Sony XA-5400es VS Oppo 83SE

Mystang, if you move up to the GG Reflection IC's you will add the lush midrange to the stock Oppo that is missing. Plus the top end is sweetend and extended. Even then the stock Oppo will not be grain free. The new Oppo 95 may address more of these issues with a much better power supply and transport. Maybe this is what the Oppo's needed to contend with the more expensive dedicated cd/sacd players.

Junghoon2989 My Oppo is in my HT rig and is connected to my Denon 4310CI and they both have only RCA connections. But I can put the Sony in my 2CH rig as it is all balanced XLR interconnects.

JP1208 My budget for IC is $500 the move up to GG Reflectios is not in my budget.I have only about 4 hours on th GG Raptures so not 100% sure these are keepers yet. If I put the Sony in my 2CH rig I can compare the GG Raptures with my Jena Labs Symphony XLR IC. From my brief listen to the GGR I think the Sony and the Jena Labs will add that extra touch of lushness to the midrange.I do plan on keepin the Oppo as my DVD/BR player.

Just took delivery of my XA-5400es with Modwright mods. In fact, I ordered the Sony and had it delivered straight to Modwright.

I have it playing Dave Alvin SACD right now, and listened to CDs as well on it.

Wow! I recently had a Sony SCD-XA777es player. It was built like a tank, but the CD and SACD performance of the 5400es with Modwright mods is simply stunning. I spend most of my time listening to vinyl, and this 5400es has the organic energy of what I love about vinyl (not sure if it is the tubes?). Fluidity, musicality, transparency, dynamics, black background, large sound stage, layering, are the words that come to mind. I was nervous I wouldn't like it as much as my PS Audio PWD with Bridge playing hi-rez files....but even the CD via modded Sony keeps pace with PWD. Hats off to Modwright and Sony. Amazing what you get for a $1500 SACD/CD player and a $1995 mod package. I don't know why anyone would pay more than 5-10K for a digital front-end when you can get this.

recently i spoke to dan modwright about the two modified players. he said that the oppo 83se with tube rectifier and 6sn7 tube output stage was somewhat warmer sounding than the 5400 with tube output stage.

he thought, given my taste that i would prefer the modded oppo.

the question is how much warmer is the oppo than the sony ?

hi podeschi:

i assume you prefer the modded 5400 to the unmodded xa777.

which player do you find more forgiving of poor recordings?

which player do you perceive as having more resolution and which player do you perceive as having more emphasis upon the high frequencies ?