Breaking In Marantz SA8005

Randy Myers

Randy Myers

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I just received my brand new Marantz SA8005 spinner yesterday. I have gotten it all setup and controls figured out. I even have it set to use as an alternative DAC from the Roon Server mainly to use it's built in Headphone Amplifier on either downloaded files or disks.

Initial thoughts are very very impressive. It feels very nice and heavy duty. The operations seem solid and tight. Sound quality is excellent, better than any disk player I have ever heard to date. Even Redbooks sound fantastic, better than I have ever heard Redbooks sound.

I would believe that it requires a break in period like every other new component I have gotten. As with the other equipment I have put in my system I would say it has a ever so slight brightness and transition harshness. Every other piece of gear that I currently have experienced this and smoothed out nicely.

Does anyone have a good idea how long a break in a disk spinner such as this will take? I assume similar to the DAC (since it is in fact a DAC right :)), which was a couple hundred hours. Any recommendations on particulars when breaking in.

As always, thank you very much for your input.
 
From my past experience with the Marantz cd 63 SE & then the Marantz CD 17 KI Series as mentioned above 24 hrs lets everything settle in but around that 50 hr mark everything seems to really come together & the bass & treble just meld.
Marantz make some great spinners & always remember my CD 17 KI Series with longing
 
Congratulations Randy. Marantz is good stuff. I've had several of their players/dacs and loved them. You should be good to go in no time, 50 hours should be plenty.

Kev, I think I had the 63 and external DAC too. That was a great combo.
 
Thanks, I am loving it so far. Honestly I turned off my music server (to give it a rest for a few days) since I knew I was going to be spinning for a while. I have even been once again enjoying some of my Redbooks besides SA-CDs :)....
 
It is excellent news when a customer is happy with the purchase !! Enjoy.

I believe that a good SACD spinner can easily outperform an average PC based music source with questionable USB interfaces and cables.
 
So far so good on the Marantz. I believe the SA-CD sounds excellent and Redbooks sound better than I have heard them previously.

I do not believe that it is better than my USB based system though. The PC is exceptional and optimized about as good as I can get it without changing specific parts on the mother board itself. I do use higher grade cabling, a Wireworld from the PC to the Wyred 4 Sound Recovery unit (which is fantastic and probably accounts for much of the difference with the computer based music) and another Wireworld cable into the DAC from the Recovery. I also believe the W4S DAC, with the Femto clock, is superior to the Marantz, but I believe the Marantz is proving to be a great spinner!
 
Randy, my experience with the Marantz players was you just forget about the hype & just relax & listen with a smile.
 
Yes, I agree. Very nice sounding machine and seems to be built very well!
 
Randy Myers said:
I would believe that it requires a break in period like every other new component I have gotten. As with the other equipment I have put in my system I would say it has a ever so slight brightness and transition harshness. Every other piece of gear that I currently have experienced this and smoothed out nicely.

Does anyone have a good idea how long a break in a disk spinner such as this will take? I assume similar to the DAC (since it is in fact a DAC right :)), which was a couple hundred hours. Any recommendations on particulars when breaking in.
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There's no need to believe your Marantz SA8005 requires a break-in period, it doesn't. With over forty years experience and numerous purchases of high fidelity devices, I can honestly say I've never owned a device which required breaking-in. Truth be told, as far as I know this phenomenon didn't actually exist when I started purchasing hi-fi equipment.

My recommendation would be to distance yourself from this concept altogether, if only because the device you're utilising to make these judgements is simply not suitable for the task, and in itself couldn't maintain consistency for two hundred minutes, never mind the two hundred hours you suggest, which I take it is also divided between separate listening sessions.
 
Ok, well I have gone way beyond what I would consider a break in period in hours of listening and the Marantz sounds very good!

My experience is exactly the opposite in that virtually every piece of new gear I have gotten since jumping back into this hobby has shown significant improvements with break in.

I also trust EJ Sarmento's opinion on this subject. He is considered one of the young genius's in the audio design world. He told me that a Class D amplifier requires 500+ hours to break in completely. He actually loaned me a resistor type box which is puts a speaker type load on an amplifier, designed to keep an amplifier playing even when you are not actively listening. This is designed specifically to help break in the equipment.

In fact many of my pieces of equipment actually state the number of hours needed to fully break in within the owners manual. Each piece smoothed out and opened up considerably with hours of break in.

I imagine 99.9% of the members on this forum would agree with this also.
 
I agree Randy, some gear just takes much longer to break in than others. I usually just love to hear the piece play and try and recognize changes as they come. Of course I've been a little impatient with some gear, but it really cool to look up and realize somethings different and waaaaaaay better than the day before or even hour before. I love those Ah Ha moments when you realize that it's really good.

Enjoy!
 
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