Is Sony XA9000es superior to Esoteric DV 50s?

If it's in a magazine - it absolutely must be true.

A friend has the Sony, my dad the Esoteric, I think Esoteric is superior but they are in dif systems.

>>I don't understand why Stereophile rated it A+.<<

Isn't everything in Stereophile Class A?

Maybe they should have degrees of Class A such as A++, A+, A-, and A--

It would be much easier for the consumer to make decisions.

The Stereophile A+ rating for digital devices is based on the device's SACD or DVD-A (or both) playback. It does not apply to its CD playback. Look at their A, B, C, etc categories for relative CD ratings.

Stereophile specifically rates SACD players on the high-res performance (read the intro), so the ratings can be consistent with the Esoteric having the best CD playback.

That said, I don't put much value in their ratings. Treat the list as a list of components that they have tested (or tried) which doesn't completely suck.