Sony XA5400ES vs XA9000ES

Samzx12, Yes , I thought the CD portion of the Sony XA9000ES was really bad.
At the time, I had a Meridian 508.24 player to compare it to. I also had several other inexpensive Sony's that had a better sound than the XA9000ES.
I think there was reviews that said about the same thing.

Though I liked the SACD portion of the XA9000ES, I didnt have enough SACD's at the time to warrant purchasing it just for that.

Funny you say that Ozzy because I always thought the Redbook was rated very high. Its Stereophile Class A rated and not only for Redbook. I know its a matter of choice but I was not aware the redbook was not up to par. From what I have heard its quite good.

I started this thread because I am interested in both and wanted to know if the 5400 was quite a bit better on Redbook than the 9000. When I 1st heard the 9000 at my buddies house I was amazed at the smoothness almost analog sound. There was alot of air to it and I told him to buy it because as it was on loan to him. He did and really likes it.

All I can say is if someone left me the XA9000ES in there will, I would sell it ASAP.

We all have our opinions and perhaps with your buddies equipment and room it sounded better than at my place.
I replied to your posting because I thought you were looking for actual experience.
Albeit I have no experinece comparing it to the newer XA5400ES model.

I would think the newer model XA5400ES would come with perhaps a money back time period. If so, then compare it to your buddies.

Good Luck.

Thanks Ozzy for giving me your candid opinion I appreciate it. You are just offering what you heard in your system and it just surprised me thats all. You maybe right it just sounded good in my buddies system. He is going to let me borrow it fairly soon so we'll see. The 5400 does intrigue me.

I didn't have the 9000 but had a SOny scd-1 and the redbook playback wasn't even close to my Simaudio moon eclipse( I owned both at the same time). I sold the Sony almost immediately.The redbook playback of the xa5400es is miles ahead of the scd-1.