This is the new Marantz SA-11S2, a £2500 stereo SACD/CD player designed to bring much of the performance of the flagship SA-7S1 to a more affordable price-point.
The player draws heavily on the main building-blocks of the SA-7S1, using the same transport, digital to analogue conversion and main circuit layout as the £5000 player.
Digital to analogue conversion is handled by a pair of mono converters, each comprising four separate processors, which share PCM and DSD duties. These are used as part of a fully-balanced dual-differential layout, designed to give optimal channel matching.
The SACDM-1 transport mechanism is encased in 1cm thick extruded aluminium for isolation, and has a die-cast metal tray with a non-reflective coating to tackle light scatter.
A high-capacity SuperRing transformer is used, again isolated by a copper-plated case and an aluminium shorting ring.
High-quality components are employed throughout, and the player uses the latest version of Marantz's Hyper Dynamic Amplifier Modules, or HDAMs.