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Sony SCD-XA5400ES-Best SACD for under $10,000

This Sony player supplanted my Ayre C5-XE 3, which I still have, months ago. I paid $6000 for the Ayre after determining that it was the best-sounding unit for under $10,000. The Sony blows it away!!!
A unit costing $1500 besting all others under $10,000? That is exactly what it does!
For reference, I am using Audio Research electronics and Vandersteen speakers and subwoofers (about $30,000); a similar system has repeatedly been lauded as "best of show" at CES, so we are NOT talking second-rate stuff here.
This Sony is the only SACD/Cd player I have EVER heard that puts a classical piano live in my living room; nothing I ever had before even comes close.
This unit is a small miracle. I would have gladly paid $8000 for it, but if they want to give the thing away for $1500, who am I to argue?
This unit is going to send the engineers at Audio Research, Luxman, Esoteric, and Ayre back to the drawing board; their current units at 4 to 5 times the price are not even close. Some engineer at Sony is a freaking genius!!!
wa6itd
jylee
306 posts
 
Your analogy suggests because you like sauteed garlic on your broccoli, you'll put sauteed garlic on everything, like on chocolate and ice cream, before tasting them first without garlic. Yuck.
zmanastronomy's avatar
zmanastronomy
738 posts
 
Do I think the Sony is the best SACD player under $10k? No.
But, I have heard one in my system and it sounded very good. It out performed my current CDP and I'm going to buy one soon.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
hi jylee:

i was only talking about sauteed garlic. no where did i say that i liked garlic on everything.

my point was to answer kal's suggestion to listen to a component first, before modifying it and i suggested that if i wanted a tube sound, via a buffer or gain stage, e.g., there would be no need to listen to the sony.\

that is, if i was trying to create a flavor which a component does not have , there is no need to listen to it to determine that it does not have the flavor.
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,677 posts
 
Feh. I just wrote a lengthy riposte but the clumsy interface here erased it while I looked up some other info. So, let's leave you with your last word and the taste of garlic in your mouth. I'd rather let the chefs (performers and recording engineers) ply their art than eat the same thing all the time.

Kal
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,677 posts
 
Well, now we are getting to some gnarly stuff. There is no way you can be certain that a particular device sounds one way or the other without listening to it. You may say that you know it has no tubes and that is sufficient. However, I maintain that it is not.

There are ways to "voice" a component to sound one way or not if the designer so chooses. Bob Carver demonstrated that he could make a SS amp sound like a tube amp. Conversely, the SF Line3 and Power3 that I once owned sounded more like SS than tubes.

In addition, to go back to the garlic analogy, you are assuring that every disc you play on this modded player will sound a particular way which, although you may like that flavor, will obscure the subtler differences among your many recordings. Sort of like having the garlic obscure any other flavors that the chef might be inspired to create. Of course, you can say you don't want to taste anything but garlic. If so, that's a limited palate.
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