My Sony XA5400 ES is tied with one or two other pieces as the best audiophile gear investment I have made in 20+ years. Mine is about 8 years old and going strong, but that is with fairly light use. Never heard the claim about early laser failure.
It is outstanding for SACDs, both stereo and multichannel. Added bonus: if you do want to play redbook CDs it has a 4X oversampling filter and beats any CD player I have heard, ever, including at high-end audio shows.
My favorite feature is the ability to send the pure DSD data (as opposed to PCM output) directly to a Marantz pre-pro over HDMI, then decoded within the pre-pro. There are other pre-pros with this ability, you just have to check the specs.
In every demo, whether CD or SACD, people were blown away. Sometimes upset because it sounded better than super high-end players that they had payed thousands of dollars more for, such as Esoteric.
You could probably get a used one from a reputable Audiogon seller for approx. $1200-$1400, then pay a few hundred for laser replacement if it ever happens.