Sony XA5400ES vs XA9000ES

I owned and sold the XA9000ES because the CD redbook sound was so awful. It had a totally flat soundstage.
The SACD was great however.
Seems Sony wanted to show off the SACD at the time and spent no effort on the CD section.

Samzx12, Yes , I thought the CD portion of the Sony XA9000ES was really bad.
At the time, I had a Meridian 508.24 player to compare it to. I also had several other inexpensive Sony's that had a better sound than the XA9000ES.
I think there was reviews that said about the same thing.

Though I liked the SACD portion of the XA9000ES, I didnt have enough SACD's at the time to warrant purchasing it just for that.

All I can say is if someone left me the XA9000ES in there will, I would sell it ASAP.

We all have our opinions and perhaps with your buddies equipment and room it sounded better than at my place.
I replied to your posting because I thought you were looking for actual experience.
Albeit I have no experinece comparing it to the newer XA5400ES model.

I would think the newer model XA5400ES would come with perhaps a money back time period. If so, then compare it to your buddies.

Good Luck.

Samzx12, You can look up my system. It is posted below next to my name ozzy.

I stand by my opinion that the 9000 redbook quality is sub par to others in that price range.
That is not to mean it doesnt have the sound and frequency extremes, but it has absolutly NO depth in its soundstage.