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

I'am a Master Gardnener and there are quite a few different types of Garlic and they all taste different.So unless you grow your own no way to know for sure what you are getting.Even if you grow only one type changes in the amount of sun and water it gets will change the flavor.
So how can you predict how it will taste/sound?

I have a Sony on the way and I will for sure listen to what I just purchased before even considering any other option.

I'm with mr Tennis on this one. He is not necessarily buying the "mod". He is in the market for a tube player and has a budget of $3,500. So you look at the contenders in this space and a modded sony is one of them. He is not interested in a $1,500 solid state player.

In food analogy; you want to go out for a Italian dinner on a $50 budget and are thinking of getting saltimbocca at Restaurant "Mama Sonia". Would you order their $20 pasta dish first to make sure their cooking is OK, and get the saltimbocca on a second visit? No. You order the saltimbocca and if you don't like it you never come back.

ss and the classic tube sound do not sound the same. if i prefer a certain coloration, i am confident that the sony doesn't have it.

i would be willing to do a test comparing the stock sony 5400 with the modded sony and bet that i would prefer the modded sony.

in life when making choices it is too time consuming to listen to all products.

there have been very few solid state prodducts i have heard that i would want to own. thus my confidence is that the sony would be bought and modded, without listening to the stock version.

kal would you take me up on my wager. i happen to prefer a tube flavor using nos tubes. what is the purpose in listening to the stock sony ?

i will be able to criticize its flaws but that is a waste of time. i can't think of anything that i would learn that is of great value.

back to the garlic situation. i did not say every food should have a garlic flavor, only broccoli.

nor did i say anything about recordings.

obviously a classic tube flavor is like a tone control. changing the tubes changes the sound. you can't change the sound on a stock sony unless you make some change to the player.

why do the most expensive cd players and dac (Esoteric, dcs. EMM, etc.) in the world not use tubes? I love tubes, have many, but for some reason the best players I have heard don't seem ti use them - and yes, I do like them.

"you want to go out for a Italian dinner on a $50 budget and are thinking of getting saltimbocca at Restaurant "Mama Sonia". Would you order their $20 pasta dish first to make sure their cooking is OK, and get the saltimbocca on a second visit? No. You order the saltimbocca and if you don't like it you never come back."

It is a mistake to order steak in a hamburgher joint. When gauging any restaurant except for the very best, I try to find out what they do well, which is usually something modest. In this sense the stock Sony is a hamburger and should be enjoyed as such. However at a better restaurant like Casa Dan Wright the Sony is just an ingredient. One is inclined to trust Dan's experience on this a priori.