Sony SACD Player SCD-XA5400ES; YAY or NAY?

will3

live anywhere near 07062. I've become friends with some nearby members, we might make a small listening group if gatherings are ever comfortable, now it's 2 at a time mostly here.

I think the upgrade bug has been caged. I'm living vicariously thru  research and helping friends with their upgrades, and I'm selling again. SME 3009 II just sold, Fisher 500c brass knobs polished, last step prior to sale. 

My friend brought his beloved DAC, we tried using the xa5400es for transport into his DAC, the Sony clearly beat it, that DAC went home with it's tail between it's legs. He's researching another DAC now.

Oh, I did just buy something didn't I. A NOS AT14sa cartridge body from here, and a NOS shibata stylus for it from there. 

I'm all the way in Mo.so I couldn'nt make the meetings too easily!

One thing I noticed with my 999Es is the improvement in sound I hear. I wonder if it was ever used much as a CD player or even much at all and if it was ever properly burned in. I've put over 100 hours of CD play thru it to date and am sure I hear improvement thru the DAC.

mountainsong

Are you still enjoying Luxman and Sony ES players?

Happy Listening!

Or you could consider an SACD/CD player with streaming capability such as the Marantz SACD 30N so you can have your cake and eat it too!

Someone recently said CD’s were making a comeback. What a funny thought. Certainly my intention and final result after my search, all my existing and ’new to me’ cd’s have come alive like never before.

My first find about what they are doing:

"Internally, Marantz has a unique way to handle the digital signal. Marantz calls their technology Marantz Musical Mastering (MMM) which replaces a conventional DAC. The MMM circuit converts PCM (CD 44.1 kHz) to DSD 11.2 MHz and uses two system clocks to provide what Marantz calls the most accurate sampling possible, up to 384 kHz."

The Sony xa5400es is upscaling CD PCM by 8x, I don’t fully understand the numbers, but it certainly sounds better to me than the other 8 I tried.

Sony has made one ’filtering’ decision. Marantz evidently has ’optional filtering’.

"The sound of the Marantz is tunable, from the designers’ warm and mellow sound to a drier, more analytical sound."

Someday I’ll get to listen to the Marantz, and let’s hope more competition comes back into the CD/SACD world.

Two sets of Outputs: Fixed and Variable. My first Onkyo DX-7500 had this, simultaneous outputs: you could go straight to your amp(s) with one set; thru your preamp with the other. Marantz may be either/or, or both, not sure.

http://www.hifi-classic.net/review/onkyo-dx-7500-430.html