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Sony SCD-XA5400ES owners question

I just purchased a Sony SCD-XA5400ES SACD/CD player. It replaces a Sony SCD-XA777ES unit. I want to ask any other owners out there about the round track control knob of the right side of the player. On my older Sony the control knob operates with very definite click detents in forward or reverse, but the 5400 knob feels very indistinct, with almost no click detent feel (especially advancing tracks), making manual track selection using the knob rather difficult at best. Do I have a defective control knob on my 5400, or do they all operate with a rather mushy feel?
Thanks any and all for your kind input.

BTW- the 5400 is an extraordinary CD and SACD player...if you are not an owner I give it my highest recommendation; do give one a listen if you have the chance!
bobup1998
rwbadley's avatar
rwbadley
143 posts
 
Mine has no definite detents either- a bit of an annoyance, but oh well... The sound is worth the trouble ;-)
metralla
945 posts
 
I have only ever used the AMS knob for navigating the menu in test mode on my XA777ES. Haven't even tried it on my 5400.

I also just use the remote. Mainly I just press "Play" on the remote. Aside from the sound, the things I like on the 5400 remote are the open/close of the drawer, and the display off button.

It is sad to note that this machine is not available in Australia. Don't know what Sony is doing down under, but not making the 5400 available to audiophiles down there is a big bummer.

Regards,
Ag insider logo xs@2x
dbphd
1,628 posts
 
I never use the control for selecting tracks, but I just rotated the knob without turning the unit on and noticed subtle but definite detents. As an aside, the 5400ES is very responsive to the Logitech Harmony One universal remote I use, much more so than the DVP-S900ES it replaced. Perhaps it was the download to accommodate the new unit. The sound quality of the 5400ES really is grand. I prefer analog XLR for both CDs and SACDs with the 5400ES, whereas I preferred digital coax to my Proceed PDSD for CDs with the 9000ES.

db
chayro
2,984 posts
 
You are right - the detents feel a bit cheezy compared to the XA9000. But it works fine.
hififile
236 posts
 
The control does 'not' have definite click detents. However the operation is smooth and positive. I use the remote 99% of the time which is excellent. This is without question the best SACD/CD player I have owned and I have had many.
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