Marantz Pm Ki Ruby Reference Integrated Amplifier Review

Marker brand administrator Ken Ishiwata's 40 years with Marantz, this 'Crimson edition' SACD role player and integrated amplifier aim high. How precious are they?

Nosotros've been hither before: ten years ago Marantz historic Brand Ambassador Ken Ishiwata's 30-yr tenure at the visitor with a KI-Pearl pairing of player and amplifier [HFN Aug '09]. Then its merely fitting that, now he's clocked upwards some other decade, nosotros should have these latest KI Scarlet models, limited to chiliad units apiece (500 of each in golden, 500 in blackness), and selling at £3500 for each unit of measurement.

Y'all tin buy them separately if you really want, but the two are conspicuously designed to work together – information technology'south assumed that most buyers will snap up both, and hopefully become two units with matching series numbers. Both SACD/CD player/DAC and amplifier carry an engraved plaque on the rear with their edition numbers – odd numbers for black models, even for aureate.

In improver each product comes with a certificate signed by Ishiwata, that signature also light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation-etched atop the front console forth with a picayune inset 'cherry-red', which to some optics may exist just the slightest scrap cheesy. I estimate it's a matter of taste…

No Excuses
No such excuses need be fabricated for the residuum of their styling – but then Marantz has e'er given good casework – nor indeed for the engineering within. However, this Cherry pairing differs from past 'KI' models in beingness a 'basis up' design, rather than a breathed-on version of an obvious donor chassis like the SA/PM8006 [HFN Sept '18].

After all, that'southward how the KI-Signatures – and indeed the whole history of Ishiwata-tuned Special Edition Marantzes – originated. The first 'specials' appeared as a pragmatic solution to shifting stock of CD players with 14-chip DACs when consumers were hankering for the and then-new 16-bit designs. Later the process developed into a 'what if…' exercise: what could be washed if one took an existing model, designed to a specific price-bespeak, and threw some extra development and component cash at information technology to enhance performance.

So while the SA-KI Ruby and its partnering amp aren't 'hotted upward' versions of standard Marantz hardware, like the standard SA/PM8006 they are examples of technology beingness trickled downward from on loftier, in this case from the flagship SA-x player and PM-ten amplifier [HFN Mar & Aug '17]. It's only that in the KI Ruby models the trickle doesn't have quite and so far to go!

The SA-KI Ruby, in the style of contempo upmarket Marantz players, combines the functions of SACD/CD player and DAC, having both the company's defended SACDM-3 transport mechanism – in place of the do-it-all figurer-type drives used in many modern players – and digital inputs on asynchronous USB Type B as well equally South/PDIF. Forth with CD/SACD discs, the transport can also play compilations burnt onto CD-ROM or DVD-ROM media.

The USB input can handle files upwards to PCM/DXD 384kHz/32-bit and DSD256/11.2MHz, with all inputs upsampled and finally converted to DSD prior to D-to-A conversion. This technique, used in the height-finish SA-x histrion, is the event of Ishiwata'south enthusiasm for all things DSD and the piece of work of his colleague Rainer Finck, who has been involved with single-fleck technology ever since he was role of the original Philips Bitstream team in the very early '90s. A 1-bit DAC offers the promise of monotonic conversion and requires little more than a low-pass filter at the output. This custom-designed ane-bit approach is dubbed 'Marantz Musical Mastering', and offers the user a selection of filter settings in the initial processing phase.

Premium Phono
The analogue output stage and separate headphone amp both use Marantz's familiar HDAM (Hyper-Dynamic Amplifier Module) discrete op-amps, now in SA2 guise, while a substantial toroidal and PSU (with multiple regulation) powers the player.

The PM-KI Cherry amp uses an in-house phono section, dubbed 'Marantz Musical Premium Phono' EQ and, like the MMM technology in the thespian, is designed to simplify the point path as much equally possible in the search for improved allegiance. The two-stage excursion, with part-active/part-passive RIAA eq, employs a low racket input phase combining Marantz HDAMs with J-FETs. The built-in head amp allows the employ of MC cartridges too as MMs.

This phono stage pattern is drawn from the PM-ten amp, and the same thinking informs the rest of the PM-KI Ruby where the preamp stage uses HDAM-SA3s, and where the Grade D power amplifier stage is an 'unbalanced' version of the PM-x'due south bridged pattern, delivering a quoted 100W/8ohm. Split up PSUs are used for the pre and power sections, with the former having its own toroidal transformer. At that place'southward besides a newly-designed volume control boasting improved linearity and channel residuum, while the speaker terminals are machined from loftier-purity copper.

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Source: https://www.hifinews.com/content/marantz-sa-kipm-ki-ruby-sacd-playeramplifier

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