Fantastic New Budget DAC: The Marantz HD DAC1

Hi Stefan.

Sorry to hear about that, and slightly troubling it's happened on another unit.

My replacement arrived yesterday and, so far (touch wood) this one is silent with no hum. It gets rather warm at the back after a few hours, but not extremely hot like the last one. I did notice a VERY faint high pitched whistle with headphones when using the front usb input, before its locked onto the signal. When locked & playing its fine. The only other issue for me is it still won't work properly with my iPod 80GB 5.5 gen. The marantz logo appears, but its always in remote mode, can't access tracks on the ipod, I have to do it via the DAC.

My theory for the hum is the RF ferrite beads on the signal wires (you can see them in some interior pics posted online) might not be adequately positioned on some models, or perhaps the signal wires aren't optimally positioned and it picks up some noise around the volume control area. As you say, it shouldn't happen on units of this price.

I'm extremely happy with mine now and it really does sound fabulous. In my opinion it can easily trade blows with those DACs £1000-£1500. It just needs better QC by Marantz's Chinese manufacturers.

Hopefully if you get another it'll be fine.

John.

 

Glad to hear most issues were resolved!!

 

Thanks! Hoping the units out there with this hum are few and far between. It's such a lovely looking, and sounding DAC it would be unfortunate if the 230V models had issues. Apart from that extremely faint whistle when using the front usb port coming through the phones, which is gone when it's locked to the source (so not a problem in practise), and the semi-functionality when using an older iPod, I'm really happy with this one .

- John -

 

Read my mind. Everything is relative however. Certainly not in my budget.

 

Seems a nice desktop solution. How is the DSD?

 

There is no way this is a desktop solution. It is far too big. The term desktop has been so abused. "Desktop" speakers
that are bigger than stand mounts, etc...

A "desktop" DAC is one the side of a pack of cards, or maybe two.. max.

 

Apologies if I used the wrong word. How is the DSD?

And how does the HDA-1 cf with AK 240?

 

Ooops! Sorry forgot to answer that..it does beautifully with DSD.

I was hooked on the Marantz "DSD sound" when I first heard both the NA-11S1 and the SA-14S1.

Not sure I can answer concerning the DAC chip...?

 

Thanks

No no - I meant how would you say the Marantz cf with Astell & Kern 240 soundwise?

 

Everything you'd hope it would be

It's seriously good - been playing the ISO rips of the SHM-SACD Sticky Fingers and Tubular Bells. This really is true high fidelity sound, the kind one doesn't need to make any excuses for. If there were only more DSD downloads I could easily see myself abandoning vinyl when it sounds this good. The headphone stage on this thing is also remarkable, not a weedy sounding afterthought. I guess a company like Marantz have economies of mass manufacture on their side, so they can sell this for the price they do. As I said earlier, this is a £675 unit in price but would likely cost upwards of 1k from others.....

It's an unusually good performance - it can do both delicacy and thunder!

Aa an aside, it pastes the Audiolab M-DAC I used to run, and in my opinion sounds more full bodied and natural with a better headphone stage than the TEAC UD-501.

J

 

Oh, sorry. No way I can answer. I have never heard the A&K, but if used together as DAC and source I can't
imagine it would not be better than an iPhone or an iPod, which I did try, and that sounded pretty good with AIFF files.

 

Damn it...you just wrote my review..LOL...

 

Hahah sorry! Typing away at the same time here

 

But you nailed it...more and more products like this are going to hit the market and put those who design and sell arbitrarily and absurdly
priced digital gear on notice.

 

It's the 80s promise of digital finally (at long last) coming to fruition; We're edging nearer and nearer to getting a damn-near perfect reconstruction of what originally went into the ADCs now. Unlike vinyl were there seems to be infinite variables, and one will never get all the information 'read' from the grooves, let alone the perfect riaa stage etc., digital is getting close to transparency now. I'm really quite stunned how good the DSD is through this DAC. Heck it even gets the most out of 16-bit too. Competition at this price point is really pushing state of the art performance within reach of many.

Exciting times

 

Agree. So one can ask what makers of $30k, 40K DACs and beyond..are purporting to bring to the table...

My Simaudio Neo 380D is $4000 and I think THAT is crazy.

 

The usual - hugely expensive though undeniably impressive looking chassis. A few extra percent less 0.0000% distortion that's not audible anyway etc. Marketing! Repayments for a new car for the MD of the company etc.

I don't doubt they do sound a little better, and we haven't reached perfection yet & they push the frontiers which trickle down to cheaper gear, but they're out of all proportion to the prices charged.

I used to write for a UK HiFi mag so am quite cynical about a lot of gear, but the Marantz has genuinely surprised me. This thing deserves to do well.

 

Gotcha!

A man after my own heart...Quad amps, Revox A77...Fleet Foxes..good taste indeed. I just bought a B77 and its on the way...!

 

May I also ask - how the USB implementation is?

 

It is very good...Marantz figured out USB two years ago while developing their flagship network player.

But all the inputs sound really good. On my wish list would be AES/EBU, but Marantz does not seem to put that on any of their products.

 

Thank you for your reply.

It's either this or the A & K 240. Different price points for sure.

 

Ah I'd love a B77 - very happy with the A77 though it's waiting for a professional adjustment of the various internal pots as I've replaced all the electrolytics, so it needs a thorough setting up from scratch. The B77 is on my radar though

 

Any thoughts on this post?

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-source/266335-good-bad-marantz-hd-dac1.html

Have to say, I'm not hearing this roll-off myself, if it exists. Faulty measurements or a rogue pre-production sample perhaps?

 

FINALLY !!!!

A DAC that have USB port ON THE FRONT

I don't know why oh why 99% of DACs have USB ON THE BACK

I might try this one
Thanks!

 

FYI, don't get that excited..it is not for connecting a computer. It is for connecting a thumbdrive (limited to 16 bits) or an iPhone/iPod.

There are numerous products that have front USB ports as above btw.