The auction is for the modification only and does not include the Marantz SA7001 & Marantz SA7001 KI CD player which must be purchased separately.

The new Marantz SA-7001 KI may well be Marantz’s finest sounding sub £1K CD player since the classic Marantz CD-6000 KI. The SA-7001 shares little in common with the CD-6000 in terms of circuit design and aesthetics, but both players do carry the ‘KI’ badge having been tweaked from the basic version by Marantz’s ambassador, Ken Ishiwata. The auction is for the modification only and does not include the Marantz SA7001 & Marantz SA7001 KI CD player which must be purchased separately.

 The SA7001KI is the first Super Audio CD player to be fine-tuned by Ken Ishiwata and, while embracing all the features above, sees significant improvements over the standard SA7001 model. The KI version features complete copper-plating of the chassis and rear panel to reduce signal-degrading electromagnetic radiation. The power supply replaces the standard EL transformer seen in the basic version with high grade toroidal transformer. This transformer has a much higher efficiency due to the very low impedance of the windings with higher current capability.

When you consider the Marantz CD-6000 KI sold for £500.00 back in 1995, the SA-7001 KI price at £600.00 is an absolute bargain. The SA-7001 has already won the EISA 2006/7 award and the SA-7001 KI has been reviewed in the November 2006 issue of Hi-Fi World magazine and received the prestigious 5 globes.

Hot Rodding the 7001.

The SA-7001 electronics are a virtual clone of the now discontinued SA-8400 which cost £700.00. On the base of this alone this makes the SA-7001 remarkable value at £430.00.

Having previously modified the SA-8400 with great success we at Audiocom were confident that the results from SA-7001 and SA-7001 KI would be equally effective. This was particularly true of the ‘KI’ version where master clock, voltage regulation and digital circuitry does not form part of the KI tweaks.

The master clock oscillator in the SA-7001 is located on the DSP board underneath the CD transport. The oscillator design uses a crystal connected across a single gate CMOS inverter. The oscillator works by making the crystal unit filter the output signal of the CMOS gate, and sending it back to the input at a phase shifted sine wave of some 100 mV amplitude. This signal is then buffered by a further single gate CMOS inverter before being divided via two line terminating resistors at the output.

The first level of modifications, Level-1 for the SA-7001 KI is based on significantly improving the master clock. To accomplish this we completely removed the CMOS oscillator and buffer and fitted an ultra-low jitter clock, the Audiocom Superclock 4-S using a short coaxial cable with line termination.

The results were exhilarating and highly rewarding for CD & SACD playback. The sonic performance of both digital formats increased markedly placing a clear and substantial gap between the stock SA-7001 KI and the re-clocked player using Superclock 4.

The prominent effects of this upgrade are the increase in sound-stage depth and width where the increase in acoustic space gives music greater perspective and freeness. The levels of resolution improve substantially allowing more insight into recordings with a level of naturalness, truth of pitch and timbre absent from the stock OEM player.

Timing and coherence is much improved adding a greater analogue flow and the sense of listening is more free flowing, organic and relaxing. Bass notes have better delineation with vocals and instrument placement gaining greater focus. The auction is for the modification only and does not include the Marantz SA7001 & Marantz SA7001 KI CD player which must be purchased separately.

Now the 7001’s jitter blues are a thing of the past we turn our attention to the main power supplies. The KI version of this player uses Schottky diodes and high grade Elna “For Audio” for the main power supply. The on paper performance of Schottky diodes leans towards this type of diode being the optimum choice for everything audio; they provide near instantaneous switching with no reverse recovery transients; but the music sounds slightly bleached and lacks the musicality of other “fast” diodes. For the Level-1 modification we replace the Schottky diodes with HexFRED diodes; these are ultra-fast diodes with soft recovery which in sheer sonic terms outperform the Schottky variety. To complete these set of modification the general purpose power supply reservoir capacitors for the digital power supply are upgraded to Panasonic FC type, the FC capacitors while not labelled “audio grade” outperform many alternatives, including several audio types providing a well focused mid-band, firmer bass, with a more open and airy high frequencies.

The next stage of modifications focuses solely on the DAC, the CS4397. This DAC uses an on board digital interpolation filter unlike the DAC’s of yesteryear which relied on a separate chip.

The CS4397 requires both a 3.3V digital supply and a +5V analogue supply and for this Marantz have selected BA033T & BA05T fixed, 3-pin regulators. Each of these has a typical Ripple Rejection Ratio of 55 db (f = 120Hz, load = 100 Ma), and noise is in the region of 45µV. The impact of this noise riding on the DC rails affects clock lines, digital filter and the digital to analogue conversion process of the DAC chip. The sonic result of this is unwanted glare, edginess and compression to the sound.

In the Level-1 mod we replace the BA033T & BA05T with the Audiocom Super-regulator 2’s, which pack 24 high grade components on to a small, 4-layer, Gold-plated PCB. The Super-regulator 2 rejects noise by using a noise canceling, closed loop system to deliver a much lower noise floor, typically 37db lower than the BA05T type.

This major reduction in noise means the DAC power rails are free of the harmful effects of noise enabling the DAC to perform much closer to its optimal performance.

Next the digital de-coupling, analogue de-coupling and filter capacitors for the CS4397 DAC with Black Gate N & Nx types. This modification works in conjunction with the new ultra-low noise regulators to further improve the transparency, tonal purity and spatial qualities of the music.

Finally we modify the transport internally by reducing resonances caused by the spindle motor (disc spin) and transformer. Here we use Sontech SFRT-AL material which converts vibration energy is into heat. By dampening the propagating waves through the transport structure disc read accuracy is improved placing less work on the servo control of the SACD player.

The Marantz SA-7001 & SA7001 KI modification package costs £350.00 inclusive. The auction is for the modification only and does not include the Marantz SA7001 & Marantz SA7001 KI CD player which must be purchased separately.

SA-7001 Tour de Force

We take the SA7000 KI much further with the Level-2 modification (note; images shown are of Level-2) with 3 stages of discrete regulator power supplies using the Invisus series 2 ultra-low noise, wide bandwidth regulators. New regulation is included for the Digital Signal Processing, DAC analogue power supply & DAC digital power supply. We also undertake extensive digital power supply upgrades, comprehensive de-coupling; High Frequency de-coupling for the cs4397 DAC The Level-2 builds on the performance of the level-1 modification and includes all of the upgrades made in the level-1 package. The level-2 modification costs £550.00 inclusive (or £220.00 to upgrade from level-1).

The level-2 modification is available for installation now; contact us for further details and booking.

Other Marantz Upgrades

We upgrade all Marantz CD, SACD, DVD players from the Marantz CD12 & DA12 through to the latest SA-7S1.Here is a shortlist of the some of the players we have upgraded to varying levels:-

Marantz SA-8400
Marantz SA-11S1
Marantz SA-15S1
Marantz CD-6000 OSE KI
Marantz CD-63 SE KI
Marantz CD-94 mk2
Marantz CD-17 KI mk1
Marantz CD17 KI mk3
Marantz CD-80
Marantz CD-10
Marantz CD-7
Marantz SA-1
Marantz CD-12 & DA-12

The Marantz SA-7001 Level-1 modification is supplied & installed by Audiocom for £350.00 inclusive (excludes carriage).

Once you have purchased the Level-1 modification please contact us to schedule and book your 7001 for the installation. We can offer reasonable rates for insured courier collection & return to mainland UK from your home or workplace (excludes weekends).

The modification work is completed with 4-5 working days from receipt of the CD player. The Level-2 modification is covered by a 12 months parts & labour guarantee, this guarantee excludes any OEM parts such as laser & LCD display.