[Mr. Big]

I found out something about getting the most out of this wonderful unit. In the settings section, I reviewed the setting and made sure everything was turned off that was not needed including the dither setting to off. When I got to HP gain out setting it was on high, not that I use headphones but I just wanted to set it to low, when I changed it from high, medium, and too low, the sound changed and I'm using the XLR outs to my Luxman C800-F preamp. The sound when from very good to oh my god, everything improved from the highs to the lowest of lows, there was more body and warmth, deep bass, and airly and extended highs.  I repeated this several times and every time depending on which setting it affected the sound output. So if you own this unit or the lower model the Ruby, you might want to check this out for yourself, because the change in the HP gain section is impacting the final sound you hear from the unit.

[grsimmon]

Just curious,   did it mention anything about this in the manual,  or did you discover by experimenting?    Was any of the improvement due to using XLR balanced?

I'm considering to get the Ruby or maybe the new generation of Marantz SACD player,  that upsamples everything to DSD 1 million,  lol.    Seriously though, I have heard from multiple aquaintances that the new generation of sampling method from Marantz is a significant step forward.

[sebrof]

Hi Mr. Big, are you saying changing the headphone setting changed the sound to headphones or to speakers? I have the Ruby and I turn the headphone amp off, as well as the disc drive and display, though I never have sat and listened for any difference.

grsimmon - The Hi Med Lo settings for the headphone amp is mentioned in the manual in the context of matching the output of the headphone amp to your headphones, and turning off the headphone amp is mentioned in the context of better sound quality to the speakers (HP amp off, Disc drive off, display off all make for a less "busy" unit and therefore less internal noise).