I heard the new 777ES SACD player

I was also at the show in New York. There is no real way to know how the new 777 (or any of the other SACD players at the display) sounds, because the only way to listen to the players was through one of Sony's pathetically bad headphones, the MDR-CD2000.

I have found that, all things being equal, true balanced outputs sound best in my system. Does this new Sony have them? The SCD-1 did....

At the panel discussion, David Kawakami of Sony said that he believes that SACD has gained enough momentum that the high end territory will be covered by the traditionally high end manufacturers. He believes that there will soon be other high end SACD players in addition to those from Accuphase, Classe and Marantz. It appears that Sony is ready to take SACD to a broader market and believes that the format is becoming mature enough for high end manufacturers to find the introduction of their own players to be viable. The impression I got from Mr. Kawakami is that Sony is now ready to stimulate a larger market for SACD which should lead to the introduction of players from other companies and software from additional labels. I listened to the new 777ES SACD player in the Sony demo several times and I was very impressed. I also listened to it in their display room on headphones and I was once again impressed. I timed the loading speed on the new 777 and it was down to about 8 seconds.

Did Sony mention any plans for another high-end player? I hoping they'll put out something that loads faster but has superlative sonics.

I attended the SACD panel discussion at the NYC Stereophile show. Here's the way that Sony explained their SACD introduction stategy: 1. Appeal to(and listen to) the audiophile community. 2. Have some software introduced for initial adopters of the format. 3. Introduce more reasonably priced players with surround capability for the general public. 4. As more SACD machines are sold, many more SACD titles will be released by Sony music along with releases from additional labels. 5. Sony is willing to license any manufacturer interested in introducing an SACD player.

It seems that Sony's two initial players were styled to appeal to high end sensibilities and now Sony is initiating their plan to make SACD a more mass market product. The features and styling of the new players(including the new 777ES)seem to support more mass market familiarity. Sony plans to have 14 different SACD players available by the end of the year- including DVD players and Dream System players with SACD playback capability. A salesman at Oade Brothers Electronics said that they expect at least 2000 SACD software titles to be available within a year.

Remember, the original SCD-777ES listed for $3,500. The new 777 lists for $500 less, has bass management and multichannel option. It still plays stereo. However, the real test will be when someone is able to compare the sonics of each.

Did they say if it does 16/44 upsampling to DSD? Someone on Audioasylum said that it did.

I agree that the new 777es doesn't look as exotic as the first model, however it by no means looks cheap or less sturdy than the original. Infact, I would have to say that it looks more like a CD player much like the Marantz SACD player looks more like a CD player than the 777es. If you turn the 777es off (original model) to the everyday "Joe" they wouldn't know what it was. Does the new 777es look more exotic? Yes! Does it look better? Well that's a matter of taste. Another, thing the top loading feature to me takes up too much upper rack space and they have gotten rid of that puck device as well. Do I really need the puck to hold my SACD steady? Will I hear a difference without one? Did it do any good for the sound when it came to the XA-20es cd player? Sony cut off a lot of the fat and went with what they knew worked and that was machine that will remind everyone of the best CD player that they ever made... The XA-7es!!!

Gmorris:

If I could state my opinion about the new SCD-XA777ES?? I didn't think much of its looks either. To me, the original SCD-777ES looks a whole lot better, even if it loads like a dinosaur by comparison. And to think that they're going to charge $3,000.00 for that thing?? But then again, there might people who own the original SCD-777ES who might like the newer SCD-XA777ES a lot better. So much better that they might want to unload their "older and slower" SCD-777ES players off to the used market. Do you imagine that we might see those SCD-777ES players flood the used market anytime soon?? If so, then I may want one. Otherwise, if I want an SACD Player, then I might take a look at the SCD-XE670 ($300.00) model when it comes out in September, just so I could get my feet wet with the format. But being for the type of music I listen to, I don't believe that I am going to see a whole lot of titles (if any) in my chosen genere to warrant the purchase of a more expensive player. Then again, if I see a platoria of titles being released in my chosen genere, then I'll already have a player in which to play them on, though, it may not be as good as higher end "ES" player. If the format does take off and so forth, I'll go ahead and get a more expensive ES player then. But until then, I think I'll be better off getting a very good CD Player. I guess that's my $.02 worth, if you could choose to call it that.

--Charles--

I was at the show yesterday. I thought that the SCD XA777ES looked "crappy" compared to the original SCD 777ES. In fact, the 9000ES is more impressive looking and is in fact heavier. However, I could only demo mulitchannel recordings using earphones, so I cannot comment on its sonic capabiliites.

Shoot. i like it.

There's a pic here up on Steve's site:

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/news/

Not yet Khan but If I had to say what it looked like I would say that it looked like a steroid filled big brother to the XA-20 cd player except that it's bigger, wider and taller. One thing I didn't mention was that I also heard the $299.00 SACD player in SACD mode and I thought it was a very good player in that mode. I was listening to Harry Konick ( I doubt that I spelled his last name correct)JR. and he sounded nice. I heard all of the SACD players through headsets so it was quite up close and personal. Unfortunately, the 299.00 player only had opitical hook up for a DAC when playing Red Book CD's though. As far as looks go for that unit, It looks very similar to the XA-1 cd player I must admit. I liked what I heard from the units and especially the 777es, I can understand the excitment about the units. Did I want to buy one? On an emotional level? Yes. For 3 grand? Sorry, but I really have an issue with the software which Sony had on display as well. However it did sound so good on SACD that I'm considering purchasing the $299.00 player as a show of economic support and of course for simple comparison issues. I will say that if the 777es goes for $1,500 - 1,800 like the original one did, I would say that it would be hard to pass up so the jury is still out on that one.

Very impressed with a beautiful machine.

any place you know we can see a pic of this thing?
thanks