What's the best Sony CD/SACD player?

I have a stock Sony XA5400ES. I have owned it for 5 years and love it. It takes a long time to break in. I would be skeptical about any descriptions of the sound from owners who gave their impressions after just purchasing the player. After 500 hours or so, the sound really comes into its own. I like the xlr outputs, but only if I engage the grounding switch on my preamp. If using the rca outputs, I found it responds to different brands of cables. I like the Audio Sensibility Statement silver cables for this player.  I like the stock Sony better than my Modwright Oppo BDP83SE. The tone is fuller and more natural, and the images are more appropriately life sized. I notice this especially with redbook cd's. I think the Oppo is more transparent and detailed, but less 3 dimensional and "full" sounding. The Oppo plays my DVD-A discs excellently, and SACD performance is very good, and nice to compare with the Sony, so I am keeping the Oppo around.  But the stock Sony is clearly superior with redbook, at least for my tastes, which is the main reason why the Sony is still in my stable.

Thank You! thaluza.

Keep me posted & Happy Listening!

jafant, you are welcome!

The Modwright Sony 5400es is the bomb. It beats my Parasound best CD player the Parasound cd1. It easily beats the Ayon cd2s. It beats the ear acute. It beats the stock oppo 95, the Bryson cd1 and the metronome player I heard. The only better player I heard was the solutions 540.  It has great detail, soundstage and prat. It also has great image placement and separation.

Thanks! for the update -calvinj
that is quite good company(Parasound, Ayon, Oppo, Bryston) in regard to the Sony ES.
Happy Listening!