Sony SACD Player SCD-XA5400ES; YAY or NAY?

is dave_b still with us?

he loved this thing way back when

evidently he ignored his advice (my take on it)

"I can't believe that SONY could deliver such an amazing player for so little with a sound so engrossing that I wish every audiophile could hear one and understand the frivolity of pursueing other, would be state of the art players...this is as good as it needs to be, period!"

later he switched to a Krell Cipher which I never want to hear!

elliottbnewcombjr

 

dave_b switched to all Krell gear not too long ago. Perhaps he will update his system soon?

 

Happy Listening!

LP/CD Comparison: after two: Zackly-Idenstical-Zimla.

1. Friday Night in San Francisco, 3 magnificent guitarists

First, the CD's imaging of the 3 guitarists helped me refine my anti-skate a smidge for identical placement of John's center guitar. Other improvements to imaging always follow proper center balance. Also, everything that follows when a stylus properly contacts the groove's bottom and both sides.

After that: no way I could tell them apart. I couldn't fool myself which was playing, but I believe anyone else could have. 

The things that this player does right allow it to have the same full body sound of the guitars and their different string types that no other CD player was able to do. As I said, I think it is improved Fundamentals and all that follows, overtones, volume and time decay, inter-relationships 

2. White Winds, Andreas Vollenweider.

https://www.discogs.com/master/82235-Andreas-Vollenweider-White-Winds-Seekers-Journey

Finally a CD player that makes the introductory wind sounds and water sounds properly, just like the LP does.  

 

Other comparisons to follow, other ears than mine to get involved soon.

btw, the Burr Brown 1796 DAC data sheet shows 8 X oversampling filter

https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/dsd1796.pdf

Oh baby did this sound better than ever on this player!

I'm listening, thinking whoever recorded this sure knew what the hell they were doing. Checked, Rudy Gelder, his place, just terrific.

Max Roach solos (several) get center to full right, cymbals to cymbals everything in between