Marantz Reference Series PM-11S3 Integrated Amplifier and SA-11S3 SACD/CD Player

It’s impossible not to be impressed with these new entries in Marantz’s Reference Series. Their weight alone—59 pounds for the PM-11S3 amplifier, 37 for the SA-11S3 SACD player— tells you they mean serious business. With beefed-up chassis (5mm thick for the top plates), copper-plated internal surfaces to resist RF, and even special isolating/absorbing feet, they seem intended to realize the idea of integration in an unusually thorough way. Marantz apparently doesn’t want the end user to feel he or she has to supply anything for optimal performance, apart from an interconnect to link the two components together (though a generic one comes with the player). A fair number of parts and features from the Reference Series’ separates has been incorporated into these models, which, while far from inexpensive, nevertheless come in at prices considerably lower than Marantz’s flagship models, the integrated amp and the SACD/CD player each retailing for a dollar under five and four grand respectively. Looks, design, and build are of highest quality.

Let’s start with the integrated amplifier, which is equipped with forty of the latest generation of Marantz’s all-discrete amplifier modules. Rated at 100Wpc into eight ohms, doubling into four, the PM-11S3 boasts a huge toroidal transformer that ensures absolute stability into any loudspeaker load, the circuit optimized for maximum current delivery within its power rating.

The control half of the unit has some novel features, including a configuration whereby two or more units can be tethered for multichannel operation. There’s a built-in phonostage (switch- selectable for moving coils and moving magnets); two line-level inputs; two tape loops with monitoring; and one balanced pair. There is provision for two pairs of speaker systems with switching, Marantz’s own heavy-duty speaker terminals looking as substantial as anything from WBT, as do the other jacks. The amp and preamp sections can be operated independently, though not both at the same time. For all the obeisance to audiophile concerns, it’s curious the AC receptacle on the back is only two-pronged, not three—the same for the disc player—so how this will work with most after-market cords that have a separate ground I don’t know. The same remote handset operates both the amplifier and the disc player, and it is not an accessory, as certain functions on both components are inaccessible without it.

In an otherwise rather full-featured product, a puzzling omission is a mono switch, very odd inasmuch as there is left/right channel balance. Don’t manufacturers know mono operation is essential for routine system checks, not to mention mono sources, which usually sound better played that way? My regular readers will know I applaud the inclusion of a balance control and also tone controls, which Marantz has gone so far as to make accessible even—indeed, only—from the handset. Well done and deserving of an extra round of applause . . . except that the actual implementation leaves a lot to be desired. To start with, accessing them requires entering a menu where the settings are selected with the “help” of the front-panel alphanumeric display. The reason for those quotation marks is because the display is so small that I couldn’t read it from my listening seat some ten or eleven feet away. Guys, what good is remote operation if you can’t read the settings from the location where you’re likely to be entering them?

The tone controls operate in 2dB increments over a ±8dB range, an adequate spread at the bass end for normal listening levels, much less so for very low levels, though at least the 50Hz center frequency is well chosen. But whose idea was it to center the treble at 20kHz? It’s utterly useless for fixing bright recordings, which require no higher than 10kHz, with 7k–8k much preferable. About all 20kHz is good for is taming the resonance of inadequately loaded mc pickups.

Like many integrated disc players these days, the SA-11S3 allows for independent operation of its DAC section and transport. It also seems to have every kind of input and output jack you are likely to need, including USB-A and -B. I am not much into downloads yet, so I cannot comment on the DAC section’s performance or flexibility in this regard. It wouldn’t recognize some Chesky WAV files downloaded from HDtracks onto a USB stick (a check of the manual indicates it will play only MP3 and WMA files). It’s entirely possible this could be circumvented by connecting a computer to the SA-11S3, which can be done, but, as I said, I’m only beginning to experiment with hi-res downloads and am not savvy yet about any of this. All the same, I doubt anyone contemplating the purchase of a disc player is doing so because he or she wants to use it for downloads. One thing I did find extremely useful is the selectable optical input. I subscribe to DirectTV, which still has not worked out its grounding issues to eliminate 60Hz hum when its DVR is connected to a sound system. But connecting the optical out from my display to the Marantz yielded blessedly hum-free sound. Otherwise, I used the SA-11S3 strictly as a disc-spinner.

In common with the more expensive Reference Series Marantzes, the SA-11S3 has digital filters and a noise-shaping circuit. According to the company’s literature, with Red Book sources Filter 1 has “extremely short pre- and post-echo characteristics and an absolutely linear phase response” for the highest fidelity to the original digital source, while Filter 2 provides a more “analog-like signal,” meaning some detail is sacrificed in favor of “rich harmonics.” With SACDs, Filter 1 provides no additional filtering, while Filter 2 “attenuates any residuals above 100kHz.” There is also a noise-shaping filter “for in-band low-level linearity” and another that cuts out infrasonic signals (DC to 1.7Hz). All filters are accessible only from the handset, and whatever is in use at turn-off is defaulted to upon turn-on. As with the amplifier, the display is too small to read from a typical listening location.

