Musical Fidelity A5.5 CD vs X-Ray V3, and related

Same here: I've had 3 different yet older MF CDP's (and still using the CD-308). Never a problem, and I play music about 8 hours a day!

I have had three different MF players with the
Phillips transport and never had a load or reading problem.
All have been very reliable.

Cerrot - interesting, thanks. I have not had problems with the MF X-Ray however.

Hmmm... I wonder if another upgrade path may be to find a new transport to use with the existing X-DAC?

It looks like the A5.5 has the same crappy Phillips transport. They are very bad and the break down percentage is very large. I had the kW SACD and not only did the transport break down, but when it came back from factory repair, it still was broken. I also spoke with many MF CD owners and way too many had transport problems (even if they work, they are noisy and don't read way too many CD's). MF has finally responded to their drive problems with the A1008. Not sure why they haven't scrapped the poor drives altogether.

I strongly keeping away from these poor transports.

If you're interested in moving to a hard disc player then you may want to try to roll your own with either your existing dac or one with USB input (there are any number of them now). I wasn't overly impressed by the 5.5, and I think their x- series is good value, so I can't say it's a huge leap forward. If you like MF gear, then you won't be unhappy with the 5.5, it just depends what you're looking for (and it's okay if what you're looking for is a bigger chassis; i'm guilty of getting gear for aesthetic reasons as well). If you plan on sticking with CDs, then it's fine, but if you want to move to hard drive recorders, I think a computer is a much better option than a hard disc recorder like naim, olive, etc. That's also with the caveat that I enjoy working with computers and customizing my setups--not something everyone likes to do.