Marantz SA-KI Ruby CD/SACD player

Over the years since the advent of digital discs in the 80's, the audiophile community rightly prized their vinyl collections as CD's were simply not as musical. I've had several digital disc players over the years, each one more or less successful at reproducing the recorded music. During those years I found myself sending my players away to have them modified, hoping to alter one to reproduce music that was rich, detailed and dynamic like we hear at live musical performances.Marantz has a strong and recognized reputation for designing audio gear that is very musical. Ken Ishiwata was the lead designer at Marantz for 40 years. The Ruby integrated amplifier and the SA-KI Ruby CD/SACD player were the last pieces his design team made. The very reason for the Ruby name is to celebrate his Ruby (40th Anniversary) designs. Sadly, Mr. Ishiwata passed away in November 2019.😢As I began to learn about Mr. Ishiwata and the evolution of his designs and read about the Ruby player, I began to consider it. At $3999, I had to be quite convinced that it would provide a revolutionary improvement in digital music reproduction resulting in a truly musical listening experience.The Marantz SA-KI Ruby CD/SACD player is built like a battleship! Absolutely unparalleled build quality. All of the front panel knobs have a very tight, positive feel to them. The disc drawer opens and closes with a smooth as butter operation! The true magic happens when you play a disc. SACD discs (Super Audio Compact Discs). They sound unbelievably open, airy and effortless. It is all there. Imaging, deep powerful bass, plucks from a guitar and the resulting guitar body resonance, the focus of the human voice with a natural decay into the soundspace, natural depth of a symphony orchestra reproduced truthfully and all of this without any digital glare. No glare! None. This is such a big deal. It is the quality that lesser gear just can't banish. Mr. I's revolutionary digital signal processing along with the quality of the player's components make such sound a reality. Never thought I would hear silver discs sound like this.THE big deal with this player is how it TRULY upsamples CD information making ordinary CD's enjoyable and well recorded music on CD sound unbelievably musical. Virtually identical to the sound of SACDs. I am listening to Paul McCartney's Archive Collection of his Ram album as I write this. It is unbelievable.I will note that I am using a high end power cord and OCC®-7N Solid Silver Wireworld Platinum Eclipse interconnect cables with this beast to optimize its possible performance. If you really care about your music and are willing to part with 4 large then this is the place to do it and the disc player to do it on.PS I originally forgot to mention that you need to give this machine time to burn in. As a general rule, better components require more burn in time for them to sing. Play a loudly recorded disc on repeat for most of a week and a half before passing judgement unless you have a burn in disc that can perform the task more quickly. The music will acquire an openness and dynamic flow that sounds much like a live performance!UPDATE: May 8, 2020. After having time to really appreciate all of the qualities of this wonderful "piece of kit" as the Brits say, I want to update my review. SACDs are Wonderful if you have them in your collection! If you are a CD listener then you may like this player even more. It is Truly Incredible how close to SACD sound your CD's will be reproduced by this player! Additionally, when playing CDs, you can choose between "filter 1 or filter 2" on the heavy duty metal remote. The owner's manual says that filter 2 is brighter. This may be a translation issue, but in all cases it makes the sound more detailed NOT brighter. An example: The "pluck" of a guitar string will have more pluck to it, but the note or any other sounds contained in the music at that moment will not sound brighter. I found that I like filter 2 quite a bit as this player is so refined in its sound and so bereft of any upper midrange emphasis that the extra touch of detailing on leading transients is welcome. A heavily processed CD with artificial detail may sound a bit calmer with filter 1 which is the default filter setting. NOTE: SACD playback does not involve these filters at all! I use the "Ruby" for disc playback only so I have nothing to say about its function as a DAC.

Positive.....Solid build inside an out at 37 or so pounds. Overseen by a master. Listen to SACD as intended, DSD layer. This is the price level where you get DSD layer playback, why collect SACD and only hear the PCM. Good price now. Not sure but there may only be 1000 of theses. Sound is awsome. CDs sound great, yet more revealing, so it calls for a care in the process: recording, engineering, mastering, and production. It doesn't have the connectability features as the all-in-one internet machines. Which is what I wanted from this unit. I have PC connected to Amazon HD, and a Sony Z1ES. Lights and display, and other functions can be turned off. It will make you break out your collection.Negative: The functioning of the unit is slow. It loads and reads slow on all media. It takes its sweet time, and I really do not mind. I have some SHM from Japan that it hits or missing reading. The tray sucks. It is difficult to lay in and take out a disk, The tray doesn't allow easy fingering of the disk. Accessing the menu for USB files from a drive is horrible, there is no app, and the whole process sucks. I would think it may be easier to connect drive via PC. The sound trumps most of the negative for me.The seller was top notch, in every way.

While the unit itself is wonderful, the remote has never worked. A call to the manufacturer promised a remote replacement in two to three weeks. Nearly six weeks later, no replacement has been received. For as much as this cost, this is a very poor performance.

The unit performs even beyond my expectations and is extremely well built. There is not a single thing I can find to criticize. Audio quality is spectacular ! I couldn't be happier with this purchase.

The best.

This player replaced a highly modified, and externally clocked, tired Sony SCD-777ES. And boy, did it ever. The difference is not subtle. 3D as all get out. Good CDs can now compete with fine LP rigs. Buy this player before they have all been snatched up.