Why is Sony Digital sound more like vinyl?

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.

While there is much air and transparancy with the XA777es, what I'm missing is "ambient glow." (I will leave it to CD-player critics to describe what *that* is.) I've also noticed that their isn't as much room interaction with the Sony as opposed to the Marantz SA14 ver. 2. The Marantz seems to outline and heighten chords more than the Sony--whether this is real or not, I don't know, but the Marantz was certainly more seductive because of it, though I think it led to some slight muddiness in tutti orchestral passages that led me to put some damping treatment (towels, ha ha) on the walls. Average to excellent recordings, with a good capturing of ambience and glow to begin with, sound great on the Sony. The Marantz salvaged recordings that were more distant, bringing out more ambience, but not more 'line' than the Sony. I hope this makes sense. It's safe to say that the Sony brings out more of the musical line, (leaving the responsiblity of capturing ambience and sensuality to the recording crew), while the Marantz brought out more of the verticle relationships (interaction between notes in a chord and between instruments). Which is better? A matter of taste: Some conductors are more line/melody-oriented, (logical), believing that the sensuousness will just fall into place while keeping the composer's ideas in tact; other conductors are more sensuously oriented, (very interested in chord-play), just barely keeping the musical line together. I happen to prefer that latter in the rare cases when it works.

Jdaniel...I know what your saying, however I get the desired effect with my ARC tube gear!

Final thoughts on Sony XA redbook performance. I've decided I like the redbook performance of the Marantz SA-14 better. It's just more tonally opulent, even though this leads to some muddying of textures in climaxes, but not much. However, I was just looking through my journal in which I had reported to myself that, once I had gotten over the Marantz' "glow" and bass-heft, redbook still left me cold compared to SACD. So there you go. I've decided to keep the Sony for its SACD playback--(can't complain in any way)--and give my redbooks a rest for awhile. I sold another 800 of them.