, then diminishing to 110dB at 1kHz and down to 104dB at 20kHz. All superb figures, and far more than will ever be necessary for reasons of stereo imaging and instrument separation but, technically, it s possible to do better. The highish THD figure of 0.01% puzzled me for a moment or it did until I looked at the spectrum analysis and realised that, like many manufacturers, Marantz is optimising performance for a recorded level of around 10dB, so a maximum-level signal from a test disc results in a small amount of distortion, presumably from overloading the output stage. This is reasonable, considering you ll never get the maximum signal level from any disc except a test disc. To see what I mean, look at the 0dB (maximum level) spectrogram (Graph 1) which shows second, third, fifth and seventh-order harmonic distortion components, with the first three at around 110dB. Now look at the 10dB graph (Graph 2) and there s only a single third-order component at 120dB. (Ignore the signals up around 16kHz on this graph and the following ones, which are interference from a nearby computer monitor.) While you re looking at graphs, take a look at the result at 60dB and you can see that the noise floor is around 120dB down Hz Hz Hz Graph 9. Frequency Response 0dB recorded level. [Marantz SA-KI Prl Lite] Graph 1. 0dB recorded level. [] Graph dB recorded level. (With dither) [Marantz SA-KI-Pearl-Lite Player] Hz Graph dB recorded level. [] Hz Graph dB recorded level. (No dither) [Marantz SA-KI-Pearl-Lite Player] Hz Graph 10. Impulse Train. (One maximum amplitude positive sample every 70 samples (630 pulses per second). [Marantz SA-KI Pearl Lite SACD Player] db Hz Graph dB recorded level. [] Hz Graph dB recorded level. (With dither) [Marantz SA-KI Pearl Lite Player] Hz Graph 11: Jitter Susceptibility at 250Hz (Red Trace) 997Hz (Blue Trace) and 12kHz (Yellow Trace). Digital input. 24-bit/48kHz. [Marantz SA-KI Pearl Lite SACD Player] Hz Graph dB recorded level. (No dither) [Marantz SA-KI-Pearl-Lite Player] Hz Graph 8. CCIF Distortion (Twin-Tone 0dB using 19kHz and 20kHz test signals in 1:1 ratio. [Marantz SA-KI Pearl Lite SACD Player] 010 % 2 Hz Graph 12: Total Harmonic Distortion & Noise (THD+N) vs Frequency at -20dB (Green Trace) and -1dB (Red Trace). Digital input. 24-bit/48kHz. [] 88 Australian

5 L A B R E P O R T and although you can see the D/A converter is hard at work, there are no harmonicallyrelated distortion components visible, or any real sampling artefacts from the DAC. Even further down, at 80.59dB, there are some sampling artefacts visible, but everything is still around 120dB, way below audibility. Also, the tests are with undithered test signals, which make it hard for the DAC, whereas all music discs are dithered. To see the difference dithering makes to performance, compare Graph 4 with Graph 5, Graph 4 being an undithered test signal and Graph 5 being around the same recorded level (80.70dB) but dithered this time. The noise floor has increased in level slightly (from down near 140dB to a bit above 130dB) but the floor itself is now beautifully uniform, and not only are there no harmonically-related distortions visible; there are no DAC artefacts either. The same traits are abundantly clear when comparing Graph 6 (an undithered test signal at 91.24dB) with Graph 7 (a dithered test signal at a level of 90.31dB). In the undithered signal, you can see harmonically-related (odd-order) distortion components at 3kHz, 5kHz, 7kHz, etc, right out to 20kHz. Once the signal is dithered, the DAC cleans up its act and all the distortion disappears, leaving only the 1kHz test signal at the left of the graph. The signals at the extreme left of the graph are from the power supply, so there s some power supply noise, but as