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

This Sony player supplanted my Ayre C5-XE 3, which I still have, months ago. I paid $6000 for the Ayre after determining that it was the best-sounding unit for under $10,000. The Sony blows it away!!!
A unit costing $1500 besting all others under $10,000? That is exactly what it does!
For reference, I am using Audio Research electronics and Vandersteen speakers and subwoofers (about $30,000); a similar system has repeatedly been lauded as "best of show" at CES, so we are NOT talking second-rate stuff here.
This Sony is the only SACD/Cd player I have EVER heard that puts a classical piano live in my living room; nothing I ever had before even comes close.
This unit is a small miracle. I would have gladly paid $8000 for it, but if they want to give the thing away for $1500, who am I to argue?
This unit is going to send the engineers at Audio Research, Luxman, Esoteric, and Ayre back to the drawing board; their current units at 4 to 5 times the price are not even close. Some engineer at Sony is a freaking genius!!!
wa6itd
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
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.
dgarretson
2,603 posts
 
"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.
edorr
714 posts
 
I think the best analogy is Pizza, because it is an "upgradeble" dish. Say you love Pizza quatro stagioni. So you find this Pizzeria Danielo which has stellar online reviews and four Zagat stars to boot. Of course, on a first visit you order the $20 quatro stagioni. You would not dream of trying the undoubtedly excellent $10 pizza margarita first to see if the base, cheese and tomato sauce is to your liking.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
if you want an orange, why eat an apple ?

the stock sony soes not have the facility to alter its sound, so there is no value in listening to the 5400.
waynefia
156 posts
 
WOW, I don't come look at the digital section here much lately. Pretty intense group. Mostly been reading at the vinyl forum. I'm trying to decide which way to go with my vinyl, or just dump it and move on, time will tell. To many hobbies and not enough time or money. But the best CD/SACD player in the world for me is my NAD Master Series M5, as it's the one I own now ! Are there better most likely, but if it's not here I don't speculate or care. I know secretly there are many people who love thier Master Series M5, so I know I am not alone in thinking it is a decent sounding machine. World beater who knows who cares.

To show I can be crazy, intense, and can add food into an audio discussion, I am going to BW3 for wings (wild sauce second hottest) and chips with cheese. And I am doing this against my and my Doctors better judgement.
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