I have owned both the XA7ES and currently the 9000ES and compared the two extensively....keep the XA7ES if you do not plan to use the SACD or DVD options...the XA7ES is considerbly better on the Redbook CD's. I only sold the XA7ES to upgrade to the XA777ES which would be superior on redbook (only slightly) but not worth the upgrade unless you wanted SACD ability...the XA7ES still is an excellent player...not many better in that price range...
Keep my XA7ES, or get a DVP-S9000ES for CD play?
My digital front end is currently the venerable, built-like-a-tank Sony XA7ES, a CD player that was considered a reference unit when first unveiled.
But I wonder if it isn't time to upgrade, and whether I would be well served by obtaining a Sony DVP-S9000ES.
The "wrinkle" here is that I'd be using the 9000ES solely as a CD player, because (1) I have separate home theater and stereo systems; and (2) I don't plan to get into SACD, because I'm hoping that better and less expensive upsamplers will eventually come to the rescue of the thousands of red book CDs I already own. The S9000ES has a "stereo only" selector which allows you to shut down its unnecessary circuits during stereo only play.
To round out the picture, the XA7ES feeds into a Plinius CD-LAD preamp, which outputs to 2 Adcom 555II amps (both bridged to mono), each one of which drives a Snell A Reference Tower Speaker. A Snell SUB-1800 passive subwoofer is fed by the Hsu 250 watt sub amp. Lieder all-silver interconnects and Bear Labs Silver Thunder speaker cables. Various homemade and commercially available isolation devices used in combinations (granite, sorbothane, brass cones, wood "boxes" -- nicely finished -- & compressed air). On the analog side, a heavily modified Denon DP59L, sporting a Grado The Statement, and feeding into a Plinius Jarrah phono stage. (Also a very cool homemade record cleaning machine). API power conditioners. FIM outlets fed by dedicated lines.
I'd appreciate hearing from you wonks out there who truly understand the differences between these two machines, and who have themselves perhaps played both side-by-side.
Thanks in advance for your helpful and friendly input!
Best regards to everyone,
Paul Frumkin
But I wonder if it isn't time to upgrade, and whether I would be well served by obtaining a Sony DVP-S9000ES.
The "wrinkle" here is that I'd be using the 9000ES solely as a CD player, because (1) I have separate home theater and stereo systems; and (2) I don't plan to get into SACD, because I'm hoping that better and less expensive upsamplers will eventually come to the rescue of the thousands of red book CDs I already own. The S9000ES has a "stereo only" selector which allows you to shut down its unnecessary circuits during stereo only play.
To round out the picture, the XA7ES feeds into a Plinius CD-LAD preamp, which outputs to 2 Adcom 555II amps (both bridged to mono), each one of which drives a Snell A Reference Tower Speaker. A Snell SUB-1800 passive subwoofer is fed by the Hsu 250 watt sub amp. Lieder all-silver interconnects and Bear Labs Silver Thunder speaker cables. Various homemade and commercially available isolation devices used in combinations (granite, sorbothane, brass cones, wood "boxes" -- nicely finished -- & compressed air). On the analog side, a heavily modified Denon DP59L, sporting a Grado The Statement, and feeding into a Plinius Jarrah phono stage. (Also a very cool homemade record cleaning machine). API power conditioners. FIM outlets fed by dedicated lines.
I'd appreciate hearing from you wonks out there who truly understand the differences between these two machines, and who have themselves perhaps played both side-by-side.
Thanks in advance for your helpful and friendly input!
Best regards to everyone,
Paul Frumkin