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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
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.
coxhaus
231 posts
 
Are most people running the SCD-XA5400ES single ended or balanced? Is the unit fully balanced. Mine is real new and I am trying to sort it out but it seems to sound better single ended. I don't have matching cables both XLR and RCA. I have the unit connected both balanced and single at the same time. Would this have effect the Sony unit on the sound?
coxhaus
231 posts
 
I forgot to add the balanced output seems to be at the same level as the RCA connect. Usually XLR is a lot higher.
It is strange.
milpai's avatar
milpai
2,374 posts
 
Coxhaus,
I was looking into "fully balanced" while searching for an amp. I doubt the Sony is fully balanced. My Parasound A21 has balanced connection, but it is not "fully balanced". Units cost almost twice for fully balanced configs.
Also you are right about the XLR level outs on this Sony. Sony's spec mention that the RCA and XLR both output 2V. This is something I did not like about this player. Nothing to do with sound quality, but it would probably help in a passive config.
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,677 posts
 
What do you mean by "fully balanced?" In the old analog days, the answer was that the entire unit was dual-differential in structure. Today, does it demand that the digital path be balanced or, rather, does it only demand that the analog output stages be balanced? Or something in between?

Kal
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