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Sony SCD-XA5400ES-Best SACD for under $10,000

This Sony player supplanted my Ayre C5-XE 3, which I still have, months ago. I paid $6000 for the Ayre after determining that it was the best-sounding unit for under $10,000. The Sony blows it away!!!
A unit costing $1500 besting all others under $10,000? That is exactly what it does!
For reference, I am using Audio Research electronics and Vandersteen speakers and subwoofers (about $30,000); a similar system has repeatedly been lauded as "best of show" at CES, so we are NOT talking second-rate stuff here.
This Sony is the only SACD/Cd player I have EVER heard that puts a classical piano live in my living room; nothing I ever had before even comes close.
This unit is a small miracle. I would have gladly paid $8000 for it, but if they want to give the thing away for $1500, who am I to argue?
This unit is going to send the engineers at Audio Research, Luxman, Esoteric, and Ayre back to the drawing board; their current units at 4 to 5 times the price are not even close. Some engineer at Sony is a freaking genius!!!
wa6itd
paulfolbrecht
603 posts
 

This Is from Japs Stereo Sound Magazine:
The Best CD/SACD Players for 2009:
1. Denon DSD-SX
2. Pioneer PD-D9 Mk2
3. Marantz SA-13S2
4. Sony SCD-XA5400es
5. Esoteric SA-10
6. Esoteric SA-50
7. Link Majik CD
8. Accuphase DP-700
9. Metronome CD1 Signature
10. Playback MPS-5

Is that a joke - the Playback behind all those other machines? Or is the list not ordered?
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
missing from the conversation is the implicit connotation that what is "best" is not absolute and hence dependes upon on'es criteria.

it has often been said that there is no best, so while it is entertaining to discusss the merits of the sony player, it is a philosophical and/or rhetorical question--it has no definitive answer.

there is no best anything in life, period.
winoguy17
1,084 posts
 
Well said Mr. T.
paulfolbrecht
603 posts
 

missing from the conversation is the implicit connotation that what is "best" is not absolute and hence dependes upon on'es criteria.

it has often been said that there is no best, so while it is entertaining to discusss the merits of the sony player, it is a philosophical and/or rhetorical question--it has no definitive answer.

Indeed, audio is *highly* subjective. I recall a few years ago a lot of people preferred a Sony Playstation as a digital source over units an order of magnitude or more expensive. In fact, with digital sources I think the level of subjectivity is highest.

Still, there are common and prevailing opinions. For example, it would be surprising to see any audio journal rate the Playback machine behind those others if that is actually the case - such a take would be counter to what's typical, in the audio press itself as well as outside of it. (As for me, I've never heard it.)


there is no best anything in life, period.

There's a bit of a silly statement, philosophically. :) So the only absolute is that there are absolutely no absolutes? I disagree.

In audio there may be no absolutes.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
tthere are no absolutes as far as quality is concerned.

food, literature, art, or any other aesthetic activity has no absolutes. why ? the standards for evaluation are subjectively determined.

also absolutes requuire certainty , not probability. in the disciplines of mathematics and logoc--the world of abstraction, there are absolutes.

in the world of experience there are no absolutes.

i would welcome an explantion of how something can be absolute in the world of experience.

admittedly such an explantion has no relevance to audio. it is a subject of philosophy.
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