Why is Sony Digital sound more like vinyl?

Dave...to return to your original thread...I have always been impressed with the sound of Sony digital...very laid back and musical... maybe not as "exciting" as some but hey...even their budget players are very good...ofcourse "hi-enders" who seek more esoteric brands and relish at every opportunity to bash Mega-Sony will disagree...but that is the state of audio...it is subjective as it gets...

Audioengr: I don't doubt that a faster and cleaner input signal would help any DAC. As i mentioned though, i bought my transport as it came factory stock with a "super-clock", extra regulation circuitry, AC line filtering, etc... Sean
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Dear Phasecorrect...I think it speaks volumes when a musician like Jdaniel seems to understand what I'm saying. He doesn't get defensive because he has no ax to grind or any deep seated psychological need to justify his rig!

I only have a lowly sony, the scd-xe670, the single-disc version of the ($400 list/$200 street) scd-ce775 sacd/cd carousel. I've read that most of the sony's share the same "house sound." My impressions echo those of Jdaniel. I found mine "OK" over all.

It is laid back, sort of recessed and muddy. It's most noticable on redbook CDs of classical music. Much so much so on other types of music - acoustic and electronic - IMO. And especially when A/B'ing it again my EVS Millennium DAC or Panasonic RP82 DVDA player. Truth be told, except for classical SACDs, I much prefer listening to redbook on EVS or the panasonic. The bass on the Sony (xe670) is also softer and less tuneful and taunt that compared to my other players.

But given the (what I'm calling) Sony house sound,I could see how someone could prefer it and call it more like vinyl. It's just too recessed and colored (muddy?) for me. Again this was the Xe670, I'm not sure how much of this extrapolates to it's bigger ES brethern. YMMV. My $0.02

I'll bring the single malt Macallan Dave. I'd love to hear your sysem. You know, I've found one of the problems in this form of contact is that is tends to be very conversational but cannot convey the tonal inflection of true conversation. This creates miscommunication. You were giving us a hard time, but without the tonal inflection, we took it literally. I do apologize. After trading messages with you I realize I took it the wrong way.