Marantz Musical Mastering is at the heart of digital audio in the SA-12SE lies DSD. PCM signals are up-converted to DSD at 11.2MHz using the proprietary MMM-Stream converter within the player. The high-frequency signal produced is processed by the unique MMM-Conversion stage, used in place of a conventional DAC, to produce the analogue output. The MMM-Stream section of the process replaces the oversampling filters normally used in digital to analogue conversion and allows the implementation of the Marantz Musical Mastering filtering. Two system clocks of 44.1kHz and 48kHz ensure the most accurate up-conversion of the incoming signal, whether it is from disc or the digital inputs.
All available digital signal formats are a multiple of either 44.1 or 48, hence any processing is done without rounding, preventing the loss of important information or creating failures. Sigma Delta Modulation allows a pure DSD-standard signal, a 1-bit stream, to be passed to the conversion section in the form of a very high-frequency stream of pulses. The design of the DSD-to-analogue filter feeds the audio signal into the familiar Marantz HDAM (Hyper Dynamic Amplifier Modules) in the output stage for optimal sound quality.