My Sony 5400 has been reliable and has performed without a glitch. I have a unit that has been modded by The Upgrade Company and really enjoy it. I am not aware of reliability issues in general for this model. Regarding the claim of "giant killer" I cannot comment because I have not made any direct comparisons. But it is sonically different (perhaps better) in some ways than my previous McCormack UDP-1 Deluxe, which is no slouch. Hope that helps somewhat.
