Review: Sony SCD-XA5400ES CD Player

Hi,

I also bought this Sony, which was my first purchase of any audio component in the last 15 years or so.
Prior to the Sony, which I bought without listening, I heard a lot of other players, mostly in unfamiliar dealer systems.
Although some of them were quite good, including Audio Research cd8, with an excellent staging, lovely dynamics and good tonality, albeit a little dark-sounding, more of the mega-dollar players, up to 25k, were not that convincing at all, particular for the amount of money, so I was very pleased to read the laudatory revieuw of Dave_B (thank you Dave) and others of a player in the 1500 dollar area, which beats or is equal to other players costing 6 or more times than the Sony 5400, according to some of the revieuwers.
And yes, just cold out of the box, the Sony was already very good, although too harsh in the heights, without too much focus and lacking openness. After 200 hours or so burning in, the sound is already clearly improving on all parameters, specially neutrality, openness, timbre and focus, in a way, that I barely can't stop listening to my familiar cd's (mostly Redbook at this moment). Just passing the 316 hour mark the improvement is still going on and I expect to reach the 400 hour mark in a few days.
Better than this player is unanswerable possible, but at a cost!

Next upgrade will be the stock powercord. Some candidates for replacement are Lessloss dfpc Signature, Shunyata Python CX or King Cobra CX or Acoustic Zen Absolute.
And yes, I read about Dave_B's Transparent powerlink MM.
Any thoughts about these in combination with Sony 5400 are welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Sequence56

I am using the Sony with XLO Signature 3 Interconnects, and XLO ref power cord. Also burned in with the XLO CD. The player has about 500 hours of play. What a great player! I have previously used Meridian G98, Krell 25SC, and other less expensive players, but I find the Sony the most coherent of the players I have heard. It doesn't have as much detail and slam as the Krell (which was then Krell's top player and much much pricier), but I prefer it to the Krell because of the coherence and musicality. In my view, it beats the Meridian G98 as a CD player hands down.

...I was wondering if the tray design and mechanism like the one found on the scd 1 and x777 makes these old cd players sound better in any way or now is more about the d/a and processors?
Thank you

I haven't heard this particular Sony, but I have two thoughts to add: ONE, ModWright really loves this player and calls it the best SACD player he has modded yet. Unlike the Sony 9100ES, which is DVD / SACD, the circuitry in the 5400 is relatively simple (being audio only) and consequently lends itself to better sound quality. (I own the ModWright / Sony 9100ES Platinum Signature Truth mod and will use it until it's dead. By the way, the chassis for the two players is virtually identical, and is one Sony has been "re-stuffing" for some time now.) ModWright is the way to go for ultimate upgrades, IMO.

My SECOND thought is this: As good as Sony's best SACD machines are (modded or not), they all possess one annoying feature: VERY SLOW disc read times...sometimes a minute or more on certain discs! There are other fine players out there which use an entirely different transport--the Philips CD Pro 12 series, which is VERY FAST. Musical fidelity, Jolida, and Shanling are a few names that come to mind, if memory serves. And don't forget the Oppo SE, which plays EVERYTHING and is nearly in the same league as the new Sony for considerably less money...and its operation is LIGHTNING QUICK, from what I understand. (ModWright upgrades this player as well.) When I put a disc in the drawer of my Sony, I think about things like the preparation time for a good meal, which helps tame my frustration considerably... ;)

The 5400 reads CDs and SACDs very quickly. I have not measure it, but I estimate 5-10 seconds. No complaints at all.

Regards,