Marantz SA8260 (2003)

The Marantz SA8260 was the company's second multi-channel SACD player. It came out in Japan in August 2003 at ¥99,800. It inherited technology from Marantz's high-end SACD machines - the SA-1, SA-12S1, SA-14, and SA-14v.2 - and was positioned as a cheaper way into multi-channel SACD. A black finish variant was limited to 100 units.

The engineering is in the output stage. The SA8260 was the first Marantz SACD player to use the current-feedback HDAM (High-Speed Voltage Amplification Module) circuit for all channels of audio output. That circuit first appeared in the high-end SA-14. The filter stage used a discrete current-feedback amplifier. The DAC section ran on three Cirrus Logic CS4397 chips for six-channel support, with the DSD signal connected directly to a 24-element switched capacitor at the final stage of the SACD DAC. For CD playback, the PCM signal was oversampled to 128 fs inside the same DAC. A copper plate under the multi-channel output terminals tied all six channel grounds to a single point. That detail was borrowed from the SA-12S1.

The mechanical side got the same attention. Marantz developed a dedicated SACD/CD audio mechanism in-house. The double-layer chassis had a 1.6mm steel bottom plate (1.3 kg) for vibration control. The transformer was an EI type with OFC winding, and the power supply used custom audio-grade 3300 µF/25V capacitors. An LPF switch let owners pick wide-band "Custom" filtering for SACD-compatible systems or "Standard" filtering for conventional setups. A display-off function suppressed noise from the fluorescent tube. The player could read SACD and CD TEXT information.

The SA8260 also earned a Stereophile recommendation, though details of that review have not surfaced in the Archive's files. Period marketing was confident. Marantz's own material claimed the SA8260 was "destined to be the next legend," reflecting on the success of the CD-63SE. Owner reports are mixed. Some praise the sound quality, while others note slow response, incomplete disc ejection, and read errors developing on both SACD and CD layers after months of use.

Known specifications:

- Playable discs: SACD (multi/stereo), CD, CD-R, CD-RW

- Frequency response: SACD 2 Hz–100 kHz; CD 2 Hz–20 kHz

- Dynamic range: SACD 113 dB or more; CD 100 dB or more

- Distortion (1 kHz): SACD 0.0015%; CD 0.002%

- Audio output: 2.2 Vrms

- Digital output (CD only): coaxial 0.5 Vp-p/75Ω; optical -19 dBm

- Headphone output: 50 mW/32Ω

- Power consumption: 28 W

- Dimensions: 440 × 124 × 307 mm; 7.7 kg