Marantz CD5400 OSE CD player reviewed

Overview: Price: £200 Website: www.marantz.com Size: HxWxD: 9x44x32cm Weight: 3.7kg Type: CD player Finish: Black or gold Optical and electrical digital outputs Direct headphone output with volume level control CD text Pitch control Quick replay Plus points: Good sound and appearance with a few unusual features thrown in Minus points: OSE upgrade involves subtle changes which won't be apparent to the casual listener

At first glance, this may look familiar. In fact it's a new version of an older model, but the 'Original SE' moniker in the top right-hand corner gives it away as one of Marantz's 'self-tuned' upgrades. While the world and his wife is having a go at Special Editions of their more popular products, Marantz has gone for the 'Original' mark to remind everyone that they did it first, at least among the major manufacturers. Whatever, the approach, like that of everyone else, is to take the player apart, examine how it works, and replace a few key components with specific upgrades which will improve the overall sonic performance.

The result is a product that costs more, but in theory also delivers a performance more worthy of concentrated listening, than the one which preceded it. In a case such as this, you might question the wisdom of upgrading an essentially 'budget' model with tweaks that are only likely to appeal to dedicated audiophiles, but then Marantz hasn't built a successful business on unwise decisions.

So what do you get for your extra £50? Well, it's been fitted with short key diodes throughout, the idea being to introduce shorter signal paths thereby reducing possible distortion and resonance. The power supply has also been upgraded making it more powerful, more stable and faster responding. Subtle differences really, which require some careful listening to discern - it's definitely worth asking to audition the two together before you buy.

There are a couple of unusual features on board the CD5400 OSE. For one thing, the headphone output has its own volume control, which means you can set a separate level for private listening. Not essential, perhaps, but it adds to the feeling that you're getting something different. Even less common is the inclusion of a variable pitch control, which can raise or lower the pitch of the music by up to two semitones, so if you want to change the key of a piece of music from C to D, you can. Not an option for general use perhaps, but could come in handy if you want to play along to a track in a different key or play back an incorrectly mastered reissue. Miles Davis's 1959 jazz classic Kind Of Blue for instance, was famously mastered at the wrong speed and for decades afterwards, played too fast, and thus raising the pitch, although the mistake was eventually rectified on later CD reissues.

There's a discreetly sized remote control, as you might expect, which includes a one-touch 'quick replay' button which allows you to repeat the last ten seconds of a track - useful for checking out that hard to hear line of a song. CD text is supported on the smart-looking front display, so you can view any additional text information contained on the disc. There is also the option to switch off the display when you're listening closely, thereby eliminating any subtle pulsive noise generated by the display which may interfere with the playback.

The edit button helps when recording to tape (remember that?) by playing the tracks in order according to the tape length and leaving a four-second blank space between each track. Also for use when recording to tape is a peak button, which seeks out the loudest passage on a CD. It will play CD-R and CD-RW discs, so long as they've been finalised. Around the back are coaxial and digital as well as analogue outputs. There's also a remote control connection and a supplied cable for connecting to all-Marantz systems.

Incidentally, the original CD5400 included a Crystal Semiconductor CS 4392 DAC (digital/analogue converter) as does the OSE version - a moderately high-spec bit of kit of a player at this price.

Sound

There's nothing much wrong with the playback on the CD5400 OSE - not at this price. It reproduces bass well, and while it might fall short of the four figure brigade, it certainly wouldn't disgrace itself among many players costing more than twice as much. You might notice a little less assurance at the other end of the scale, with the treble sounding a tad coarse with some of the brighter instruments such as violins or soprano saxophone at tricky moments. Not disastrous, just something to beware of, especially if you're fond of acoustic music.

Overall though it's a very communicative player, with good stereo imaging, fairly neutral tonality and none of the obvious restraint on dynamics which you tend to find on cheaper players.

Verdict:

As an introduction to separates CD replay or indeed as an upgrade from your entry-level product, this Marantz is worth checking out. Whether or not you want to pay the extra for the OSE version rather than the plain vanilla will depend on whether or not you can discern much improvement when auditioning the two together, and on whether you like the idea of special edition badges displayed on your kit.