Review: Sony SCD-XA5400ES CD Player

Tube designs have their followers, nostalgia and a belief by many that the tube sound is in some way better because it gives a warmer presentation; at the end of the day personal preferences will always apply, but for those of us who over many years followed technology and its advances feel that the many disadvantages of tube technology, no longer represents a level playing field against solid state. Here are some of the major reasons; To produce a first class tube amplifier capable of driving many of the modern multiway speakers, you are looking at an almost prohibitive cost of decent transformers, which include heavy chokes, expensive coupling capacitors and high voltage resistors, then this amplifier from the first day of switch on will be changing its characteristics as the tubes settle then age, so that in order to maintain its distortion levels a regular balance check will be required of the output devices. If you are a regular listener then of course tube replacement will become mandatory fairly regularly and then there is the heat issue. The distortion from tubes is mainly second harmonic which is less irritating to the listener but still suffers a level some fifty to one hundred times that of solid state, some tube designs do not even meet the IEC Hi-Fi standard for distortion at 0.25% or more, which will get worse as tubes age, some designs have now down away with feedback altogether, resulting in very low damping factors, again failing the IEC standard. Most tube designs are still largely the same as those early efforts from Mullard and Brimar so there is a limit to what can realistically be achieved in future design; By contrast solid state has hundreds of variations and technically are regarded as blameless, and for an equivalent cost to the tube would produce an amplifier of superb performance, distortion down to 0.002% damping factor up to 100+ compact size, powerful and trouble free, no competition whatever from tubes... Thats your choice!!!!

Who are you talking too disbeliever? This post is in regards to the Sony XA5400ES/Modwright CDP. Some of what you say is true, however, having an intelligently designed tube circuit utilized on the front end of a system can provide for a far more realistic and organic listening experience. I've sat 2 ft from an alto sax/piano/bass trio and I can tell you that an entirely SS system will not reproduce that melt you into your chair feeling. The sax was so sonorous and burnished that it simply made love to my ears....the Modwright XA5400ES get's me real close to that sound.

Good for you

I go to live classical concerts and jazz clubs, and guess what tubes sound more like the real thing. Go listen to live music and be awakened.

I just put my new Shunyata Python CX pc out of the box on the Sony SCD-XA5400ES.
Although this cord costs me more than the player, it takes it to a entirely new level.
The cable is not at all broken in yet, the soundstage is now beyond and far behind the speakers.
Although the stock powercord gives a lot of detail, with the Python CX the performance improves dramatically, both in the heights, the midrange but especially in the bass-region. Far more details are easily apparent.
The openness and the increased neutrality of the music is astounding.

So I wonder if the modwright should give me the upgrade over the stock-player is in the same league as what the Python CX does over the stock powercord.

Thanks,

Sequence56