A local vintage stereo shop closed last spring, and I bought a used Sony SCD-XA9000ES during their final sale. Everything was as-is and due to the nature of the sale they had very limited ability to test gear prior to purchase. I did the best I could…tested that the drawer opened and closed and it played a standard disc fine.
When I finally had a chance to test it at home, I found it wouldn’t recognize hybrid discs…got a “no disc” message. Single layer discs just resulted in “error” message. Tried a calibration procedure with no luck. Contacted a local repair shop, was told it likely needed a new laser assembly, but those appear to be impossible to find (if they even still exist).
Would love to find someone who can successfully repair the unit, but as it stands seems like the best I can hope for is a nice standard CD player and DAC. Also, this experience has kind of soured me on SACDs in general, as good SACD players seem to start at $1000+, and I’m not sure I’m willing to invest that for something with an obviously limited life span and no real way to repair once it starts giving out.