New Marantz SA-KI Ruby SACD/CD player

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by bruce2, Sep 11, 2018.

  1. Slippers-on

    Slippers-on Forum Resident

    Location:
    St.Louis Mo.
    CD to my ears then and now doesn't sound as natural to my ears as LP's. Yeah I was fooled into thinking Id never own a TT again when I sold it all back then.
     
  2. bgiliberti

    bgiliberti Will You Be My Neighbor?

    Location:
    USA
    If I understand correctly, you sold your TT and LPs even knowing that they sounded better than CDs. Was the main reason convenience?
     
  3. Slippers-on

    Slippers-on Forum Resident

    Location:
    St.Louis Mo.
    Nope! Lets try i t again. Around 1985 or 86, the hype about CDs was so great, I purchased a player and CD's and enjoyed them for a bit...sold my records and TT and later regretted it.
     
    matrix-6 likes this.
  4. Tony Plachy

    Tony Plachy Senior Member

    Location:
    Pleasantville, NY
    That sounds right to me. Even though the CD was introduced in the US in 1983, it took a few years to really get going. Also the first Sony CD players were very expensive and the reviews of them were good but not great. I waited until 1986 to buy a Magnavox ( Philips ) CD player and my first CD's. I did not, however, sell my TT and vinyl.

    Today, I do not play a lot of CDs, however, I do have about 600 SACDs that a pay often on my wonderful PS Audio digital gear. And, I still own a TT and vinyl.
     
  5. bgiliberti

    bgiliberti Will You Be My Neighbor?

    Location:
    USA
    OK, one more try, and I promise I'll stop. :) I can't understand why you sold your records and TT if, at that time, you thought CDs sounded inferior to your LPs? Most people don't sell what they like better to buy something they like worse. Earlier, you said, you never thought CDs sounded better than LPs.
     
  6. Slippers-on

    Slippers-on Forum Resident

    Location:
    St.Louis Mo.
    I had not owned a CD player for a good while...been playing records. But all the talk about these new Marantz and Denon CDP's peaked my interest again and I took a chance on CD again. Purchased the Denon and was surprised at what I heard.....very positive. Still doesn' sound as good a my TT, but decided to get my CD's out of storage and give them new life. Oh...and my records and TT's are here to stay.
     
    RWAudio likes this.
  7. Slippers-on

    Slippers-on Forum Resident

    Location:
    St.Louis Mo.
    Hahahahaha! Who said I thought CD's sounded inferior at that time? Can you point me to the place or quote I said that? :D
     
  8. bgiliberti

    bgiliberti Will You Be My Neighbor?

    Location:
    USA
    I guess you meant that as a compliment to CDs :)
     
  9. Slippers-on

    Slippers-on Forum Resident

    Location:
    St.Louis Mo.
    Means CD's are not the pinnacle in sound. Doesn't move me as well as the natural tone of a record player playing records which has a more real natural tone or sound to my ears.
     
    bgiliberti, SteveFord and RWAudio like this.
  10. RWAudio

    RWAudio Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brick NJ
  11. Skibum2

    Skibum2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Connecticut
    Seems like a lot of used units are coming up for sale lately. Wonder why?
     
  12. bgiliberti

    bgiliberti Will You Be My Neighbor?

    Location:
    USA
    It seems that way only because @RWAudio posts whenever a Ruby comes up for sale. He does this, I presume, because it's such an amazing player, which is very kind of him.
     
    azideam, RWAudio, Bill Mac and 4 others like this.
  13. bgiliberti

    bgiliberti Will You Be My Neighbor?

    Location:
    USA
    Now I get it....Enjoy the Music!
     
