To follow up...
What I like about the Pearl units is they have pedigree and history...similar to Mac, Land Rover, Mustang, or Porsche 911, they have gone through many iterations to arrive at their current state. They celebrate Ken Ishiwata's 30 years with Marantz. Only 500 pairs were made, and both are based on the Reference series line and then tweaked by Ken. He tuned the products "to reproduce music exactly as the original artist and recording engineers intended." I'm a big Ken fan, here's a fun interview to check out.
Ken Ishiwata interview
"Design of Hi-Fi is very much a science, but without understanding music you won't be able to make good Hi-Fi. What I mean regarding science is not only electronics - you must understand mechanical influences, acoustics, psychoacoustics, and many other sciences when designing Hi-Fi... It's not simple, you got to really listen and understand music and its harmony. To love music is the important thing." - Ken Ishiwata
A passionate member off sacd.net posted these, I thought to share them here as well.
The player is quick loading, silent and weighs in at a hefty 32lbs. It has 2 filters, after listening to both I leave it on 1, which is the factory default. Filter 1 also does not perform any filtering of DSD data. Which leaves me to SACD playback - wow! My collection has been expanding. Very detailed, 3 dimensional with most CD's and able articulate the slightest texture, especially with SACD's. Notice no balanced outputs, as the amp doesn't have the inputs either.
CDP internals
The amp barely gets warm after extended listening. It's rated at 90w x 2, and weighs in just under 45lbs. The knobs have a very nice solid feel to them. My only complaint is the volume and source knobs are plastic, and I wish they were spun aluminum instead. Trivial I know, but the treble and bass knobs are metal, and everything else about this amp is first rate. The oversized WBT connectors on the back are a nice touch for swapping cables. Memory is beginning to fade, but I believe it has a somewhat more laid back character, but more controlled in comparison to my previous integrated, the lovely Mac-6500.
Amp internals:
After a few months, I am happy. What's most difficult to write about is any glaring weakness of either unit, and I just can't find much to harp about. Since I redid everything down to the power cables, it was a fairly dramatic change over the previous set up. But as the heart, the Marantz pair is very refined, easy on the ears. It's my opinion these units operate optimally together.