I have the sony XA777 in my system, the redbook play on this player is very good, but not up with the very best. Could you beat it for $1500 with a redbook player, I think so if you look real hard. In my system it sounds just right for me and I am more than happy with it's redbook play, has a nice laid back sound but not lacking in detail at all. The bass is very good and the soundstage is just right. You need to use it's two channel analog outs for the best two channel sound (2 channel direct mode) in this mode it uses 3 dac's per channel. It will not glaze over a bad sounding cd like a lot of players will so if you have a lot of these I would look else were, maybe a tube player. I don't have Aragon amps but I do have krell which I think are not to far off from aragon in sound if that helps. I use a passive pre with mine.
Best CD Player to buy under $1,500 used.
I do not own any SACD's, but they are a possibility in the future. I was looking at purchasing the Sony SCD-XA777ES for close to $1,500 used, but I decided to wait and get some opinions first. I own over 1000 cd's and was looking for the best cd player to play 16bit cd's. Would the Sony sound better with regular cd's then any other cd player at that price? I do realize my other equipment plays a big factor into this decision. I have Aragon 8008 Amps and a Soundstage preamp. NHT VT-3 speakers with Transparent cable. Any advice would be appreciated.
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