Marantz products almost always stand out from their competitors for a very musical sound that is notably free from harshness, glare, or anything remotely abrasive. Such is the case here with both products. The tonal balance of the PM-11S3 is about as neutral as you can get, which means that nothing calls attention to itself up and down the spectrum. Occasionally you run into designs that subtly highlight one part of the spectrum over the other. A few issues back I reviewed Plinius’ powerful Hautonga integrated amplifier (TAS 229), which, like this Marantz, also comes outfitted with a phonostage and is more or less competitively priced ($5750). The Hautonga exhibited great control and dynamic impact, but its sound was definitely on the Yang side of the continuum: crisp, etched, if not bright then certainly canted that way. While all this was within the bounds of acceptable neutrality, those characteristics were observable with critical listening.

This Marantz displays no such anomaly. As with the Plinius, I hear no bogus warmth, but, as is not the case with the Plinius, neither do I hear anything in the opposite direction. The top end is very extended, but quite natural and easy on the ears. For example, on the SACD of Christy Baron’s Steppin’, all the high percussion (including rain sticks) emerge with truly crystalline clarity and glitter yet without any excess audiophile “sparkle,” so to speak. The midrange displays welcome body, ripeness, and dimensionality (again, a bit more than the Plinius), the bottom end has the kind of extension, weight, power, and definition you’d expect from an amplifier equipped with a transformer the size and weight of this one. But again, there’s no hype or hard-sell here, so if you’re a bass-freak who wants extra push, I’d suggest a good listen before buying. For me, it was right on, but your tastes may be different. (The Plinius has a lot of bottom-end oomph.)

One area where the PM-11S3 really pulls ahead of the integrated pack is with the included phonostage. While it’s nice to see more and more manufacturers paying attention to the persistence of vinyl in an increasingly digital age, many built-in phonostages give the impression of being something of an afterthought, included more as a selling point. Not so here. This one is astoundingly clean, lifelike, and about as transparent as any I’ve heard— you feel you can almost reach out and touch the sound, it’s so palpable. Though it lacks options for loading moving coils, the fixed impedance of 100 ohms is an ideal value if there is to be only one. The presentation on the Bernstein Carmen had a rare tactile presence, combined with sensational dynamic wallop and brilliance. Perhaps there was a tad too much of the latter quality, but I am certain this owes not to the circuit itself but to the slightly high 100-ohm loading for the Ortofon Windfeld, which really does like about to see about 30–50 ohms for absolute neutrality. This is one area where the 20kHz-centered treble control proved genuinely useful—a very slight cut did the trick, but even without the cut that little bit of brilliance is so mild that most of the time I didn’t even bother to correct it, except for really extremely bright recordings.

I moved next to Belafonte at Carnegie Hall (Classic Records reissue) and was again rewarded with the same virtues of eye-popping transparency, presence, and body and remarkably precise imaging and soundstaging. In “Sylvie,” the background vocals were perfectly rendered and placed—just present enough to make themselves felt, but not too much—and Belafonte’s voice had tremendous focus and you-are-there realism. Resolution is likewise extraordinary, and again those background voices tell the tale: You can actually make out the words despite how soft the singing is. By the way, hardly less impressive is how truthful applause sounds through this setup—not undifferentiated hash but a huge crowd of real hands brought together to make an approving noise.

I have no way of measuring the performance of electronics, but this phonostage sounds really quiet and unusually low in perceived coloration and distortion. Perhaps there is something to the DC-servo equalization Marantz makes a point of using in preference to what it calls “conventional” RIAA equalization with its “negative feedback.” Offhand I can’t recollect a better built-in phonostage in any integrated amplifier. I don’t like to evoke quality in terms of price, because I find the correlation inexact to say the least, especially when it comes to electronics. But I’ve heard separate phonostages costing three-to-four grand that are no better, some not as good. About the only criticism I might tentatively advance is perhaps a slight foreshortening of depth (slight enough that I wouldn’t want to put any real money on it), which I also noted on digital sources. It may seem odd to be raving so about a built-in phonostage in a unit with looks and design as contemporary as this one and that has a matching disc player, but there it is. Before I move on, let me reiterate how involving the presentation always was. I put on the Belafonte album only to spot check a couple of things, but wound up listening through two of the four sides.

