With Amazon Prime Day just around the corner, a lot of hi-fi retailers are looking to hop on the summer sales spending wagon by offering some pretty tasty discounts on great hi-fi kit. And who are we to complain.
For anyone thinking of going big on their next system and in need a CD player as a source, the Marantz SA-10 disc player may already be on your shortlist – and if it isn’t, it should be. While it’s a few years old now (we reviewed it in 2018), it is still one of our favourites to recommend for anyone with thousands, rather than hundreds, to spend.
We gave it five stars back when we tested it at an eye-watering £6000, and now you can pick it up for £2000 less than that, costing £3999 with this deal from Peter Tyson – £3000 off of RRP.
The best Marantz SA-10 deal
When we reviewed the Marantz SA-10, we said that the company’s top-end disc players have a tendency to become the stuff of hi-fi legend, and six years on from our review, the SA-10 certainly looks to be following suit.
We say disc player, since the SA-10 also reads SACDs and music stored on DVD-ROMs. File compatibility from disc is impressive too, ranging from 24-bit/192kHz FLACs and DSD128 all the way to ALAC, AIFF and MP3s.
Disc drive aside you can also access the player’s internal digital-to-analogue circuitry through USB (type B), coax and optical digital inputs, plus you can play music from a USB memory stick or Apple device through a USB type A connecter. A plethora of options, as you might well expect at this price, and the SA-10 delivers.
The way the SA-10 performs is equally as impressive, with a stunning amount of detail and an organised presentation, that handles anything you throw at it with care and composure. In particular, we find the subtlety with which it expresses instrument texture and tracks small-scale dynamic changes to be superb, and certainly show the class of player with which you are working with.
It does plenty in the way of scale and authority, too, and there’s a real solidity tp the presentation that never sounds cluttered or stressed.
Overall it is an incredibly refined performer, that has a sweet and smooth disposition yet always packs enough bite to satisfy. Considering it impressed us at £6000, the fact you can grab it now for £4000 is – sure – still expensive, but an incredible discount to snap up if this is the level of system you are building.
MORE:
Read our full Marantz SA-10 review
Check out our pick of the best CD players you can buy