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At seventeen

Ken Ishiwata's magic wand touches the CD17
By Greg Fleming

April 2002

The CD-17mk2 KI represents the mid-point of Marantz’s serious, high-end CD players – a line which culminates in the statement ($7,000+) CD 7.

Marantz designer and all round guru Ken Ishiwata, long a legend in audio circles, has tweaked this model (thus the KI signature) paying special attention to the analogue output stage, the power supply quality and vibration resistance – thus adding almost $1,000 to the standard CD-17 mk2.

Having had little experience with Marantz gear I eagerly set up the CD 17mk2KI and popped in a newly bought CD Bob Belden’s Black Dahlia, a jazz-based orchestral suite which, although wonderfully recorded, asks a lot of playback equipment.

Straight out of the box like this the Marantz sounded more than okay – exhibiting an almost valve-like smoothness in the top end, whilst the midrange dug out instrumental and musical character which my reference player (a 24bit Musical Fidelity X-Ray - no slouch itself) couldn’t equal.

If it sounded a tad too bright – with cymbals especially in danger of sounding isolated and splashy – I put this down to the lack of a decent break in. I then left the player on repeat for 48 hours.

The first thing one notices about this player is it’s weight – almost 8kg – and for those of you who don’t know, weight in audio products is (usually) a good sign, indicating superior build and componentry.

The attractive champagne finish, easily read track and time signals and transport tray were also well designed and laid out – the CD tray equipped with four rubber stoppers that helped centre the CD in place.
Furthermore the CD tray – unlike many even in this price bracket – was solid and stable and evoked transport confidence.

The remote is decidedly handsome and possesses all the regular CD features like 30 track programming, shuffle, repeat, track numbers etc as well as having a digital volume control (do make certain this is up full though for quality listening).

Altogether build quality, functions and aesthetics scored high marks – only the lack of HDCD decoding disappointed – these discs can of course be played but the advantage of HDCD won’t be apparent and one would have thought that a player of this calibre would have addressed this issue.

Two days later and the Marantz had settled down considerably – the tendency towards edginess was diminished and both depth and transparency were improved – although it was clear that the player naturally tended towards the “hot” side of things.

It was lively and detailed where other players settled for musical coherence and smoothness; calling it bright whilst not inaccurate was too facile a judgement.

The Marantz for example captured the “blattiness” of Tim Hagan’s trumpet solos for example on The Black Dahlia – and having spent a dispirited year learning the instrument in my teens I know how bright and piercing the instrument sounds in real life – and the Marantz caught it perfectly.

Bass was supple and confident yet the most attractive aspect of the Marantz’s performance was it’s retrieval of atmosphere and detail. I heard the keys of saxophone pads opening and closing, the breathing of Reggie Workman (my favourite jazz bass player) as he wandered up the neck for one of his solo’s on Andrew Cyrille’s superb My Friend Louis album of 1990 to cite just two examples.

Yet the Marantz kept it’s sense of musicality too, so it wasn’t just a case of “accuracy” without context. I liken it to the use of either a valve amplifier or a CD player with a valve-output stage – although the Marantz hasn’t a valve in it nor did my amplification – the resulting sound has that kind of “you are there” quality tubes seem to naturally impart.

Of course too lush and everything is over-sweetened and at times the Marantz walked a thin-line in this regard. A lot will depend on your accompanying equipment and personal listening tastes.

Just quietly I fell hard at first for the CD17mk2KI and I’ll miss it when it goes – (and if the measure of a good CD Player is the amount of time spent spinning CDs the Marantz gets an A++). For some it’s lushness might just be too much of a good thing, and a home audition is certainly recommended before buying. Yet partnered sympathetically the players’ attention to detail and all round musicality can make magnificent music.

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