Sony SACD Player SCD-XA5400ES; YAY or NAY?

christian

dragged out while listening, that’s a great memory for sure.

If physical issues, drawer movement .. dried lube, new belt, some of Donna’s long hair (no cats here), I can do that myself.

I replaced a laser once successfully, just mysteriously lost a critical spring for another.

This unit, the entire laser assembly get’s replaced, but I would pay a pro. I’m near NYC, gotta be someone, and I’m gonna call my new friends Steve and Ray Leung at VAS, see if they would do that if needed.

Yesterday I replaced 2 of 3 identical belts on the Yamaha Changer I bought. It came with the ’need to manually close the drawer’ issue. Works as new now.

I don’t like the ’drawer above the buttons’ design, BUT, it is sooo easy, cover off, open drawer, all 3 identical belts exposed, simply change them, no tools or disassembly. Changers with the drawer ’below the buttons’ must be a lot more work. I’m gonna have a peek at this bottom drawer Integra on Saturday.

I like keeping good stuff going. I mostly win, lost a few. Wait till that damn Denon spring re-appears.

I have owned the 5400 for years. Bought it new back when they still made them. I've been extremely happy with the sound and have never had an issue with it. 

Oh yeah, not to once again tout my now scorned Mytek Brooklyn Bridge, but I do get better if not earthshakingly better CD sound when I send the Sony's CD signal through the Mytek via Opto.

$40. Integra CDC-3.4 Mark II arrived: 'Mech. Error'.

Cover off, revolving tray was resistant to movement, a bit of a forced spin, it freed up, works perfectly. Less than 5 minutes!

I think someone dropped it, or carried it upside down or something. 

some fresh lube, now what?

Sony SCD-xa5400ES due Sunday.

Makes up for the humiliation of the lost Denon spring. I didn't like the sound of the Denon, but someone might have preferred it and wanted it.

@secretguy Sony is still making/selling combo 4K Blu-ray/SACD/etc players--see crutchfield.com  I bought the one with 800 in the model in very late 2020. Frankly, it it was not for one issue on my Blu-ray player and the growing numbers of 4K discs, I might still not own any player and SACDs

One thing that makes it tougher for me to judge this player remains the dearth of SACDs and--for those you can find on ebay, the cost can  be an issue.  So I have found my "collection" to remain small so far, making it difficult to compare a beloved CD to its SACD counterpart since SACDs are an exception and not the rule--plus I only have the one Sony player.  I cant justify buying another without having a growing library.