What's the best Sony CD/SACD player?

I'm currently using Unidisk SC. I have XA5400ES on order, so hopefully I should be able to make a direct comparison between two pretty soon.

Bmdduck,

I've been using SC without a preamp for a while with good result. The built in volume control is quite good. Bypassing preamp makes the sound very transparent. However, the analog input section is not very good, so if you have other analog sources a dedicated preamp will serve better for you. The digital input section sounds okay. I've connected Airport Express to the digital input of SC, and it sounds good. I don't have a lot of lossless music on computer so I can't tell you how the digital input compare to the CD from its transport. I haven't watched a lot of movies on SC, as I use it mainly as a music player. I do have some DTS music disks, and Unidisk decodes them just fine.

As far as 5400ES goes, all the reviews I've read said it sounds better than any previous Sony ES players so I am pretty excited about the purchase. It reportedly has long break in period, so it may be a week or two until I can do a meaningful comparison.

I took the delivery of XA5400ES. I have done casual listening + burning in for 5-6 hours today. The material was mainly redbook CD. I understand XA5400ES has long burn in time, so take my preliminary review with a grain of salt.

The initial impression was more prominent treble. That's probably consistent with what others have expressed as strident treble. I don't feel the treble is over emphasized, although I definitely hear more treble content compared to Unidisk. The midrange is quite good. I hear more texture and better micro dynamics. That's a really good sign as I've been yearning for better midrange texture for some times. The initial impression also includes loss of depth. That might improve as the unit burns in, or maybe I'll get used to it.

It's hard to characterize the sound of XA5400ES. I would compare the sound akin to looking out the window that has been just washed and squeeegeed. The sound is smoother, and more accurate than my previous CDP. It's by no means warm sounding, but at the same time I don't want to leave a wrong impression that it sounds bright and harsh, because it does not. The sound is smooth, detailed and accurate. However if you are partial to warm sounding system, this is probably not for you. I suppose the sound is rather neutral. Others might (wrongly) perceive the extra detail as being bright.

I feel the amount of bass is less than what I used to hear from Unidisk, but it's too premature for final ruling at this time. Perhaps it's less boomy and more accurate. But I did notice difference in the amount of bass. Perhaps it will improve as the unit burns in. Perhaps I'll get used to its sound.

I do feel there is more midrange texture, and more detail throughout. That's a good thing, as those two things were what I was hoping to improve on my system.

I like this CDP so far. It show excellent build quality compared to my Unidisk SC. The sound is just as good, and in many areas better than the incumbent. I don't notice any obvious shortcoming yet.

I've been burning in my XA5400ES continuously for 100+ hours now. I've heard the most improvement in the first 20-30 hours of the breaking in. The initial impression of etched treble went away after a day or so. I haven't noticed much improvement since then.

I did a brief comparison between my Linn Unidisk and XA5400ES today. They were connected to the preamp using identical interconnects, level matched using SPL meter for CD medium. I've used Diana Krall - The girl in the other room (SACD), and Friends of Carlotta (redbook XRCD2) for comparison.

Both Linn and Sony sound good to my ears. There are more similarities than differences in the sound they produce. Some characteristics are more subtle than others. I'll list some of my observation in the order from more dramatic to more subtle.

Off the bat, the immediate difference is in the bass. Many of Diana Krall's album, The girl in the other room in particular is hot on the bass. While the overall sound quality for this album is exceptional, it also brings the worst out of my room with boomy midbass around 80Hz. With XA5400ES the room mode is dramatically reduced. The bass is tight and less boomy with XA5400ES.

Friends of Carlotta is a studio recording that captures high level of immediacy and detail. I've first played the CD on Unidisk. When I switched to Sony I noticed three things. The background was darker with Sony. Chimes sounded more delicate and extended. However the female vocal was more sibilant. Her voice is rather sibilant, but it was not as bothersome with Linn. With Sony it was somewhat annoying.

Linn sounds more three dimensional, with excellent width and depth of the soundstage. Sony sounds more focused and detailed, but not as wide and deep.

If those CDP were drawing sonic picture of the music, Linn was projecting three dimensional hologram in the air, and Sony was presenting oil painting on canvas. Linn was projecting transparent and vibrant three dimensional picture in the air. With Sony the picture is clearly focused, and I was able to see the tiny little details on the canvas.

Based on that description, I'd choose the Linn hands down.

I tried to be as objective as possible, but my bias was probably showing in my short description. I like the presentation of Linn as well. But I probably have under stated XA5400ES somewhat. The detail retrieval and increased midrange texture on Sony cannot be ignored. What's even more amazing is that the higher detail is heard without sounding bright or edgy. If anything Sony is darker sounding than Linn. For me I actually prefer Sony's presentation because 1. I'm used to Linn and was looking to get something different to begin with. and 2. I was looking to improve red book CD playback with more detail, and get more textured midrange overall, and Sony hit the sweet spot.

True, the choice of adjectives I used probably was confusing. When I say darker, sometimes I mean tonal balance, and I also use darker to indicate the blacker black background / lower noise floor. For example, when I played Friends of Carlotta on Unidisk I thought the sound was detailed, but sometimes it was "shouty" or somewhat congested. On Sony I thought it was less congested, also there was more of the small ambiance of the recording studio. Could be due to lower noise floor. Could be from better detail extraction. Another reason I used the word darker was to emphasize that Sony is not a bright sounding player. But anyways I should just stick to more objective side of the impression than using colorful adjectives that could be confusing.

I haven't heard DVP, but my XA5400ES does not sound strident. However there is this Sony house sound that I also heard on DAP9000ES preamp as I remember. I wonder if that's what you are referring to. Other than the house sound, it sounds exceptionally neutral and detailed.

How do you tell what kind of SACD decoding chip is used on which model? Unlike other high end manufacturers Sony employs their own custom chipset and AFAIK it's not published anywhere which chips are used.