Late in the review process David Chesky provided me with some hi-res WAV downloads of his newest album The New York Rags for solo piano. This was my first experience of high-resolution downloads and they put my jaw into my lap: clean like I’ve rarely heard clean, powerful, vivid, stunningly registered all up and down the scale. The CD version, good in and of itself, simply pales by comparison—and I do mean pales, as in deficient in color, timbre, tonality, and sheer force. I also downloaded a variety sampling from HDtracks and was similarly floored, in particular by a Reference Recording of the Minnesota Orchestra playing “Dance of the Tumblers” from Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden, staggering in its realism, clarity, dynamics, and transparency. (As noted, the SA-11S3 would not read any of these files off a flash drive, so I played them through an Oppo BDP-105 universal Blu-ray player.) Suffice it to say, this is a brave new world I will be exploring in the future. In the meantime, the PM-11S3 fully rose to the occasion of these stellar downloads, as I have no doubt it will with any sources sent its way.

Turning to the SA-11S3, the “sound,” what there is of a distinctive personality, that is, came as no surprise because I’ve been using Marantz’s much lower-priced SA8004 player ($999, TAS 211) as my primary source for SACDs and CDs (though usually feeding it into a Benchmark DAC1 for the latter). The 8004 sacrifices a small amount of detail and absolute resolution for a presentation of great naturalness and musicality. It’s a player I never tire of listening to. The SA-11S3 offers more of the same, though it has state-of-the-art control, neutrality, and resolution (which means you needn’t have any concerns about retrieval of detail). It also costs four times as much, but we all know this doesn’t make it four times better because that’s not how high-end audio works. It’s merely better: thickly scored passages, for example, appear a little more well-ventilated as it were; the presentation is subjectively more transparent; there is better grip. As for SACD sources, I’ve been hooked on the format since it was introduced and have had occasion to use several very fine SACD players in the years since.

This new Marantz is one of the best I’ve heard anywhere and unquestionably the best I’ve had in house. One of the last things I played was the Anonymous Four’s Gloryland. Never have I heard it reproduced with greater purity, presence, or throat-catching beauty.

I spent a lot of time comparing the filters before I read the company’s description of their sonic characteristics. What the literature describes is pretty much what I found: Filter 1 more accurate and neutral, Filter 2 softer, less resolved, but easier to listen to, especially with older recordings that are bright or plagued with early digitalis. I reached the point where I could tell with fair reliability which was engaged without looking, but it took some time and great concentration. In other words, there is no night-and-day difference, their effects instead subtle enough that outside the reviewing context I wasn’t inclined to make a fetish of determining which I preferred every time I slipped in a disc. Filter 2, the more “analog”-sounding one, evokes the sound of my 8004, while Filter 1 is closer to the 8004 going through the Benchmark DAC1 (which I still regard as Red Book reproduction second to none).

So at the end of the day, where do these two Marantzes fit into the market? About the same as at the beginning: outstanding electronics that would do any system proud. The idiosyncratic way the balance and tone controls have been implemented in the PM-11S3 and the lack of a mono switch still annoy me. Deal- breakers? Not a decision I’m prepared to make for you, but that fabulous phonostage would and should loom awfully large if LPs occupy a lot of your listening time. As for the SA-11S3, well, unless I had much more discretionary income than I do, four grand is about the absolute most I’d consider paying for any product with a technology that changes as rapidly as digital does. But if I did make such a plunge, this Marantz would head the list, and by some distance, owing to its lineage, its perfect mediation of musicality and neutrality on Red Book sources, and its absolutely magnificent SACD performance.

One thing I see I’ve neglected is how beautifully styled these products are, the amplifier imposingly so. On either side of the display area, hidden behind the center escutcheons, Marantz has put a blue light that shines behind a narrow translucent cover from top to bottom. It makes for a soft lovely glow that, along with the curved side cheeks, mitigates the severity of all that gleaming black metal. My description hardly does it justice, but it confers an elegance that more or less symbolizes what these units are sonically: covering all the bases with an inimitable combination of power and poise yet scrupulously attentive to subtlety and nuance.

SPECS & PRICING

PM‑11S3 integrated Amplifier
Power: 100Wpc, 8 ohms; 200Wpc, 4 ohms, 20Hz—20kHz
THD: 0.01%
Dimensions: 17‑5/16″ x 6‑5/8″ x 17‑7/8″
Weight: 59 lbs.
Price: $4999

SA‑11S3 SACD/CD player
Sources: CD, SACD, CD‑R, CD‑RW, MP3, WMA, AAC,
Inputs: Optical, coaxial, USB‑A (front), USB‑B (rear)
Outputs: single‑ended, balanced, optical, coaxial
Dimensions: 17‑5/16″ x 5″ x 16‑9/16″
Weight: 37.5 lbs.
Warranty: 3 years parts and labor
Price: $3999

Marantz USA
​us.marantz.com