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Review: Sony SCD-XA777es CD Player

Category: Digital

This unit is by far the best CD player that I have heard. For Red Book CD playback it surpasses Sony's previous reference standard the CDP-XA7ES and the Mark Levinson No. 39, both of which I owned for a number of years and which in their day were as good as anything available. It is very nearly the equal of analog output of the separate Levinson 360S D/A converter. So much so that I don't route the digital output through the D/A in my system.

I would classify the difference between the two (360S vs. XA777ES) being that the Sony is slightly more analytical and less warm then the Levinson, but certainly not bright or synthetic sounding in any way. It just doesn't quite have that analog feel the standalone D/A gives.

As for SACD playback I think the unit is unmatched by anything available today and certainly anything even remotely in it's price range ($3000 list, but street price in the $1700-1900 range). The build quality is as good as any high end components I have seen. It also incorporates both 2 and 5 channel playback. The only drawback I can find is that it does not provide balanced outputs.

The SACD playback makes me want to forget about my record collection. Ever since I purchased it I have been buying every SACD of my musical tastes I can find. The new Rolling Stones remasters are particularly good, and since I had them (and in some case still do have them) on vinyl (my age is showing) I can say the SACD player gives every bit of the smoothness and tonality of the analog recording with all of the advantages of the digital format.

The remote, although rather simple by today's standards gets the job done. In some respects it's rather refreshing not to have to read the entire manual first to figure out how to use it. And all the functions are available on the front of the CD player, although most people will probably have to refer to the manual at least once to understand how to use some of them.

In summary this is an outstanding component and an even more outstanding value in high-end audio.

Associated gear
Mark Levinson 39, 360s, 380S, 333, 434s, Legacy Focus and Martin Logan ReQuest.

Similar products
Mark Levinson 39, Sony SCD-555ES, CDP-XA7ES
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Showing 1 response by paulbarras

paulbarras
1 posts
 
Well, the SCD-1 and SCD XA777ES leave me cold when they are used as CD players, with the redbook going through the Sony DAC. However, when one hooks them up to an external DAC, such as a Zanden Model 5000 DAC, all is forgiven, and they take on the warmth, smoothness, and musicality of the best CD players around. Needless to say, they make great CD transports. Their former "deadness" and dry sound is easily rectified, albeit with considerable stress on one's wallet.

Really, I think it is more of an issue with the DAC than anything else. They make great transports, and the SACD playback is incomparable, far in excess of what the best Redbook can offer. The details are all sharper, and the soundstage is widened to quite a large extent under SACD playback. That said, the Marantz CD-7 offers most of that performance for very much less.

My guess is that the SCD-XA 777ES makes a good audiophile transport, and a decent player. But as an audiophile player it is bettered by the Marantz CD-7, which has most unfortunately, been out of production for quite a long time now.
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