I had fun setting up the Marantz TT15S1. It comes completely disassembled but setup is logical and simple, even for a layman like me. I decided to do it myself because I was shocked at the way the dealers's technician was manhandling his demo unit. Wanted to post first impressions of the product:
Positives:
Its a big big jump in performance as compared to the Rega. A few things stand out:
1. Tremendous sense of rhythm and pace
2. Sweetness that transcends genres - Coltrane, Dylan, Tull and Rostropovich, all sounded beautiful
3. Pinpoint focus and large soundstage on stereo recordings. Mono recordings make you forget that there are two speakers in your room
4. Overall good build
5. Detached motor that sits on your rack without touching the plinth
5. Great looks, with a white acrylic plinth and solid looking feet
The negatives:
1. The manual - it's written in funny Chinese english. Wonder why a relatively pricey tt would come with a badly written manual. The pictures in the manual are badly reproduced scans, not even photographs. There are sentences like 'on the left of the underside screw extending upwardly...'. Strange!
2. I had a bit of a problem with the wonderful sounding Clearaudio Virtuoso cartridge. When I tried to push the tonearm wires into the cartridge pins, and I did this very gently, the body of the cart came apart from its plastic top. When examined, it appeared to be merely stuck with some cheap glue, so a bit of fevikwik did the job. Now I wonder why a company like Clearaudio will not spend a few dollars more on building a more stable cart!
3. No dust cover.
Overall, an excellent performer that could well succeed in converting a digital guy like me to vinyls
Cheers!