you can see, it s more than 100dB down and so, because of the low level and the low frequency, it would be completely inaudible. Channel phase was excellent, as regards both inter-channel phase and group delay, as you can see from the tabulated results. These results also show only tiny errors in de-emphasis not to mention that this player actually has a de-emphasis circuit, and therefore can be used to correctly replay older (pressed prior to 1988) CDs. Linearity errors are also vanishingly low at all recorded levels. Low, too, is mains power consumption, particularly in standby mode. Standby power consumption is only 0.24-watts, which comes in well under the bar set by the Australian government for this specification. Even when the unit is operating it draws only 13.5-watts. supplied two sets of test results for the Marantz s digital sections. The one appended to the main test result section shows results gained when playing a standard test disc, with 16-bit/44.1kHz test signals. Performance is excellent, and I can t see how you d benefit at least with today s technology by using an external DAC. The second set shows the performance when the Pearl Lite is itself being used as a DAC, decoding external 48kHz/24-bit test signals. Again, performance is outstanding. Overall, I found the measured performance of the Marantz SA-KI-Pearl-Lite to be outstanding in every respect. S. H. - Test Results Analogue Section Result Units/Comment Output Voltage / volts (Left Ch/ Right Ch) Frequency Response See Graph db (20Hz 20kHz) Channel Separation 131 / 110 / 104 db at 16Hz / 1kHz / 20kHz THD+N 0 Channel Balance 0 Channel Phase 0.02 / 0.03 / 0.73 degrees at 16Hz / 1kHz / 20kHz Group Delay 4.13 / 5.34 degrees (1 20kHz / 20 1kHz) Signal-to-Noise Ratio (No Pre-emph) 81 / 95 db (unweighted/weighted) De-Emphasis Error 0.01 / 0.01 /0.13 at 1kHz / 4kHz / 16kHz Linearity 6dB / 7dB 0.03 / 0.03 db (Test Signal Not Dithered) Linearity 80.59dB / 85.24dB 0.06 / 0.07 db (Test Signal Not Dithered) Linearity 89.46dB / 91.24dB 0.07 / 0.04 db (Test Signal Not Dithered) Linearity 80.70dB / 90.31dB 0.05 / 0.11 db (Test Signal Dithered) Power Consumption 0.24 / 13.5 watts (Standby / On) Mains Voltage During Testing (Minimum Maximum) Digital Section Units/Comment Digital Carrier Amplitude 78mV Audioband Digital Carrier Amplitude 1.13V / 2.28V Differential / Common Mode Audioband Jitter 5.6 / ns (p p) / UI (p p) Data Jitter 5.6 / ns (p p) / UI (p p) Deviation 22.0 ppm Frame Rate Eye-Narrowing (Zero Cross) 7.5 / 0.04 ns (p p) / UI (p p) Eye-Narrowing (200mV) 14.4 / 0.07 ns (p p) / UI (p p) Absolute Phase Normal Normal / Inverted Bit Activity at Digital O/P 16 Where Fitted Marantz Digital Section (AES-17 Standard using 48kHz/24-Bit) Digital Section Result Units/Comment Out of Band Spurious Components Suppression of Imaging Components (Worst Case) Level Dependent Logarithmic Gain Intermodulation Distortion (1) kHz/20kHz 1:1 Ratio Intermodulation Distortion (2) Hz/7993Hz 4:1 Ratio Low Level Noise Modulation Worst Case Idle Channel Noise CCIR-RMS weighting Signal-to-Noise Ratio CCIR-RMS weighting Power Line Products Hz Non-Linear Interchannel Crosstalk (a) kHz (2nd-order ref 17kHz/20kHz) Non-Linear Interchannel Crosstalk (b) kHz (3rd-order ref 17kHz/20kHz) Non-Linear Interchannel Crosstalk (c) kHz (2nd re 40Hz/10kHz) Non-Linear Interchannel Crosstalk (d) kHz (3rd re 40Hz/10kHz) Absolute Phase Non-Inverting Normal/Inverted Hz Hz Graph 13: Suppression of Imaging Components. Left channel (Red Trace); Right channel (Blue Graph 14: Idle Channel Noise Spectrum. Digital input. 24-bit/48kHz. [Marantz SA-KI Prl Lite] Trace). Digital input. 24-bit/48kHz. [Marantz SA-KI Pearl Lite SACD Player] 90 Australian

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