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Sony XA777ES or Rega Apollo for Redbook CD's

I currently own the original Rega Planet which I purchased eight or nine years ago. For the price a fantastic CD player. A few months back I purchased a Sony XA777ES which is a fine Redbook player in it's own right. I find it outclasses the Rega Planet in all regards except one, musicality. bAs my wife told me ( she will only listen to the Planet ) "The Sony is excellent, I just don't want to hear all nuances in my music that may detract from the performance". Simply said, The Rega will cover the mistakes, the Sony will present the truth. My question is......if given the opportunity, would you trade up the Sony for a Rega Apollo which is getting rave reviews. I haven't been able to audition one yet and I appreciate any comments you might have on this subject.
aogozeja
jansenli2006
1 posts
 
I like the Sony unit too for SACDs but agree about the CD playback. Music just doesn't seem to have "soul" or "heart".
the_kid's avatar
the_kid
465 posts
 
Very good recomendations from Robm321 and Janseni2006. I owned a XA777Es for quite some time. The Redbook playback is definitely on the more accurate and analytical side of the fence and can come across as cold sounding.

I personally have not heard the new Rega Apollo but from everything I have read, I would definitely give one a try.

Good Luck..

Chris
larryrosen
83 posts
 
I use the sony for sacd playback, very nice, but I use a musical fidelity 21 tri-vista dac with the sony as a transport, and the upgrade was outstanding.
sogood51
2,157 posts
 
I had an XA-777es for around a year..."extreamly good" SACD player and only a "pretty good" CD player. Now that I'm getting back into SACD's....mostly classical and jazz, I wish I still had it.

My little Pioneer 563A SACD player falls very short of the Sony in that department.

Dave
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lucas911993
31 posts
 
I had the opportunity to audition the new Rega Apollo a couple of weekends ago. The setup was: Levinson ML-7, ML-3, Levinson Interconnects, some LARGE gauge speaker cables (looked like nice stuff and it wasn't Monster), and a set of ProAc Response 80 (might have been the 100s, but Im pretty sure they were the 80s).

Once I got past the raw power of the ML-3 and the high and low frequency extension of the ProAc I was really amazed at what I heard. This was the Rega RED BOOK, <$1000 CD player. No vinyl, no SACD, just Red Book. It was amazingly warm and musical. Something I did not expect. Lots and Lots of detail too. It was very clear and open, I guess a product of the Rega class A output stage. I almost forgot I was there to audition the Levinson gear (which I decided in retrospect was a VERY good thing and as soon as I scratch together the dough, Im going to be a vintage Levinson owner).

As a comparison, I had listen to the Naim flagship CD, Naim flagship pre-amp, Naim stereo amps in bi-amp config at 100w/ch, and this particular set of speakers at the particular location. I much prefered the Levinson / Rega setup.

Also, I own a Sony DVP-s9000ES but I don't feel that the rest of my system warrents true comparison. That being said, the 9000 is great on SACD, but I have noticed that CDs surffer from the typical bright and chilly.

Lucas
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