Sony SCD-XA5400ES-Best SACD for under $10,000

Chayro - I don't believe the title of the thread, I know the Sony probably doesn't sound as good as a 10k player. That's not MY point. I just find your conversation silly.
My Rolls is better than your Kia! Well, no kidding ..lol.

*as an aside .... didn't a first generation Ipod beat a 10k - 20k CDP in a BLIND test before a large audience*

Well, I don't know much about Ipods, but if you're saying that more expensive players sound better than cheaper players of the same generation, I agree with you.

As far as quality the Sony 5400 has very good build quality just because the plant moved to Malaysia does not mean this quality went with it .While in Europe I seen a writeup that shows a state of the are Co. that are trained my Sonys best and have tight QUALITY CONTROL , very good internal components The dual R core transformers are make in Japan as well as the capacitors and the transport is only 2nd best behind Esoteric, the Burrbrown dacs and reciever chips are made in the U.S.A -aka Texas instruments.If this was still made in Japan where labor is 3x higher this unit would be over $4500 this is what Sonys
rep said which a is true of the labor costs ,also inside is very well layed out .This unit does take some 500 hours to fully runin myself and several others have logged hours at least 2 fell weeks 24-7 just for it to smooth out .

I will say one thing though I Heard the New Modwright Ultimate mod for the Sony 5400 while out west against a Esoteric 03-SE which is a very good unit the Sony was a much more musical unit ,you wil see I am sure some exceptinal reviews coming out on this .It was so good My unit is now at Modwrights getting transformed IMO one of the best deals in all of audio ! I will tell you exactly how it sounds once back in my system by mid July .

Audioman58, good point in your post. I have never run my CDPs 24X7. My question is, will this not have adverse affect on the Laser - like shortening it's life unusually be the constant light/heat it emits?

In response to the laser 3weeks is nothing myself and others have had even cheap cd players for years also please keep in mind the Sony 5400 cd-sacd player has 2 lasers for the sacd has it's own decoder and needs several hundred hours to run in , if you don;t have a sacd disc
then Buy one they sound great and you can run in a new unit with the sacd side first.
I have my first initial impressions available on my Modwright Ultimate mod for the Sony 5400 ,and even with only 75 hours on it , and 400 is needed for full breakin
it is very very natural sounding the music just flows out if the speakers ,sure it is somewhat closed in still and the fron to back layering is not quite there yet ,but the timber of a stringed instrument like a Cello or a drum head has great timber with outstanding seperation of instruments ,and being it is not even close to being runin that is saying a lot .I can say with conviction
any $10k unit will have a hard time following this player
just checkout how extensive this build is at Modwright , also the seperate Vacuum tube power supply probably weighs
10 lbs on it's own and the 6sn7 Vacuum tubes for the New analog section give it much more dimention and Make the stock unit sound broken.
Dan at Modwright hit this one out of the park !