Review: Sony CDP-707esd CD Player


Category: Digital

#1 Musical tastes: Oldies, and Jazz.
#2 Best aspects of sound: Bass control, and spaciousness.
#3 What turns me off: Poor bass control.
#4 How long in system: 1 month.
#5 What it replaced: Nothing.
#6 How the sound changed: Deeper, and bigger bass.
#7 Strengths: Bass (deep).
#8 Weaknesses: Still needs a DAC.
#9 If money was no object: I would buy a Sony xa7es.

I still need a DAC, but still, this is comparable to all of the other Sony ES flagship models. You can go to audio review, and read the reviews on the Sony X77ES, and the Sony X779ES. They are easily compared to the newer models, and found with equal quality. You have to read the reviews, to see that what I am saying is backed up by others. The bass is huge, and the dynamics are good, with very rich, accurate sound. I am going to get a good theta DAC, but I will not know how it changes, till I get it, but I will write a review afterwards.
Thx, Greg

Associated gear
Aragon amp, Bryston pre, and Klipsch speakers.

Similar products
Sony xa7es
greggie
After 8 years still a great CD-player. Laser is replaced once by Sony Services during regular preventive maintenace (once in 3 years). I've replaced the NE5532's by Burr-Browns OPA2134: IC402/403 and IC502/503. Also the OPA27's by the expensive OPA627's of Burr-Brown: IC406/506.
This CD player had been with me since 1991. I bought it used for $550 from a private seller. I loveed it since I owned it. I like the detailed and comfortable sound from this player, especially the deep bass.I completely agree with Greggie. I also own a theta $2000 DAC (I do not want to mention the model).I bought the theta in order to replace the stock DAC in the Sony. After AB compared with each other.I feel that the CDP-707esd had better sound. If you own one CDP-707ESD please keep it forever, you will not
find one at this price.
The CDP 707ESD was the hall mark of the Sony ES product line. It was an all out effort by Sony to produce a statement piece using their top transport which they do not sell to other companies, but keep exclusively for their 7 series. This component had the most expensive parts including matching Burr Brown 18 bit converters. Many enjoy the precision variable output and feed it directly into a power amplifier without the need of a preamp. When it went on sale at select ES dealers, it cost $1800, a small fortune at that time for any cd player. Like the song, this cd player is "solid as a rock!" and causes owners to view other high end cd players with disdain. Unless you pour Coke into it, it will endure and produce excellent sound for a very long time.
Hi. Living in NYC, one sees plenty of "obsolete" gear sitting out by the curb on a trash day. When I saw the CDP-707, i shamelessly scooped it up, and, blowing off a meeting with a friend (greed conquered guilt), i dragged it home, ripped it apart (this is one is truly designed to be easily serviced - construction & layout equal to the better half of 80's studio gear, and the weight comparable to tube gear).
This is the second one I've owned, so I was willing to carry the thing ~7 blocks.
After fixing a trivial problem (eject servo switch), i tossed in a my standard first test CD - a moderately mishandled (dirt & scratches) Heart CD (some great low synth passages, "overproduced" mixing, gives a fair idea of the player's overall "character", and, hey, most of my listening is similar in dynamic range / mastering quality / cd condition).
Just to check the functionality, i plugged in a set of so-so Behringer cans, and was horrified - I guess the headphone amp's not really meant to be used... The sound was of a typical low-end AB SS amp, grainy & nasty.
As I said, this is my second one, so it wasn't much of a surprise.
After dragging the thing downstairs, and hooking it up to my "80's" system (using built-in DACs, Sansui AU-9900 going into a pair of Altec 508's, with upgraded crossovers & cat-proof grills), tried the same cd. Bypassing the preamp still showed some digital artifacts, and sounded a bit "thin" & a bit compressed (this last part is subjective - i often resort to using the tone section on the Sansui - the listening room is far from a dedicated one - it's a living room, with an odd mixture of wooden floors, rugs, and a less-than-ideal speaker placement). The harshness of the phone amp vanished, though - and the one obvious tracking error could have simply be the result of poor alignment. After a few similar CD's (many home-burnt), the the (once again) subjective feel was that the sound was a bit too clinical & slavish for 80's rock, and, with the 508's as speakers, i didn't bother with anything more complex.
After dragging the thing back upstairs, i gave my "non-family-friendly setup a try - plugging straight into a triode A1PP 25W/ch toob amp (a homebrew, think along the lines of a triode-strapped ST70 with a mamouth power supply, oil-capped, metal oxide PS resistors & carbon composite sound path, Vit.Q caps, 6SN's driving triode-strapped KT88's (real), minimal NFB, ~0.1THD @ 1w, driving a pair of Tannoy red-back 12's in Karlson boxes (sorry - those things seem to work for me, and I simply don't have the space for more appropriate Tannoy enclosures.
This was a bit more interesting - still not a "rocker" setup, but everything from chamber muzac (harpsichord, cello & violin) to solo piano (from Chopen on a Chickering baby grand to Professor Longhair on an out-of tune upright) sounded really listenable & actually made me listen to the music instead of listening to "gear".
Early blues (slavish scratch-for-scratch transcriptions from 78', no post-processing), which sound pretty trying on some players (and the 80's setup described above), were perfectly listenable without any filters, which I usually use(There's really nothing worthwhile above 7Khz on those old 78's AFAIK. Band-passing HPF-ed 7+k sounds like pure noise to me - if you know how to get the highs back from 78's - I'm all ears (real plea for advice - I'm into old vinyl, and transcribe them to cd's - HD since flipping record is not an option when I'm working. I'm far from a purist, and resort to digital processing (soundforge, pro tools, Sonar, Cool Edit etc, along with a rack full of "vanity studio" hardware...)
Jazzers should like the thing I don't like / understand contemporary jazz, but keep a few test CD's just to check out vocals & impress friends with SE flea-powered amps. The detail is really neat, the female vocals sound awesome.
If you are annoyed by the subjectivity of this review, i could provide some spectrum / distortion data from test cd's, but there are probably plenty of info like that on the net already.
Last but not least, the unit is a truly "sexy" chunk of gear - machined aluminum plate case & sound-damping materials covering all parts which could be considered as having microphonic potential (even electrolytic caps in sound path) The transport slick & heavy, the transport buttons feel great, variable - outputs are a blessing for anyone going straight into a power amp, and the look is truly late-80's semi-pro. Could do without the programming features & the array of buttons associated with them, but the unit doesn't clash with other period gear (the faux - wood panels on the sides come off easily, and rack ears could be easily attached (make sure to support the back of the unit - *HEAVY*.
The optical /rca digital out is a neat thing to have if you're planning on external gear, though I haven't checked into that yet - it would be great to get some tech info on the thing, such as alignment procedures & obtaining error counts - i'd appreciate it if those of you who are digital oracles dropped me a line or a link on the net for schematics / maintenance procedures.
Hope some of this helped, and thanks in advance to anyone who's willing to drop me a line with some tech info (stuff [&^at888] [remove] hotmail [890908098] D0t c0m.
-Shiva
(dim)