Sony SACD Player SCD-XA5400ES; YAY or NAY?

After several false starts by FEDEX (driver shortages?), the Sony arrived yesterday morning. As it happens, I had a repaired Integra CDC-3.4 II and repaired Yamaha DVD-C961 hooked up ready to compare. Stacked em, moved the same cable direct to Cayin: same input unit to unit this time rather than using different inputs. Volume outputs needed a tweak doing it this way.

The Integra and Yamaha still sound the same to me, both much better than my prior player, both under $250, functionally prefer Integra (CDs only), Yamaha big clunky remote equals it and plays SACDs. 

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Sony SCD-XA5400ES is a definite step up. I paid $999. ($1,120 taxed and delivered) for this very lightly used one and have no regrets. Actually low if you see what's out there, and this was in USA.

After being disappointed by the Oppos, I half expected to re-sell it, but it is definitely staying, I will sell ..... instead. 

I started with new music I had ordered, unfamiliar, listen on the Sony first, then, after a bit familiar with the music/voices, on the Yamaha and Integra, back to the Sony.

Couple of new to me SACDs

new to me cds

then into favorite and familiar CDs: Eurythmics; Blue Nile; Kate Wolf; Ani DiFranco; Sade; Mila Drumke; Casandra Wilson.

Both SACDs and CDs, each and every one, the Sony is the keeper.

Lastly, I ran it thru my McIntosh mx110z tube tuner/preamp's aux. Like the others, I prefer this to direct to the Cayin.

Chase unit is out, so it's Furman ON, warm up 20 mins, everything thru mx110z, to Cayin using it's remote volume.

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Why prefer Sony xa5400 you ask? I need more time to find the words, refine in my mind what I am hearing differently and responding to. Giving the ears a break until this evening. 

If someone you let go regrettably used you as a job reference, and you get a call, you respond "I cannot say enough good things about ..."

I truly cannot say enough good things about this Sony SCD-xa5400es.

Very familiar, very revealing content, ALL CDs, all SACDs: ALL OBVIOUSLY, SURPRISINGLY BETTER. Not Preferred, BETTER!

Andreas Vollenweider’s White Winds; sounds of the Eurythmics Underground Train; Distinction of ’No More Tears’ duet by Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer; Richard Burton and the Martian Death Rays in Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds; ah, there’s a second mandolin behind Kate Wolf’s guitar; the distinction of different string types of the 3 guitars on Friday Night in San Francisco; and finally, what SACD people who have been hearing that I never heard properly until now.

FUNDAMENTALS. I think there is a tighter, firmer, more solid, ... start to the fundamental of Each and Every Note. Improved overtones, volume and time decay all follow that BETTER start. I have never heard a CD sound so good anywhere.

The 3 guitars on Friday Night in San Francisco, my favorite music to refine my cartridge’s anti-skate. I am very very familiar, love this music. I could not imagine the added degree of genuine realism this player got out of a standard CD.

I am sooooo glad I kept going on the DSD/no pcm conversion search, the unexpected big win here is the redbook cd output from it’s 8x oversampling filter.

SACD. Among others I have a series of Oscar Peterson performances, ’exclusively for my friends’. my prior listening conclusion was ’lower noise floor’, eh, I’m not spending a lot more for that. OH holy crap, first one I tried, Mellow Mood SACD, just landed in the room.

You know how a visitor says, "sounds like they are right there" and you know your system, you know it’s great, but no, right there it is not. This seemed like Oscar was playing my Uncle Johnnie’s piano right there!

I can keep slobbering, or go listen. Bye!

EVERYONE: get thee an xa5400es!!!

I have one and go nowhere.

I agree with all you said. I bought two extra lasers unit for the future.

mountainsong, others who might know:

I see lasers and lasers in mechanisms.

literature says two lasers, one for sacd, one for cd. these show 1 laser.

is it that both lasers shoot thru the same lens?

is dave_b still with us?

he loved this thing way back when

evidently he ignored his advice (my take on it)

"I can't believe that SONY could deliver such an amazing player for so little with a sound so engrossing that I wish every audiophile could hear one and understand the frivolity of pursueing other, would be state of the art players...this is as good as it needs to be, period!"

later he switched to a Krell Cipher which I never want to hear!