  14. Slippers-on

    Slippers-on Forum Resident

    Location:
    St.Louis Mo.
    Glad you finally got it...only took about 3 try's...lol! Don't worry...at times I'm worst than you...don't believe me,....? just as the wife.:D
     
    bgiliberti likes this.
  15. Cherrycherry

    Cherrycherry Forum Resident

    A quick PM to @Mrs.Slippers-on confirmed this is true.
     
    bgiliberti and Slippers-on like this.
  16. KeeperUSA

    KeeperUSA Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, USA
    Glad we get the notifications, allowed me to buy a 2nd one for a great price.
     
    bgiliberti and RWAudio like this.
  17. jarrod2750

    jarrod2750 Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Centereach, NY
    Maybe they are not getting used enough by the owner, causing people to not want to sit on that amount of potential cash that they can recoup? I definitely do not use mine as frequently as I thought I would and it has crossed my mind to put mine up for sale. Don’t get me wrong, the player is phenomenal.

    Same can be said for the turntable I own. I’ve sold things in the past that I have regretted only to repurchase them because of the emotional attachment. Other gear I sold and never looked back.
     
  18. bgiliberti

    bgiliberti Will You Be My Neighbor?

    Location:
    USA
    A quick PM to my missus would confirm the same about me, especially when it involves the honey-do list. My excuse is hearing loss from attending too many rock concerts in my tender youth. I can’t do what I never heard her ask, right?
     
    Cherrycherry and nutsfortubes like this.
  19. RWAudio

    RWAudio Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brick NJ
  20. Seneca

    Seneca Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scottsdale, AZ
    /Rant mode on
    As one of the earliest Ruby owners (mine were built in July 2018) of what was SUPPOSEDLY a limited production run it really frosts my gourd that Marantz decided to just keep cranking these things out. I’m happy for those who have benefited from this continued production but for those of us who thought we were buying something relatively rare at the time, it sucks. Not only that, here in the U.S. they didn’t even bother putting the special serial number tags on the first units like they did overseas. At least I saved $500 per piece by pre-ordering the PM/SA bundle but that still pales in comparison to those who were paying just $3K for later production models over the past few years.
    /Rant mode off.

    Ok, now for a discovery I just made. After rearranging my gear for the umpteenth time (or as my wife says, AGAIN???), I wound up using a Bluesound Node to stream via coax to the SA-KI. After reading through the comments here, I thought why not try the USB out from the Node to the Ruby? Lo and behold, it works like a champ and it sounds just as good (to my ears) as the coax connection with the added benefit of being able to pass higher rates than 192K. This also freed up the coax (I use the optical for my TV) so I could reinsert my HDMI de-embedder into the chain and run the HDMI out from my OPPO 105 through it and let the RUBY handle the DAC duties rather than the OPPO. I only do this for the occasional Blu-Ray disc or DVD-A disc that won’t play in the Ruby. If you have configured the OPPO correctly, you’ll get 88.2K for SACD and 96K for Blu-Ray or DVD-A.
     
    azideam, Slippers-on and saturdayboy like this.
  21. Slippers-on

    Slippers-on Forum Resident

    Location:
    St.Louis Mo.
    The limited supply was numbered and was only for the European market. After that number was reached in Europe they stopped Ruby In Europe and sold the Marantz PM-12SE The Limited production has numbers on back and are considered collectors Items now. The Limited production wasn’t sold in the USA. Rubys sold in the USA had no number on back.
     
    Bill Mac, Seneca and azideam like this.
  22. KeeperUSA

    KeeperUSA Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, USA
    My Rubys have no numbers. Really want to buy another matching PM-KI amplifier.
     
  23. SocProf

    SocProf Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    How does the 12 series compare to the Ruby in terms of sound quality and features? IIRC, it was never sold in the US.
     
  24. RWAudio

    RWAudio Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brick NJ
    It's basically the same unit without the copper chassis from what I understand.
     
    azideam and SocProf like this.
  25. Slippers-on

    Slippers-on Forum Resident

    Location:
    St.Louis Mo.
    I would think the sound quality would be the same. Dont think it has the copper case work and it doesn't have the Ruby top plate

    PM-12SE
     
    SocProf likes this.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine