Marantz SA-8005 or Rega Apollo-R CD Player?

[Happy_Listener]

Hi all,

I'm looking for my final CD player to last me about 10-15 years, or until I won't play my collection anymore and just go streaming. My Marantz 63SE served me well for 20 years but is now started to make some nosies. So I am looking for a moderately priced new one. I have narrowed it down to the Marantz SA8005 or the Rega Apollo-R. I know the Marantz has more features such as DAC and USB but I don't know if I will use those as I don't have very many music files. It also plays SACD's but all of my collection are standard CD's and I don't know if you can even buy SACD's anymore? I could also buy a Micromega CD-20 player for about the same as the other two. I found a good price.

What do you think?

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_664715932]

I can only recommend the one that I own not having heard the Rega.  The Marantz is IMO a lovely bit of kit.  It's very well built and it looks good to me.

It extracts a lot more inforamtion from the disc than any other CD player I have heard.  I was listening to Abbey Road late last night on headphones and was hearing stuff I've not heard before.  It isn't kind to poor recordings as it will extract the bad stuff as well as it does the good stuff.

There are a lot of SACD discs but mainly(?) in the classical world.  I think I can hear a difference between SACD and CD but that may be psychological.  The digital inputs are usefu.  I play film sound through the SA8005.

So I remain very much in love with the SA8005.

Chris

+1
Another happy owner of sa8005

 

[Covenanter]

I can only recommend the one that I own not having heard the Rega. The Marantz is IMO a lovely bit of kit. It's very well built and it looks good to me.

It extracts a lot more inforamtion from the disc than any other CD player I have heard. I was listening to Abbey Road late last night on headphones and was hearing stuff I've not heard before. It isn't kind to poor recordings as it will extract the bad stuff as well as it does the good stuff.

There are a lot of SACD discs but mainly(?) in the classical world. I think I can hear a difference between SACD and CD but that may be psychological. The digital inputs are useful. I play film sound through the SA8005.

So I remain very much in love with the SA8005.

Chris

 

[Al ears]

Good though the Marantz is I would say that the Rega just beats it, for me anyway, on sound quality.

Obviously, as you point out, it doesn't match it or even come close on functionality. I own plenty of SACD and SACD-HD discs (and I can tell the difference between these and a CD when played back on a decent system). SACD are still available but where, and are, expensive options. Mine cover all musical genres. However, all this is probably meaningless to you as you don't own any.

All said and done if you want a very well built CD player that is going to last for years ....... I'd buy the Marantz.

 

[Happy_Listener]

Yes, I think you're right guys. My guess is the Rega might sound slightly better with standard CD's, but the functionality and the build quality of the Marantz is hard to beat. I think I will go for the Marantz, plus my old one lasted 20 years.

On a side note, I will buy some SACD's, but not many. The prices are crazy high. Many of them are $55-$75 usd. Some imported ones I found were even $130-$200. Tears for Fears, Songs from the Big Chair costs $56. It would be interesting for me to compare that one to my vinyl copy.

P.S. I wonder how much a high rez music file costs of the same album?

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_664715932]

Yes, I think you're right guys. My guess is the Rega might sound slightly better with standard CD's, but the functionality and the build quality of the Marantz is hard to beat. I think I will go for the Marantz, plus my old one lasted 20 years.?

On a side note, I will buy some SACD's, but not many. The prices are crazy high. Many of them are $55-$75 usd. Some imported ones I found were even $130-$200. Tears for Fears, Songs from the Big Chair costs $56. It would be interesting for me to compare that one to my vinyl copy.?

P.S.  I wonder how much a high rez music file costs of the same album?

Let us know how you get on, my old marantz cdp which I bought in early 90s still going, I am now using it 6 hours a day in my restaurant.

 

[Al ears]

Yes, I think you're right guys. My guess is the Rega might sound slightly better with standard CD's, but the functionality and the build quality of the Marantz is hard to beat. I think I will go for the Marantz, plus my old one lasted 20 years.

On a side note, I will buy some SACD's, but not many. The prices are crazy high. Many of them are $55-$75 usd. Some imported ones I found were even $130-$200. Tears for Fears, Songs from the Big Chair costs $56. It would be interesting for me to compare that one to my vinyl copy.

P.S. I wonder how much a high rez music file costs of the same album?

As you noticed SACD's can go for silly prices and this is purely down to rarity. It always was pretty much a niche market (except maybe for Japan where most of them are now produced).

It is very often quite hard to find an LP, an SACD and a hi-res file of the same album to compare prices but as a general rule of thumb the LP (especially if heavyweight vinyl) will cost about the same as the hi-res file whilst SACD would be a couple of pounds dearer. At least that has been my experience so far. Probably the dearest of the lot is Blu-ray audio if you can find it.....

 

[BigH]

Yes, I think you're right guys. My guess is the Rega might sound slightly better with standard CD's, but the functionality and the build quality of the Marantz is hard to beat. I think I will go for the Marantz, plus my old one lasted 20 years.

On a side note, I will buy some SACD's, but not many. The prices are crazy high. Many of them are $55-$75 usd. Some imported ones I found were even $130-$200. Tears for Fears, Songs from the Big Chair costs $56. It would be interesting for me to compare that one to my vinyl copy.

P.S. I wonder how much a high rez music file costs of the same album?

There are plenty of cheaper SACDs around esp. if you are in the USA.

Have a look on Amazon, high res. downloads are about $15-$20. See HDTracks etc.

 

[BigH]

Yes, I think you're right guys. My guess is the Rega might sound slightly better with standard CD's, but the functionality and the build quality of the Marantz is hard to beat. I think I will go for the Marantz, plus my old one lasted 20 years.

On a side note, I will buy some SACD's, but not many. The prices are crazy high. Many of them are $55-$75 usd. Some imported ones I found were even $130-$200. Tears for Fears, Songs from the Big Chair costs $56. It would be interesting for me to compare that one to my vinyl copy.

P.S. I wonder how much a high rez music file costs of the same album?

As you noticed SACD's can go for silly prices and this is purely down to rarity. It always was pretty much a niche market (except maybe for Japan where most of them are now produced).

It is very often quite hard to find an LP, an SACD and a hi-res file of the same album to compare prices but as a general rule of thumb the LP (especially if heavyweight vinyl) will cost about the same as the hi-res file whilst SACD would be a couple of pounds dearer. At least that has been my experience so far. Probably the dearest of the lot is Blu-ray audio if you can find it.....

I thought Blu-ray audio was cheaper at around £12-£15, but that may inc. 50 tracks like Stones Grrr.

 

[dim_span]

the Rega is over £500 (the last time I looked) ...

approx £600 gets you a used Acoustic Precision Eikos ... by Tom Evans ... these are as rare as hen's teeth but they do crop up from time to time. Tom still services these. I have the smaller version'

Here's one on ebay for £749 on a buy it now with the option to make an offer .... £650 would be a fair price

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acoustic-prescision-eikos-CD-Player-/191511693086?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2c96fc871e