Sony SACD Player SCD-XA5400ES; YAY or NAY?

I demoed a used sony at a local dealer several years ago and wanted to buy it.  It sounded smooth but bland and lacked detail, dynamics and presence.  

a mid line marantz player sounded better to my years.  

i wound up purchasing the marantz sa8005 which sounded spectacular and levels above the sony.  

for me the XA5400 was a dosappointment considering the reputation.  

thanks generally, I will comment to specifics later,

please remember, I don't/won't stream, it's just not for me.

I am the one who started 'upgrade CD to SACD', (I found that from stereophile, below) so I am posting some of what I found online:

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-4hMRMWIbYmp/p_158XA5400E/Sony-ES-SCD-XA5400ES.html

 

digital-to-analog converters, which employ 12-layer digital filtering and direct DSD-to-analog conversion to deliver superlative SACD performance.

https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews/audio-player/sacd-players/sony-scd-xa5400es-player/

 to criticize the Sony for making a bad mastering job sound bad isn’t right,

the cost, but for just a couple of dollars per recording to make everything in my collection (400 cds) sound so much better

https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/4000/40006911M.pdf

Dual Laser Optical Pickup

Super Audio D/A Converter

CDs are recorded in the PCM format). The DSD format, using a sampling frequency 64 times higher than that of a conventional CD, and with 1-bit quantization

https://www.stereophile.com/content/new-sony-5400-sacd-player-has-made-your-8000-cd-player-obsolete-1

https://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/music_in_the_round_36

finger-pointing about direct conversion of DSD to analog vs conversion via intermediary transcoding to PCM.

Sony's Technical Background paper spends a lot of words on SACD processing but says little about the player's CD processing, except to describe an 8x-oversampling filter and a noise shaper that result in a 2.8224MHz signal-sampling frequency—the same as that of DSD. "In this way, the SA-DAC presents both CD and SACD signals to the final converter stage in the identical 1-bit/64fs form." The explanation, presumably translated from Japanese, is not entirely clear, but if Sony is implying that CDs played on the SCD-XA5400ES should sound pretty close to SACDs, I think they have a good case.

differences between the two-channel SACD and CD tracks of many discs disappeared, and better CD recordings were revealed as sounding detailed, spacious, and luscious.

 

July 2020:
It is a multichannel SACD player – the last great one from Sony, massively built

 

https://www.hifinews.com/content/sony-scd-xa5400es-%C2%A31200

but jitter has always been an issue - until now

With stereo SACD the often slightly edgy upper frequencies, wrought by producers trying to make SACD sound sharper, are buffed smooth without any adverse softening of their impact.

SCD-XA5400ES’s bass is inherently fast and deep.

The balanced XLR output offers a further advance, bringing the 5400ES closer still to XA9000ES quality.

................................................

"In this way, the SA-DAC presents both CD and SACD signals to the final converter stage in the identical 1-bit/64fs form."

Contradicted in writing anywhere?

 

Balanced to avoid problems in long complicated runs backstage, ok.

home, a 1 meter cable, no interference ever with anything, HOW can a balanced VERSION of Analog (after all processing) be better???

Thanks Everyone,

I just bought a very lightly used Sony SCD-XA5400ES because:

1. Multiple DACs

2. Dedicated Lasers for SACD and CD

3. SACD DSD/DAC/Analog without a PCM intermediate step.

4. It MAY (no consensus) upscale CD's to SACD #s

"an 8x-oversampling filter and a noise shaper that result in a 2.8224MHz signal-sampling frequency—the same as that of DSD. "In this way, the SA-DAC presents both CD and SACD signals to the final converter stage in the identical 1-bit/64fs form."

.....................................................

 

Expectantly, it will sound better than the Yamaha DVD-C961 I found and presently like a lot, which sounds as good as the Onkyo Integra CDC-3.4 II I also like that I just sold because the Yamaha also plays SACD, Onkyo CD only.

NO ONE mentioned this xa5400 in my prior CD search. Who knows what I might have done if someone had.

IF, like the supposedly superior Oppo's I tried, it is not a preferred sound (I avoid 'better'), I will, like the Oppo, resell it. Hopefully not, then keep the Yamaha in the garage system, sell the Sony that is there currently.

Thanks for advice, ideas, YAYs mostly!!!

Elliott

 

this was back in the day, but my memory of what i thought remains pretty clear

the sony es series cd players (which played sacd’s as well) were excellent - smooth detailed liquid impactful sound

the other cdp that was also quite highly regarded in the day was the marantz cd63se, it was the reviewers' darling, making a number of best for money lists in tas, s-phile, sensible sound etc etc

i remember comparing a cd63se that belonged to a good hifi buddy at the time, and compared it to my sony scd777, which iirc was about twice as expensive, so maybe not a fair fight, but the marantz had such a great reputation among reviewers

what i recall was the marantz sounded forward and detailed in comparison, but with great bass, whereas my sony had better imaging, smoother treble, more dimensional midrange, and not as prominent (but still excellent) bass depth and control... i was glad i tried them a vs b, it made me feel glad to have my sony, it sounded more like analog to my ears

then years later i bought a top of line scd-1, went on mod trail with vsei warren gregoire and so on... partly due to that experience